Chronic Pain – pain that you live with constantly or intense pain that you experience sporadically – can severely limit your capacity to work. However, getting the Social Security Administration to acknowledge that your pain is disabling can be a challenge because pain is largely subjective. Only you know how much pain you are feeling; your pain cannot be quantified with medical tests or instruments.
In determining whether chronic pain places an Iowa Social Security disability claimant “under a disability,” the Social Security Administration will consider the extent to which the alleged pain and the resulting restrictions and limitations can reasonably be accepted as consistent with the evidence in the case. The Social Security Administration uses a two-part analysis: (1) First, the Social Security Administration reviews the objective medical evidence to confirm that you have a “medically determinable impairment” that could reasonably be expected to produce pain; then, (2) the Social Security Administration considers all the evidence in your file to evaluate the subjective nature of your pain – that is, the intensity and persistence of your pain and how it might limit your ability to function.