At Disability Associates, a Social Security Disability Benefits Law Firm in Towson, we are often asked can I get Social Security Disability benefits for vertigo? Today we wanted to look to explain how this process works for those who suffer from vertigo in their daily life.

Social Security Disability Benefits for Vertigo

We’ve talked to many people who suffer from vertigo, and it is a very disturbing condition. It may be related to another disease process or it may have come sort of out of the blue. We’ve had several people contact our firm about a condition called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo or BPPV. We are asked regarding this; can I get disability benefits? I’m having a really hard time functioning day to day and that’s really that’s the question for us.

So, when somebody suffers from vertigo, we want to look at what is the cause. Is it a condition to say like BPPV? Or is it related to some other disease condition? How frequently do the dizzy spells occur? Now that’s key because if they are very occasional only lasting for a few seconds, it is certainly disrupting when it happens, but that’s not something that’s likely to disrupt your ability to hold down any type of job. Which is the standard for Social Security disability. 

Let’s say you are someone who is suffering from vertigo that is happening frequently several times or more during the day. That it lasts longer than a few seconds. That it affects your ability to walk. Where your gait it can make you wobbly because suddenly you feel like everything is spinning or you are just not centered properly and it is very distracting when it happens.

This differs from the first situation described because that’s the situation that if you are on the job and you have multiple attacks. These dizzy spells throughout the day, well, that likely can interfere with your ability to work. 

So, the question that you have to look at first is you know what’s causing the vertigo and then how frequently is it occurring? How long does it last and how disruptive are these dizzy spells? How did they disrupt you in your day-to-day activities?

Say if you’re trying to take care of your house or you need to drive to the store. How are those activities being disrupted? If they are so we look at that closely to determine how these attacks of dizziness are going to affect you on the job and if it is a situation where you are going to be seriously affected on the job and your ability to do either the job you’ve done in the past or any other work. Then that’s a situation where we could look at a disability case for you.