Can you collect Social Security disability benefits due to substance abuse?

No. Not if your only disability is addiction.

Social Security pays benefits to people who cannot work because they have a medical condition that is expected to last at least one year or result in death. Although some programs pay benefits to people with partial disability or short-term disability, Social Security does not.

Substance abuse does not qualify as a disability unless it accompanies another serious condition, as outlined in the Social Security Blue Book listing of impairments:

12.09 Substance addiction disorders: Behavioral changes or physical changes associated with the regular use of substances that affect the central nervous system.

The required level of severity for these disorders is met when the requirements in any of the following (A through I) are satisfied.

A. Organic mental disorders. Evaluate under 12.02.

B. Depressive syndrome. Evaluate under 12.04.

C. Anxiety disorders. Evaluate under 12.06.

D. Personality disorders. Evaluate under 12.08.

E. Peripheral neuropathies. Evaluate under 11.14.

F. Liver damage. Evaluate under 5.05.

G. Gastritis. Evaluate under 5.00.

H. Pancreatitis. Evaluate under 5.08.

I. Seizures. Evaluate under 11.02 or 11.03.