SSDI for Neurological Conditions in Michigan

Reviewed by Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan Social Security Disability Lawyer and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated August 26, 2026.

Neurological claims turn on frequency and consistency far more than on the severity of any single episode, and that is the gap our Social Security Disability attorneys spend most of a case closing. A Michigan claimant at Neumann Law Group can have an unambiguous diagnosis, a clear MRI, and a neurologist who considers them unable to work, and still hold a file that never documents how often the disabling events actually happen.

What Does Listing 11.02 Require for Epilepsy?

Listing 11.02 begins with a requirement claimants rarely anticipate: the condition must be documented by a detailed description of a typical seizure. From there it offers four routes. Paragraph A is satisfied by generalized tonic-clonic seizures occurring at least once a month for at least three consecutive months. Paragraph B is satisfied by dyscognitive seizures occurring at least once a week over the same period. Paragraphs C and D reach lower frequencies at a cost: generalized tonic-clonic seizures once every two months for four consecutive months, or dyscognitive seizures at a correspondingly reduced frequency, each paired with a marked limitation in physical functioning or in one of the four areas of mental functioning. Every route requires that the frequency persist despite adherence to prescribed treatment, which makes the medication record part of the listing rather than background to it.

Why Do the Neurological Listings Share the Same Two Routes?

Parkinsonian syndrome at 11.06, traumatic brain injury at 11.18, peripheral neuropathy at 11.14, and multiple sclerosis at 11.09 are all characterized by A or B, and the two paragraphs read almost identically across them. Paragraph A requires disorganization of motor function in two extremities resulting in an extreme limitation in the ability to stand up from a seated position, balance while standing or walking, or use the upper extremities. Paragraph B requires a marked limitation in physical functioning together with a marked limitation in one of the four areas of mental functioning. The distinction between extreme and marked is doing enormous work here. Paragraph A describes a claimant who essentially cannot perform the movement, and many people with significant neurological disease do not meet it. Paragraph B asks for less in each domain but requires evidence in two, and it is the route most claims should be built toward. The timing conditions differ by listing: 11.06 applies after at least three consecutive months of prescribed treatment, while 11.18 requires the limitation to persist for at least three months after the injury.

How Are Stroke and Nerve Damage Evaluated?

Vascular insult to the brain is evaluated under Listing 11.04 on its residual effects rather than on the event itself, which is why a stroke that produced a dramatic hospitalization and a good recovery generally will not support a claim while a smaller event leaving persistent hemiparesis or aphasia may. Peripheral neuropathy at 11.14 is reached by several routes that have nothing to do with primary neurological disease, and this is worth knowing because claimants and their providers often file the claim under the underlying condition instead. Diabetic neuropathy is evaluated here rather than in the endocrine body system, which contains no listings at all. Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy is evaluated here rather than under the cancer listings. In both cases the nerve damage is assessed on its own criteria, independent of how well the underlying disease is otherwise controlled.

What Evidence Carries a Neurological Disability Claim?

Frequency documentation is the center of these claims and the thing most files lack. A seizure log kept contemporaneously, recording the date, the type of event, its duration, and the recovery time afterward, addresses exactly what Listing 11.02 measures, and no clinical record assembled from quarterly appointments can substitute for it. Witness statements from family members or coworkers who observed events matter here more than in almost any other claim type, because a claimant is frequently unable to describe their own seizure and the listing opens by asking for a detailed description of one. Medication records and serum anticonvulsant levels evidence adherence, which every route through 11.02 requires.

Objective neurological findings do the rest. EEG and MRI results establish the underlying condition, though neither measures frequency. Neurological examination notes recording gait, station, strength, coordination, and tremor document motor function in the terms paragraphs A and B use, and their value depends on consistency across visits rather than on one detailed examination. Electrodiagnostic studies establish peripheral neuropathy objectively. Formal neuropsychological testing is frequently decisive on the paragraph B route, because it measures concentration, processing speed, and memory in a way that a mental status examination performed during a neurology visit does not. A treating neurologist’s statement addressing expected absences, the need for unscheduled breaks, and restrictions on heights, machinery, and driving converts all of it into vocational terms.

How Neumann Law Group Develops a Neurological Claim

Our first step on a seizure claim is almost always to start the log, because frequency evidence cannot be reconstructed after the fact and the months a claim spends waiting are months that could be documenting it. Where a file already shows qualifying frequency, our attorneys turn to the adherence record and close any gap there before the agency reads it as noncompliance. On movement disorder and brain injury claims we assess early whether paragraph A is genuinely reachable, and where it is not, we build toward paragraph B by pairing the physical evidence with neuropsychological testing rather than hoping a marked mental limitation will be inferred from the diagnosis. Where a claimant has both a neurological condition and a psychiatric one, we develop them together, since the paragraph B route requires evidence in both domains anyway. At the hearing stage the frequency of absences is the fact that most often decides whether any work remains available.

What to Do Now With a Michigan Neurological Claim

Begin a dated log today recording every seizure or significant symptom event, what it looked like, how long it lasted, and how long recovery took. Ask a family member or coworker who has witnessed an event to write down what they saw in specific terms. Request your complete neurology records along with any EEG, MRI, or electrodiagnostic reports rather than the summaries in office notes. Gather pharmacy records showing prescriptions filled, since these evidence adherence better than a claimant’s own account. If a medication was stopped or reduced, ask the prescriber to document why. Ask whether formal neuropsychological testing has been done and, if not, whether your neurologist would refer you, because that testing is often what makes the marked-limitation route provable.

Frequently Asked Questions About Neurological SSDI Claims in Michigan

How Often Must Seizures Occur to Qualify for SSDI?

Listing 11.02 sets four alternatives. Generalized tonic-clonic seizures occurring at least once a month for three consecutive months satisfy paragraph A, and dyscognitive seizures occurring at least once a week for three consecutive months satisfy paragraph B. Lower frequencies qualify under paragraphs C and D when paired with a marked limitation in physical functioning or in one of the four areas of mental functioning. Every route requires adherence to prescribed treatment.

What Does Disorganization of Motor Function Mean?

It is the shared first route through most neurological listings, and it is demanding. The claimant must show disorganization of motor function in two extremities producing an extreme limitation in the ability to stand up from a seated position, balance while standing or walking, or use the upper extremities. Extreme is the highest rating the listings use, which is why the second route through marked limitation is the more attainable one for many claimants.

Can You Get SSDI for a Traumatic Brain Injury?

Yes, under Listing 11.18. It is characterized by either disorganization of motor function in two extremities producing extreme limitation, or a marked limitation in physical functioning together with a marked limitation in one area of mental functioning. Both routes require the limitation to persist for at least three consecutive months after the injury, which means a claim filed too soon after the event can be denied on timing rather than severity.

Does Adhering to Treatment Matter in a Seizure Claim?

It is written into the listing. Every route through 11.02 requires the seizure frequency to persist despite adherence to prescribed treatment, so a record showing missed doses or subtherapeutic blood levels can defeat an otherwise qualifying frequency. Where adherence lapsed for a reason such as side effects, cost, or the condition itself, that reason belongs in the file rather than left for an adjudicator to interpret.

What if a Neurological Condition Does Not Meet Any Listing?

The claim proceeds to steps four and five, where residual functional capacity is compared against past and other work. Neurological impairments generate restrictions that reach beyond lifting and standing, including limits on unprotected heights, machinery, driving, sustained concentration, and the unscheduled absences that follow a seizure or a symptom flare, and those restrictions often narrow the available work more sharply than an exertional limit would.

Related Practice Areas

Multiple sclerosis is evaluated under Listing 11.09 in this same body system and is covered alongside lupus and inflammatory arthritis on the firm’s autoimmune conditions page. The paragraph B mental functioning criteria that neurological claims borrow are set out in full on the mental health conditions page. Diabetic nerve damage reaches Listing 11.14 through the route described on the diabetes and endocrine disorders page.