Can I Work With Crohn's Disease?

Crohn’s Disease is an often debilitating disease which affects the body’s ability to digest food. While the effects can be moderated in many cases by diet and medication, many who suffer from Crohn’s Disease find no relief for its symptoms, which include constant diarrhea, weight loss (due to the body’s inability to process food), skin rashes, abdominal pain, inflammation, arthritis, and fatigue.

Like many other diseases which can be debilitating, Crohn’s Disease has no special listing for Social Security Disability. This is because the severity of your symptoms may or may not preclude you from performing work. In order to qualify for Social Security Disability, you must demonstrate that your Crohn’s Disease makes it impossible for you to perform any work for which you are qualified (including work which would require reasonable amounts of retraining). This can be a daunting task requiring a lengthy appeals process, especially if you haven’t taken advantage of your right to representation by a Social Security Disability representative or attorney.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t receive Social Security Disability because of Crohn’s Disease. Rather, it means that you must show the SSA that your condition makes it impossible for you to perform meaningful work. On your Social Security Disability application, you will want to make careful note of how your symptoms affect you as well as all attempts by you and your doctor to bring your symptoms under control. A Social Security Disability lawyer can be invaluable when it comes to filling out Social Security Disability forms, as they will know what kind of information the SSA needs to see before they will approve Social Security Disability for Crohn’s Disease.

How Crohn’s Disease Can Affect your Ability to Perform Physical Work

Suffering with Crohn’s certainly makes it difficult, if not impossible, to perform many types of physical labor. Diarrhea symptoms may make it difficult to sit or stand for long periods of time. Arthritis often makes it difficult to perform manual labor, especially if it involves bending and lifting. Abdominal cramps likewise hinder sufferers from performing many of the functions which manual laborers need to perform on a day to day basis.

In order to qualify for Social Security Disability, you will need to show that you are incapable of any physical work for which you are qualified or could be trained. Unfortunately, Crohn’s disease tends to strike fairly young people (often manifesting between the ages of 16 and 30). The younger you are, the harder it is to convince the SSA that you cannot reasonably be trained to perform some form of lighter physical work. Make sure that your doctor includes all physical restrictions when filling out forms for Social Security Disability.

How Crohn’s Disease Can Affect your Ability to Perform Sedentary Work

Sedentary work typically requires sitting for long periods of time. Depending on your education and skill set, it may also require manual dexterity. The constant diarrhea Crohn’s sufferers must contend with makes staying in one place difficult, and the arthritic conditions can make any work requiring fine motor skills impossible.

If your Crohn’s symptoms are severe enough to preclude you from performing even sedentary work, and you can demonstrate this to the SSA, you can qualify for Social Security Disability. Even if your initial Social Security Disability claim is turned down (and they usually will be if Crohn’s is listed as the cause), you can win your Social Security claim during the appeals process. However, it cannot be stressed enough that your chances of having your Social Security Disability claim accepted improve starkly (both during the intitial claim and especially during the appeals process) if you have the help of an experienced Social Security Disability lawyer.