Wellness Therapy

[DaveinTexas]

My client's 15 yr old son had a case of severe anxiety and depression-----suicidal tendencies. She enrolled him in this "SageWalk" program that cost over $30,000.

Is wellness therapy to alleviate severe anxiety and depression a medical expense that can be deducted on the Sch A, subject to the 7.5% of AGI threshold?

I suppose the issue is whether severe anxiety and depression can be labeled as a mental illness or defect, as noted in The Tax Book, page 4-4.

TIA

[erchess]

Tell Us About the Program

I'd like to hear about the program, which I had never heard of. However, I look for the following items before I treat an expense as medical.

1. I want the diagnosis of a particular condition by someone who is board certified or state licensed in a field marking the individual as competent to make the diagnosis.

2. I want the recommendation of a treatment by the same individual. As a general rule the treatment program will be something tailored to the condition and supervised by medical professionals but there are well established exceptions such as the Gym or Y Membership as a treatment for any of several conditions or clarinet lessons as a treatment for certain dental conditions.

3. I want the treatment not to be something that is clearly nondeductible such as an over the counter medication.

As long as we are not under three, I tend to take a permissive view. I would for example accept any legally practicing practitioner of some alternative therapy if the diagnosis and treatments appeared to be within the norms for their specialty. If there is not specific authority for this kind of treatment being deductible in this situation, I warn the client that we could lose it on audit. Taxpayers in the income brackets I deal with cannot afford to pursue a case very far.

But Anxiety and Depression when diagnosed by the right professional clearly can lead to deductible medical expenses. Both are what is known as "Affective (mood) Disorders". Bipolar Disorder (which used to be known as Manic Depressive Illness) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are also Affective Disorders. I have symptoms of each of these without enough symptoms of any one to justify that diagnosis so my diagnosis is "Affective Disorder Not Otherwise Specified".

I was diagnosed some years ago by a board certified Psychiatrist. No one can doubt that my payments to board certified Psychiatrists and licensed Psychologists for therapy and management of my medications, and payments for prescription drugs have always been deductible medical expenses. On the other hand, a year or two after my diagnosis I went on a spiritual retreat and the fact that my Psychiatrist encouraged it was the final factor in my decision to attend. It did a lot for me. On the other hand, the original idea was mine, the retreat staff were not mental health professionals, most of the people on the retreat were not mentally ill, and the literature promoting the retreat specifically disclaimed any idea that the retreat would help with mental illness. For all those reasons, I treated the retreat as a personal expense.