My Back Pain Is Driving Me Crazy

People who say their back pain is driving them crazy are not joking. They are in real pain. Back pain is one of the most common medical problems there is. It is the most common reason people see a doctor, a leading cause of lost work time, and one of the largest sources of disability claims worldwide.

Surveys have found that most adults experience back pain of some kind over a given period, and a large share deal with it specifically in the lower back. Social Security recognizes chronic back conditions as potentially disabling in its Blue Book, the "Listing of Impairments." But because back pain can be hard to verify, benefits are limited to conditions that are medically documented.

As with any listed condition, a back condition has to prevent you from working for at least 12 months or be expected to result in death. Social Security then decides whether your condition is severe enough to meet the relevant listing.

Although "back pain" is not itself a listing, spine conditions have historically been evaluated under the musculoskeletal listings. Disorders of the spine, including nerve root compression, arachnoiditis, and lumbar spinal stenosis, are reviewed there. A spinal cord disorder may be evaluated under a separate neurological listing, which can involve showing a complete loss of function or an extreme limitation in walking or in using your arms over a period of months.

If you can produce medical records and test results that satisfy the requirements, you have a real chance. Helpful evidence includes a documented need to change position often, limited range of motion in the spine, and difficulty walking. Back conditions can make it hard to stand, sit, stoop, bend, reach overhead, walk, or lift, and those limits are often what keep someone from continuing to work or moving to a new job.

To be approved, you need more than your own account of the pain. Objective medical evidence carries the most weight. That means diagnostic testing such as CT scans, X-rays, MRIs, and EMG or nerve conduction studies. Non-medical evidence, like treatment plans, doctor’s notes, a list of medications, and descriptions of how the pain affects your daily life, can support the claim, but it is not as persuasive as objective testing.

One complication with back claims is that soft-tissue injuries, disc problems, and muscle tears do not always show up on an X-ray, so testing sometimes has to go further. And do not overlook the mental health toll of living with chronic pain, which can be part of the picture too. Working closely with your treating providers is the best way to build persuasive, test-based records.

If this feels confusing, you are not alone. Back-related disability claims are complex. Even without meeting every element of a listing, a claim can sometimes be won with a combination of medical and vocational evidence under the five-step evaluation. We handle back-pain claims and every other kind of Social Security disability claim, and we offer a free evaluation for any denied back claim.