Does anyone know if you can apply for social security while employed, but on disability leave from work?

yes you can. get an attorney first. he or she will be worth it and know what you can and cannot do while the application process is happening. i applied and was granted within 6 months. this is not the usual way it goes. i was fortunate. i had records from my shrink, more than a year of them. it was her letter that got me my benifits. she said i was unable to cope with the daily stress of working. how true. not sure what else was in the letter. also had letters from all my doctors, stating fibromyalgia was in me and here to stay. soc sec said in my grant letter that while they felt i could work with fibro they were granting it due to the inability to cope with stress that fibro causes. a loophole for sure. and i was happy to see it!!
what i do know is social security does not grant for fibro alone. gotta be mental too. well since the fibro does make you feel like a nut case, what the hey? i really don't care how the gov labels me, as long as i can eat and have a roof over my head. stress is an aspect of life. i do my best to avoid all situations that can cause stress.
hope this helps.
peace,
bluelakelady

If you are actually on leave I am pretty sure you can apply for benefits. As the other person replied, the gov will not usually grant disability for fibro alone...however, if you have emotional distress because of the pain, or have yet to find any therapy that makes the fibro tolerable to a point...you need to include that in the paperwork. If you see a psychologist, physical therapist, psychiatrist, ect... make sure all of them have a say in the application. IF you show that you are trying to get a well rounded treatment...that will go a long way. Also, in my area we have a non-profit called Disability Advocates. They helped people through the application process and were really good about helping with the language in my application. I was granted disability benefits on my first try at the age of 23, which is quite rare. I really think a big part of this was the amount of people I had weighing in on my case and the help of Disability Advocates. If you can find something like that in your area, it would be a great help.