I helped a friend get on SSI. A severe anxiety disorder. This is my hard won advice: If they deny you, get a lawyer for the appeal. Do not hesitate; get a lawyer. The system is designed to make you give up. Lawyers -- or actually, they don't have to be lawyers; some are advocates who just know the system often from formally working for Social Security -- they know how to do it so you are most likely to be approved. They will get one third of your "back pay," and there will be back pay if you have to file an appeal cause months will go by. But it will be worth every penny the lawyer or advocate gets. If you try to do an appeal on your own, you will most likely not get it. They may, of course, approve you with this initial application. But more often the deny it not necessarily because you are not eligible, but because they really do make it as hard as possible for ordinary citizens to navigate the system.