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Have your Long-Term Disability Benefits been denied for bipolar disorder? Do not accept your denial without speaking to our Hamilton Bipolar Disability Lawyers.
Unfortunately, bipolar disorder is often wrongly understood by insurance companies. Bipolar disorder is characterized by mood swings between depression and mania that may affect up to 2% of Canadian adults and increase the risk of suicide and disability. Bipolar disorder refers to a group of affective disorders that a person experiences episodically. Typically, people with bipolar disorder experience episodes of dark depression, which is characterized by terribly low moods, irritability, anxiety, and decreased energy – and episodes of mania, characterized by an inflated or irritable mood, increased energy, the reduced need for sleep and hypomania.
Insurance companies routinely deny claimants with bipolar disorder but don’t give up the fight. We can help restore your monthly income.
In the past, our clients have described to us that the bipolar episodes of mania are almost like when a person’s brain goes “off-line,” and they engage in risky behaviour, rapid speech, hypersexuality, they’re flooded with flights of ideas and confidence, they are easily distracted, they talk a lot, they speak loudly or with pressurized speech and have an overall feeling of grander. They are, in short, out of control.
Our clients have described their bipolar episodes of mania like a brain that goes “off-line”
–Matt Lalande, Disability and Personal Injury Attorney
If you suffer from bipolar disorder and you have been denied or cut off your long-term disability benefits, it’s important to understand that this is not the end of the road. Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers represent claimants at all stages of long-term disability benefits, from initial denial to trial representation. Our Hamilton bipolar disorder disability lawyers have litigated against every major disability insurance company in Canada – and if you’ve been denied your long-term disability benefits, you are under the care of your doctor, and you are following an appropriate treatment plan, our lawyers can help get your monthly income benefits back on track.
Insurance companies often misunderstand the different types of Bipolar Disorders.
What insurance companies often don’t understand is that there are various types of bipolar disorders. Oftentimes, the condition is not correctly understood by disability adjusters, and many people who suffer from the condition are thought of as all the same. Bipolar disorder refers to a group of affective disorders, which, together, are characterized by depression and mania or hypomanic episodes. The DSM-IV contains four main subtypes of bipolar disorders:
- Bipolar disorder type I – which is depressive and manic episodes. Typically, the clinician could diagnose bipolar disorder based on one episode of mania;
- Bipolar disorder type II – depressive and hypomanic episodes;
- Cyclothymic disorder – which is hypomanic and depressive symptoms that do not meet the medical criteria for depressive episodes;
- Bipolar disorder not otherwise specified – Depressive and hypomanic-like symptoms and episodes that might alternate rapidly but do not meet the full diagnostic criteria for any of the above disorders.
Most disability insurance companies simply think that the claimant is depressed.
Often insurance companies simply believe that a person suffers from recurrent depression (also called recurrent unipolar depression – for depressive episodes that are recurrent) and not bipolar disorder. People with bipolar disorder type II, in particular, spend much of their lives in a depressed state – or much more time in depressive states than manic episodes or hypomanic states, which makes bipolar disorder difficult to understand. Most of the time, people with bipolar type II disorder typically seek treatment for depression, and not the manic episodes – making bipolar disorder often misdiagnosed as unipolar depression.
Are you entitled to long-term disability if you suffer from bipolar disorder?
This is a difficult question to answer. From a legal perspective, the answer is on a case-by-case basis. Typically, most long-term disability policies require that you satisfy the definition of total disability. Total disability is typically defined in two ways. For the first two years after the onset of your bipolar disorder diagnosis, you must be unable to complete the substantial duties or requirements of your occupation.
After 24 months, the definition of total disability changes. This is called the “change of definition” or “COD,” as it’s typically referred to by insurance adjusters. After 24 months, you must suffer a total disability that prevents you from engaging in any occupation for which you are reasonably qualified with your education, training and experience.
If you have reached a point where you are unable to sustain proper and consistent mood regulation despite medication and ongoing medical treatment, then you will more likely than not be entitled to long-term disability benefits. Mood regulation is complex and difficult for medical and non-medical personnel to understand. If, despite medication and ongoing treatment, you are unable to respond flexibly, then it may be a very real possibility that you may not be employable.
It’s important to understand that bipolar disorder, depending on the diagnosed affective disorder, varies inconsistently from person to person. While some people with bipolar disorder improve over time, many have residual dysfunction and recurrent episodes, which cause such low depression and marked mood swings that it causes significant personal distress and occupational and social dysfunction.
In short, everyone is different. While some people could manage the symptoms of bipolar disorder type I and type II with proper medication to some regularity, other people suffer very significant impairment of cognitive performance across various domains of functions – despite proper clinical treatment. For some people, bipolar disorder causes brutal psycho-social impairments that affect all facets of life, including the ability to maintain any work, especially with intermittent symptoms of agitation and aggression.
For a medicated individual, the actual medication can be an issue.
Our disability lawyers also understand that for many people who suffer from serious symptoms of bipolar disorder, the medications can cause serious side effects, such as cognitive problems, dulling, impaired memory, poor concentration, mental slowness, confusion, lethargy, sedation, impaired coordination and a whole host of other issues that would no doubt impair a person’s ability to sustain any regular and gainful employment.
Do you suffer from bipolar disorder? Have you been denied your long-term disability benefits?
Our lawyers understand that bipolar disorder is a chronic and severe mental disorder that can cause substantial disruption in a person’s life, often affecting marriage, children, social life and occupation. If you are unable to work and you have been cut off or denied your long-term disability, don’t give up hope. Our long-term disability lawyers understand that for many people, the recurrent episodes of depression and/or mania and inter-episodic mood symptoms can no doubt interfere with a person’s work function.
At Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers, we take pride in being trusted Hamilton personal injury lawyers since 2003. Over the years, we’ve helped our clients recover more than $45 Million in settlements and verdicts in personal injury, disability, and employment law cases. Whether you’re dealing with a life-changing injury, a denied disability claim, wrongful death, a hurt child or employment termination, we are here to provide compassionate and experienced legal representation. If you believe you have a case, call us today—we’re ready to help you secure the compensation you deserve.
Call Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers today, no matter where you are in Ontario at 905-333-8888 for your free consultation. Alternatively, you can contact us online, confidentially, by filling out a contact form.