first class medical adhd + anxiety?

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Hello everybody,

I am very thankful to have stumbled upon this community/forum, it has tons of information regarding all kinds of different cases and experience's dealing with the FAA and special issuance issues. This place is a gold mine, seriously! after browsing the r/flying subreddit a lot of people were talking about Poa, so here I am!

(sorry in advance if this topic has been discussed before)
~ My timeline ~

I am a 18 year old who has a dream of flying. I just graduated high school and am going to SIU Carbondale IL and will be (hopefully!) attending their aviation flight program with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, when I went to go see my local AME (luckily he was a Senior HIMS AME and experianced with cases like mine) for my first class medical I had some pre-existing conditions that required a deferral, specifically ADHD, I did well on the whole first class test, but we never submitted anything because he told be about some things that the FAA would most likely want me to do.

(we went off of the Airman Information for ADHD/ADD PDF on the FAA's website)he told me about how I needed to take the Neuropsychology test because of my background and all the paperwork I would need to gather for it, i'm very thankful that he knew of one literally 2 hours away from me, so I booked an appointment with her and I only ended up paying $1,300 for it (from looking at other post's I got lucky). fast forward to the beginning of June when I took the test, it was fairly easy, I did a bunch of research on what the test would consist of and it ended up really helping me.

SO during the intro part the neuropsych testing she asked me question about a diagnosis I had on my medical records that I was unaware of, something was listed called "anxiety disorder of childhood", I told her that I never remember getting diagnosed with something like that before or treated (I have never taken meds for anxiety, only adhd) for, we called my parents, asking about it and my parents don't remember such a thing either (we thought that it might have gotten mixed up with my brother because he had anxiety growing up). either way I knew that that might be a bad thing, the Neuropsych testing continues anyways. after the testing was done I left and did my urine testing and we were told that she would compile the results and send a summary to us and the whole packet to my AME for him to look at and review.

After a week or so I get the summary from her and it detailed pretty much everything, it looked good, I think I only did a little rough on the VSCR and math accuracy in the CogScreen, but her summary was that I did good overall on it. And the overall summary said there was no signs of DSM-5 ADHD or anxiety and it looked Really good so I wasn't really bothered by my results besides a couple things, it was also noted that I had a random diagnosis of Anxiety disorder of childhood that was never treated.

Anyway I book the final appointment with my AME after he saw and reviewed the packet and he said it looked good, so we end up filling out the medxpress form together and then we fill the packet with all my test results and stuff and we head to the post office and send it off.


~My problem~

Soon after we send the results off to OKC I start googling this because I wanted to see what results other people had and their experience with this type of thing, so I stumble on this forum and read away and I ended up reading a post with people referencing that standalone ADHD and ADHD with a co-existing diagnosis was different, like having anxiety AND adhd would require more info like a psychiatric eval, and now i'm here wondering what they would most likely do when they review my case since I didn't report that I had an diagnosis for anxiety directly because I never knew I had it, I'm just worried that I will get denied because I never disclosed it to them. I could also be worrying too much. I also heard in some post's that they will just send a letter requiring a little more info, I'm not entirely sure.

I haven't really seen anyone in quite my situation so I decided to share my story here with this community. I'm starting school in mid august, after speaking with a Senior CFI at my college they said that I wouldn't need a medical for a month or so, so that has kinda bought me some time to get my SI. Ultimately, if I do end up getting denied because of this I do have a backup plan, I would probably plan on switching my major to Computer Science since I do have somewhat of a passion for that also. I just thought that being in the sky's would be a more rewarding career path for me with my love of aviation.

Ill keep the forum updated if i get a letter back.
 
Hello everybody,

I am very thankful to have stumbled upon this community/forum, it has tons of information regarding all kinds of different cases and experience's dealing with the FAA and special issuance issues. This place is a gold mine, seriously! after browsing the r/flying subreddit a lot of people were talking about Poa, so here I am!

(sorry in advance if this topic has been discussed before)
~ My timeline ~

I am a 18 year old who has a dream of flying. I just graduated high school and am going to SIU Carbondale IL and will be (hopefully!) attending their aviation flight program with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, when I went to go see my local AME (luckily he was a Senior HIMS AME and experianced with cases like mine) for my first class medical I had some pre-existing conditions that required a deferral, specifically ADHD, I did well on the whole first class test, but we never submitted anything because he told be about some things that the FAA would most likely want me to do.

(we went off of the Airman Information for ADHD/ADD PDF on the FAA's website)he told me about how I needed to take the Neuropsychology test because of my background and all the paperwork I would need to gather for it, i'm very thankful that he knew of one literally 2 hours away from me, so I booked an appointment with her and I only ended up paying $1,300 for it (from looking at other post's I got lucky). fast forward to the beginning of June when I took the test, it was fairly easy, I did a bunch of research on what the test would consist of and it ended up really helping me.

SO during the intro part the neuropsych testing she asked me question about a diagnosis I had on my medical records that I was unaware of, something was listed called "anxiety disorder of childhood", I told her that I never remember getting diagnosed with something like that before or treated (I have never taken meds for anxiety, only adhd) for, we called my parents, asking about it and my parents don't remember such a thing either (we thought that it might have gotten mixed up with my brother because he had anxiety growing up). either way I knew that that might be a bad thing, the Neuropsych testing continues anyways. after the testing was done I left and did my urine testing and we were told that she would compile the results and send a summary to us and the whole packet to my AME for him to look at and review.

After a week or so I get the summary from her and it detailed pretty much everything, it looked good, I think I only did a little rough on the VSCR and math accuracy in the CogScreen, but her summary was that I did good overall on it. And the overall summary said there was no signs of DSM-5 ADHD or anxiety and it looked Really good so I wasn't really bothered by my results besides a couple things, it was also noted that I had a random diagnosis of Anxiety disorder of childhood that was never treated.

Anyway I book the final appointment with my AME after he saw and reviewed the packet and he said it looked good, so we end up filling out the medxpress form together and then we fill the packet with all my test results and stuff and we head to the post office and send it off.


~My problem~

Soon after we send the results off to OKC I start googling this because I wanted to see what results other people had and their experience with this type of thing, so I stumble on this forum and read away and I ended up reading a post with people referencing that standalone ADHD and ADHD with a co-existing diagnosis was different, like having anxiety AND adhd would require more info like a psychiatric eval, and now i'm here wondering what they would most likely do when they review my case since I didn't report that I had an diagnosis for anxiety directly because I never knew I had it, I'm just worried that I will get denied because I never disclosed it to them. I could also be worrying too much. I also heard in some post's that they will just send a letter requiring a little more info, I'm not entirely sure.

I haven't really seen anyone in quite my situation so I decided to share my story here with this community. I'm starting school in mid august, after speaking with a Senior CFI at my college they said that I wouldn't need a medical for a month or so, so that has kinda bought me some time to get my SI. Ultimately, if I do end up getting denied because of this I do have a backup plan, I would probably plan on switching my major to Computer Science since I do have somewhat of a passion for that also. I just thought that being in the sky's would be a more rewarding career path for me with my love of aviation.

Ill keep the forum updated if i get a letter back.
Glad you did all your research and did well on the neuropsychological eval! Do not worried about being denied, that shouldn't happen. Though I don't have access to your medical records, the FAA rarely sends a denial letter just because they didn't receive all the info they need on another diagnosis which they don't have enough info for (unless it was made pretty damn clear you did have anxiety and you will NEVER get over it). I got away with getting my Autism Spectrum Disorder removed because I never had any treatment for it and my medical records for my bi-yearly checkups always noted something along the lines of having good friends, socialization is good and spends free time with friends. I only needed a neuropsychological evaluation to get my ADHD and ASD removed (though I got a demand letter last week about my Tourettes syndrome). I can't comment if this will work for you. I say this only because I spent $2.1k to have the man who made the cogscreen (Dr. Kay) administer the report and write the letter. Because of this, his name means a lot to the FAA. I am not calling the lady who administered the test a nobody, it's just the way the world works sadly.

So, tl;dr you may or may not get a demand letter for your anxiety. If what you say is true and you never had any treatment for anxiety and future checkups with your treating physician showed you had no symptoms of anxiety, then you should hopefully get your medical. If you get a letter from the FAA, it will most certainly be a demand letter. I see no reason for them to deny your medical instantly just because you had a diagnosis of anxiety.

A tip to make sure your medical is being reviewed (and also prioritized for review) is to call Oklahoma City every other day (Monday - Wednesday - Friday -> Tuesday - Thursday, repeat) @ (405)-954-4821. They will ask for a PI # which you probably don't have, so just tell them your last name, birthday, address. Then ask for a PI # so you don't have to give all this info every time you call. They will let you know if they have only received your request, if it is under review or if they have come to a conclusion. If they have come to a conclusion and say they sent a "certified letter" then you're receiving a demand letter for additional paperwork and/or testing and your medical hasn't been approved at this time. If they tell you they "have sent your special issuance medical, you've been approved", or anything besides a "certified letter", then congrats you've received your special issuance.

Hope this helps,

- Pete
 
Good luck’Guest’. I know plenty of parents that ended up going the ADD route 20 years ago, for a variety of reasons. I’m not saying there weren’t legitimate cases, know some that weren’t.

We have two boys, let them be boys.
 
Hello everybody,

I am very thankful to have stumbled upon this community/forum, it has tons of information regarding all kinds of different cases and experience's dealing with the FAA and special issuance issues. This place is a gold mine, seriously! after browsing the r/flying subreddit a lot of people were talking about Poa, so here I am!

(sorry in advance if this topic has been discussed before)
~ My timeline ~

I am a 18 year old who has a dream of flying. I just graduated high school and am going to SIU Carbondale IL and will be (hopefully!) attending their aviation flight program with a friend of mine. Unfortunately, when I went to go see my local AME (luckily he was a Senior HIMS AME and experianced with cases like mine) for my first class medical I had some pre-existing conditions that required a deferral, specifically ADHD, I did well on the whole first class test, but we never submitted anything because he told be about some things that the FAA would most likely want me to do.

(we went off of the Airman Information for ADHD/ADD PDF on the FAA's website)he told me about how I needed to take the Neuropsychology test because of my background and all the paperwork I would need to gather for it, i'm very thankful that he knew of one literally 2 hours away from me, so I booked an appointment with her and I only ended up paying $1,300 for it (from looking at other post's I got lucky). fast forward to the beginning of June when I took the test, it was fairly easy, I did a bunch of research on what the test would consist of and it ended up really helping me.

SO during the intro part the neuropsych testing she asked me question about a diagnosis I had on my medical records that I was unaware of, something was listed called "anxiety disorder of childhood", I told her that I never remember getting diagnosed with something like that before or treated (I have never taken meds for anxiety, only adhd) for, we called my parents, asking about it and my parents don't remember such a thing either (we thought that it might have gotten mixed up with my brother because he had anxiety growing up). either way I knew that that might be a bad thing, the Neuropsych testing continues anyways. after the testing was done I left and did my urine testing and we were told that she would compile the results and send a summary to us and the whole packet to my AME for him to look at and review.

After a week or so I get the summary from her and it detailed pretty much everything, it looked good, I think I only did a little rough on the VSCR and math accuracy in the CogScreen, but her summary was that I did good overall on it. And the overall summary said there was no signs of DSM-5 ADHD or anxiety and it looked Really good so I wasn't really bothered by my results besides a couple things, it was also noted that I had a random diagnosis of Anxiety disorder of childhood that was never treated.

Anyway I book the final appointment with my AME after he saw and reviewed the packet and he said it looked good, so we end up filling out the medxpress form together and then we fill the packet with all my test results and stuff and we head to the post office and send it off.


~My problem~

Soon after we send the results off to OKC I start googling this because I wanted to see what results other people had and their experience with this type of thing, so I stumble on this forum and read away and I ended up reading a post with people referencing that standalone ADHD and ADHD with a co-existing diagnosis was different, like having anxiety AND adhd would require more info like a psychiatric eval, and now i'm here wondering what they would most likely do when they review my case since I didn't report that I had an diagnosis for anxiety directly because I never knew I had it, I'm just worried that I will get denied because I never disclosed it to them. I could also be worrying too much. I also heard in some post's that they will just send a letter requiring a little more info, I'm not entirely sure.

I haven't really seen anyone in quite my situation so I decided to share my story here with this community. I'm starting school in mid august, after speaking with a Senior CFI at my college they said that I wouldn't need a medical for a month or so, so that has kinda bought me some time to get my SI. Ultimately, if I do end up getting denied because of this I do have a backup plan, I would probably plan on switching my major to Computer Science since I do have somewhat of a passion for that also. I just thought that being in the sky's would be a more rewarding career path for me with my love of aviation.

Ill keep the forum updated if i get a letter back.

Hey, I’m in the exact same boat with a questionable ADHD diagnosis and anxiety (which I didn’t even know about until I was looking in to my ADHD). When I was a kid I was asked if I had trouble focusing in school and if I was ever anxious about X.. came out with two ‘mental disorders’... BS if you ask me, but a lot of hoops to jump through now. I think it’s ironic that the FAA doesn’t allow a GP to correct a diagnosis, but is willing to accept a diagnosis from them.. The whole agency is antiquated.

Anyways, good luck with everything! My cogscreen is in August. Just wanted to tell you that you’re not alone.
 
Well, guys.
I just got off the phone with the FAA about 10 minutes ago.
They said I was approved on July 30th and that they sent out my certificate.
I am so glad I'll be able to start my flight training this august!!!. (besides being in crippling debt from it)
I honestly could not have done it without a lot of the information on this forum!
Thanks for all the responses too @MyDimeIsUp and @sourdough44
I hope everything goes well with your situation also!

(also I'm OP, made an account a while ago, decided to post anon first)
 
On the other hand, majoring in CS is guaranteed income, where you might get furloughed multiple times as a pro pilot. And as a CS major, you can work on full-motion flight sims, avionics, air traffic control, avionics..... goes on and on and on.....and never worry about the Class 1 or 2 or 3. Plus you have enough money to learn to fly and buy an airplane!
 
On the other hand, majoring in CS is guaranteed income, where you might get furloughed multiple times as a pro pilot. And as a CS major, you can work on full-motion flight sims, avionics, air traffic control, avionics..... goes on and on and on.....and never worry about the Class 1 or 2 or 3. Plus you have enough money to learn to fly and buy an airplane!
From what I have seen nosing about on job boards for FlightSafety, SimCom, and CAE, the opportunities for CS majors are expanding.
 
Well, guys.
I just got off the phone with the FAA about 10 minutes ago.
They said I was approved on July 30th and that they sent out my certificate.
I am so glad I'll be able to start my flight training this august!!!. (besides being in crippling debt from it)
I honestly could not have done it without a lot of the information on this forum!
Thanks for all the responses too @MyDimeIsUp and @sourdough44
I hope everything goes well with your situation also!

(also I'm OP, made an account a while ago, decided to post anon first)
Literally had a smile when I read this. While I love helping people, it makes me happier to see them succeed. Enjoy the skies!
 
From what I have seen nosing about on job boards for FlightSafety, SimCom, and CAE, the opportunities for CS majors are expanding.
Until we have a world-wide EMP attack, Software will always be in demand.
I'm reading an internal document (485 pages) about a propulsion system, definitely written by the hardware guys. Only 18 pages related to software, but without those 18 pages, the device is nothing more than a very, very expensive bomb waiting to explode.
 
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I talked to an Army recruiter 10 years ago, a relative was considering. I asked about ADD medication use for applicants. He said if they turned everyone away who took them at some point, a good number would be excluded. He stated as long as they were off meds & all was well, they could start the process. I realize individual factors vary.

Yes, different with aviation, but somewhat related.
 
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