Many of us in Louisiana and across the nation endure anxiety to some degree on a frequent basis. Whether you’re worried about a marital situation, fretting about your kids or being upset about the state of your household finances, anxiety can play a big role in your everyday life.
At work, anxiety can certainly influence you as well. Maybe you have an extremely unforgiving boss who brutally calls you out for even the slightest, most inadvertent mistake. Maybe your workload is simply too massive for the time you are allotted to do it in. There may be a worker who makes you queasy every time you have to deal with with this person. If you have had to master a lot of brand new skills to do your job successfully, you could be nervous about how well you will perform them.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a disability this way: “An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.”
You might be wondering if your struggles with anxiety that you attribute to your job qualify you for short- or long-term disability benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, also known as ERISA. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety can show up in a variety of forms.
What are the signs of anxiety?
These are just some examples of anxiety-induced behavior:
- Feeling of “impending doom”
- Trembling
- Crankiness
- Weariness
- Elevated heart rate
- Issues with sleeping or concentrating
How can you prove you are suffering from anxiety?
You need to document your anxiety disorder with proof from a physician to pursue a disability claim. If your claim isn’t going as expected or you anticipate problems, it may be time to widely explore your legal options.