Can I Get Social Security Disability Benefits for Fibromyalgia?

• How Does the Social Security Administration Decide if I Qualify for Disability Benefits for Fibromyalgia?
• About Fibromyalgia and Disability
• Winning Social Security Disability Benefits for Fibromyalgia by Meeting a Listing
• Residual Functional Capacity Assessment for Fibromyalgia
• Getting Your Doctor’s Opinion About What You Can Still Do

Residual Functional Capacity Assessment for Fibromyalgia

What Is RFC?

If your fibromyalgia is not severe enough to equal a listing at Step 3 of the Sequential Evaluation Process, the Social Security Administration will need to determine your residual functional capacity (RFC) to decide whether you are disabled at Step 4 and Step 5 of the Sequential Evaluation Process.

RFC is a claimant’s ability to perform work-related activities. In other words, it is what you can still do despite your limitations. An RFC for physical impairments is expressed in terms of whether the Social Security Administration believes you can do heavy, medium, light, or sedentary work in spite of your impairments. An RFC for mental impairments is expressed in terms of whether Social Security Administration believes the claimant can do skilled, semi-skilled, or unskilled work in spite of impairments, or whether the claimant cannot even do unskilled work. The lower your RFC, the less the Social Security Administration believes you can do.

RFC and Fibromyalgia

If you have fibromyalgia, you may have significant residual limitations that could potentially result in allowance of your claim.

In determining your RFC, the Social Security Administration adjudicator should consider all of your symptoms in deciding how they may affect your ability to function. Symptoms of fibromyalgia that the adjudicator should consider include those mentioned in the American College of Rheumatology’s definition of fibromyalgia:

• Widespread pain in all four quadrants of the body
• As many as are present of the 18 specified tender points around the neck and shoulder, chest, hip, knee, and elbow regions.

Other typical symptoms that could limit you functional capacity include:

• Stiffness.
• Irritable bowel syndrome.
• Chronic headaches.
• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction.
• Sleep disorder.
• Severe fatigue.
• Cognitive dysfunction.

The Social Security Administration has issued a ruling that provides guidance to Social Security Administration adjudicators about what to consider in assessing a fibromyalgia claimant’s RFC. In evaluating the credibility of the symptoms you report, the adjudicator should ask your treating doctor or other medical sources to provide information about the extent and duration of your impairments, including observations and opinions about how well you are able to function, the effects of any treatment, including side effects, and how long the impairments are expected to limit your ability to function.

Opinions from your medical sources, especially treating doctors, concerning the effects of fibromyalgia on your ability to function in a sustained manner in perfo