Recommendation for previous military drug charge and mental health issues

J

Jules

Guest
Hello everyone!

I was booted from the military for drug abuse (general discharge under honorable conditions) close to a decade ago. The drug abuse was my personal way of self medicating after experiencing a violent and traumatic incident while in service. I have a medical diagnoses for anxiety, but not PTSD and have never been on any related medication for it. My question is, what's the first step I should take to start flying again? From scrolling through previous posts, it seems like I'm going to need to hire an aviation lawyer. Should I do that first? Does anyone have specific recs for a lawyer? In addition, I considered getting a membership to AOPA to access their services, but it looks like they're only offered for incidents that occurred while a member.

I know this is going to be a long process, so I'm hoping to at least start on the right foot.
 
Forget AOPA. They won't give you useful advice.
What you need is a good HIMS AME who will do a pre-application consultation with you as to what you are up against. The devil is in the details here.
 
^^^^ You don't need a lawyer at this point. You need advice from a good HIMS AME prior to submitting to an exam by an AME/submitting a MedExpress application. Definitely.
 
I was kinna hoping you were going to say, "but I don't do any of that stuff anymore".....

Generally speaking one starts with:
The full active duty medical record. Beware: The DOD's definitions of disease are different from FAA (part 67).
The VAH record. Beware the VAH's defintions of disease are different from the real world.
a 10 year pharmacy search
6 months of a private urine random test program for the item of abuse.. They call you pee. all of the (see next):
the HIMS psychiatrists want six months of proven sobriety before seeing you. You do too, because one of the definitions of "Dependency"in part 67 is "Any use of substance after abuse is dependency". These guy(s) are costly and they use part 67 definitions, so in the question of abuse vs. dependency (which would require full rehab) you might not want to see the guy until that question is fleshed out a bit- over the six months. If you have used whatever, since, I would advise an intensive outpatient rehab (becuase you then have met the FAA's defintion of dependency).
If you can substantiate long term sobriety (cards and letters from bosses, directors, big clients, etc...that helps a lot mitigate toward abuse, not dependency.

Any AA/NA attendance needs be logged (good sign of recovery).
Any primary care record you might have.

This is a long slog. Lots of guys do this and succeed but it is not for the faint of committment, determination and ultimately of wallet. You have to plead "humble" and do FAA's thing. A lotta guys including the guy in the just closed string and the somebody who was very critical, JUST DON'T GET THIS. And if you are evaluated as Dependent, it's with you for life. You can't just say, "that's in the past", even if it is. FAA is not buying that.

.....here's to "hoping it's not that"!

The anxiety would be evaluated by the HIMS psychiatrist. If you haven't had any Rx and IF the substance is alcohol it will be likely ascribed to "What is the most common cause of anxiety in a pilot? Excess use of alcohol", rather than a primary anxiety disorder.
 
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