What to Know About Buying Life Insurance When You Have Depression and Anxiety

Life insurance companies may decline policies to people suffering from a range of mental health conditions. As is always the case with just about any kind of health condition, criteria vary from insurance company to insurance company.

Consequently, there is no general rule when it comes to depression and anxiety. Each application is being considered individually, with the severity of each case playing a crucial role.

Be that as it may, in the majority of cases, people whose depression and anxiety have been proven to be manageable can get their life insurance policy, although many insurance companies exclude paying out for suicides. Learn how SBLI can help you find the right Life Insurance.

Depression and Anxiety: Conditions of the Modern World

It is never easy to talk about mental health conditions, as people suffering from them can easily be stigmatized. In addition, people with these conditions can find coping with the situation to be difficult, as the worry and the lack of hope are typical symptoms.

There are treatments available, but due to the stigma, many people who are anxious or depressed often fail to ask for help. In addition, the access to treatment can be quite expensive. Because these people often have difficulties accessing health coverage, the situation becomes even graver.

But there is always hope for those struggling with mental illness challenges. Mental health conditions are often viewed similarly to chronic physical conditions, meaning that even if a person suffering from depression/anxiety gets their policy approved, premiums will be higher and the coverage more restrictive.

These two conditions are quite different, so it is only fair to explain each of them in turn. Generally speaking, insurance companies define these conditions as follows:

Depression

Depression is a condition generally characterized by low mood. However, the diagnosis of clinical depression (major depressive disorder) is quite different from general depressive mood. To be considered for clinical depression, a person has to meet 5+ criteria for a two-week period at least, with depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure included. The criteria include1 but are not limited to:

  • Depressed mood most of the day, almost every day
  • Diminished interest or pleasure in the activities that used to be pleasurable most of the day, almost every day
  • Fatigue or energy loss almost every day
  • Feelings of worthlessness or excessive/inappropriate guilt almost every day
  • Indecisiveness almost every day
  • Diminished ability to think almost every day
  • Diminished ability to concentrate almost every day
  • Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation or suicide attempt
  • Decrease or increase in appetite almost every day resulting in weight loss or gain
  • A slowing down of thought and physical movement reduction

As you can see, if you were wondering whether you suffer from clinical depression because your mood has been low of late, but you lack four more symptoms, you shouldn’t be worried. Everyone has their ups and downs.

Further out, a diagnosis of clinical depression must cause a significant impairment in occupational and social aspects of your life, and independent from another medical condition.

Finally, people suffering from clinical depression may have significantly different symptoms. I.e., a person who has recently lost a loved one is bound to get an alternate treatment plan from a person who has been suffering from the same condition for five years.

Anxiety

Once again, everyone gets anxious from time to time. Some people were simply born with that mental structure, which doesn’t necessarily mean they suffer from the generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). There is a difference between a temporary condition and a notable one. To get a diagnosis of the disorder, a person must feel stressed while there are no real threats present and display at least three of the following symptoms2:

  • The presence of excessive anxiety and worry about multiple activities or events over the period of six months
  • The anxiety and worry are difficult to control
  • The anxiety and worry easily shift from occasion to occasion
  • The anxiety and worry are accompanied by at least three of the following cognitive symptoms: restlessness, difficulty sleeping, edginess, tiring easily, irritability, impaired concentration, increased soreness or muscle aches

Finally, anxiety is an umbrella term covering a range of similar conditions, including the GAD, social anxiety, panic disorder, various phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

People Are Different And So Are Insurance Policies

Obviously, clinical depression and anxiety are not only different from one another, but also vary greatly between people. For many people suffering from these disorders, it may appear rather strange to be grouped into the mental illness category when dealing with underwriters (not to mention that some questions are intrusive).

However, insurance companies generally rely on experts to assess an applicant’s condition, notably on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria3 for these conditions. If you are concerned about the classification, ask for additional information first.

The most challenging issue when applying for a life insurance policy may be that you haven’t been diagnosed with either of these conditions and, hence, don’t expect your application to be rejected based on the underwriter’s criteria.

As for people who have been diagnosed, it is always better when the condition is being successfully treated than left untreated. In fact, many people suffering from far worse mental illnesses than, say, occasional panic attacks may get approved for a life insurance policy as long as the condition is being kept under control.

What To Expect When Applying For A Policy

As mentioned above, some of the questions may come across as intrusive. Some of the general questions you can expect are:

  1. What is your diagnosis?
  2. When were you diagnosed?
  3. What is the severity of the condition?
  4. Have you ever received any counseling or treatment for this condition?
  5. What your symptoms are, when they started and how long they lasted?
  6. Have you ever taken any time off work due to the condition?
  7. How has the condition affected you (include both the potential limitations to your ability to work and in your everyday activities)?
  8. Has any reason for your condition been identified?
  9. Have you ever been hospitalized or needed treatment as an inpatient?
  10. Have you had any recurrence of the condition or suffered from or had symptoms of a similar condition?

These questions are rather intrusive and not pleasant for anyone, let alone for people struggling with depression and anxiety who are often being stigmatized. If you’ve been diagnosed with clinical depression, you should be prepared to answer the most unpleasant questions of all: have you ever tried to take your own life?

Possible Outcomes

Depending on your answers and medical records (you’ll be asked to provide the name and address of the health professionals you’ve visited), you can expect to be “rated” as follows:

  1. Preferred Best/Plus rating – This rating means that your mental condition is well controlled or rather mild. You are either taking one medication that works well or don’t need any medication whatsoever (deemed unnecessary by a mental health professional). In short, if your diagnosis doesn’t affect your overall health, you can expect to get the best coverage and pricing.
  2. Standard rating – This rating means that your mental condition is not too severe but does affect your health in one way or another. People who have been hospitalized, require a regular therapy, or have multiple prescriptions fall under this category.
  3. Table rated – This rating means that your mental condition severely affects your health or you’re not taking appropriate measures to address it. This rating may result in either expensive premiums or denial of coverage.

Conclusion

As we’ve seen, the situation for people suffering from depression or anxiety is not great, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be catastrophic. The milder your symptoms are and the better you control your condition, the greater the chances of you getting coverage at lower premiums is.

This holds true for physical illnesses, too. People suffering from chronic conditions or those with poor habits, such as diabetes and alcoholism, will be rated in a similar way like a person who has been diagnosed with depression or anxiety.

It is crucial here to compare ALL options. For some people, getting their condition under control and reapplying later is ideal; for others, other insurance types may prove less expensive (e.g., no-exam life insurance policies). No matter what you do, however, don’t hide your condition. Rather, find the most suitable solution by comparing all options and prices. Most importantly, don’t worry! Even people who don’t suffer from a mental condition can get easily stressed when applying for a life insurance policy. If you need help finding the right life insurance reach out to us.


1 Psycom.net, Depression Definition and DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria.
2 Healthline.com, 11 Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders.
3 Psychiatry.org, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.