Anxiety with a first class medical

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Guest1234

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Hey all, I am currently beginning my flight training and aspiring to one day be an airline pilot. I'm going to get my first-class medical soon, and I'm a little worried. I have anxiety, and I'm currently taking Lexapro to help. I have never had suicidal thoughts or any depressive episodes, the Lexapro is just to treat mild social anxiety. After doing some research i am rather shocked and scared about how the FAA deals with anxiety. Is this something that should make me reconsider a career in the airline industry? What should i say on my medical forms?
 
You should have a consult with an experienced AME first. Do not, and I repeat, do NOT, give the AME the number of your medexpress form at this time. Figure out what you need to do and what records/tests you will need before you submit. It is not a good plan of action to just submit the thing to the FAA "because it will get deferred anyway" and make up your game plan as you go along.

The second thing you should never do is lie on your medexpress form. If you have been diagnosed with anxiety and are taking medication for it, there will be extra hoops to jump through, but the hoops will be better than the FAA finding out you lied on a federal form later.

As far as should it make you reconsider, only you can answer that question. Do you think you can deal with the stress of being an airline pilot and the responsibility that entails? Can you keep your composure in face of difficult and dangerous things? There may come a time where you will be dead and a hundred or more people with you if you can't think straight in a crisis.
 
Wow, you bring up an issue that goes way deeper than you may have thought…

How can ANYONE have ANY clue about how they think they’re gonna do as an airline pilot? The problem is that it takes such a LONG and arduous process to get there, failure becomes not an option…

“In the old days…”, egad I said it, I must be old, the classic path of earn your certs, instruct, fly checks, fly regionals, fly majors (don’t need a ATP until then), you had an idea before it was too late.

The modern method of all or nothing, start in a seniority based career level position commensurate with that kind of training leads to two problems applicable to this topic:

1. You make it, you AINT gonna jeopardize it for anything, think suffer or self medicate. OR, you don’t really like it, too bad, gonna do it anyway, lots of people don’t like their jobs. This is a BAD job to do simply because it’s too costly to change.

2. Because the FAA cannot practice common medicine nor figure out how to use expert processes, many simply cannot start, exacerbating the problem of finding pilots.

Hate to complain without SOME sort of offered solution… I do believe requiring 1500 (or 1200 hundred, no difference, my guess is that’s within the “fudge tolerance” of logbooks these days) is a big part of the problem. I didn’t see where not requiring it was really a problem 20 years ago.

Caveat… a big difference is the equipment in the training camps. In the minors you don’t regularly get 90mph fastballs. In the regionals you now DO get jets requiring the same airspace, the same ground speeds, and operating on the same performance margins as those in the majors. Only it ain’t nearly as good a jet… much poorer systems and flying qualities.

AND they fly to much tougher places. Take a senior international captain from ANY major and send him from Dallas to Tyler Texas late one night fully loaded with a bunch of foreign flight training going on at an uncontrolled field. VARSITY. He ain’t gonna do well likely.

Unions fighting for regionals and majors is a conflict of interest. It’s made a mess. We now have no place to raise GOOD airline pilots. Airlines are making programs to boost flight time from 500 to 1500 by subsidizing hood/safety pilot methods to keep time building cheap. NEITHER is getting real experience. This is what it’s becoming! That’s legal loophole logbook padding…
 
Google "FAA Medical" plus the condition or mediation. Look for results with links to the Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners.
 
Just what does a diagnosis of a condition like this consist of if there is no medication or further actions prescribed or recommended?
If a condition is questioned verbally or listed as a “ possible problem area “ in a post visit summary reason for concern?
 
you will share all details of anxiety with your AME. once your application is completed it will likely be deferred the the faa to decide. there is a path to allow you to take lexapro. it takes time and some money to follow it. find an ame you are comfortable with and ask for a pre-exam consultation.
 
Tools said:
Wow, you bring up an issue that goes way deeper than you may have thought…

How can ANYONE have ANY clue about how they think they’re gonna do as an airline pilot? The problem is that it takes such a LONG and arduous process to get there, failure becomes not an option…

“In the old days…”, egad I said it, I must be old, the classic path of earn your certs, instruct, fly checks, fly regionals, fly majors (don’t need a ATP until then), you had an idea before it was too late.

The modern method of all or nothing, start in a seniority based career level position commensurate with that kind of training leads to two problems applicable to this topic:

1. You make it, you AINT gonna jeopardize it for anything, think suffer or self medicate. OR, you don’t really like it, too bad, gonna do it anyway, lots of people don’t like their jobs. This is a BAD job to do simply because it’s too costly to change.

2. Because the FAA cannot practice common medicine nor figure out how to use expert processes, many simply cannot start, exacerbating the problem of finding pilots.

Hate to complain without SOME sort of offered solution… I do believe requiring 1500 (or 1200 hundred, no difference, my guess is that’s within the “fudge tolerance” of logbooks these days) is a big part of the problem. I didn’t see where not requiring it was really a problem 20 years ago.

Caveat… a big difference is the equipment in the training camps. In the minors you don’t regularly get 90mph fastballs. In the regionals you now DO get jets requiring the same airspace, the same ground speeds, and operating on the same performance margins as those in the majors. Only it ain’t nearly as good a jet… much poorer systems and flying qualities.

AND they fly to much tougher places. Take a senior international captain from ANY major and send him from Dallas to Tyler Texas late one night fully loaded with a bunch of foreign flight training going on at an uncontrolled field. VARSITY. He ain’t gonna do well likely.

Unions fighting for regionals and majors is a conflict of interest. It’s made a mess. We now have no place to raise GOOD airline pilots. Airlines are making programs to boost flight time from 500 to 1500 by subsidizing hood/safety pilot methods to keep time building cheap. NEITHER is getting real experience. This is what it’s becoming! That’s legal loophole logbook padding…
Click to expand...

Haha, this is amazing, but possibly also a little beyond the scope of the OP's current life situation :) You bring up good points though.
 
A good way for a physician to create anxiety is to tell a patient they have it then prescribe a medication to treat it. Pharmaceutical companies have made a fortune using this concept, not entirely unlike the Sackler family convincing everyone that no one, anywhere, for any reason, should have pain.
 
dbahn said:
A good way for a physician to create anxiety is to tell a patient they have it then prescribe a medication to treat it. Pharmaceutical companies have made a fortune using this concept, not entirely unlike the Sackler family convincing everyone that no one, anywhere, for any reason, should have pain.
Click to expand...
Nailed it!!!!! This all started with me upon returning from my first deployment in 2003-2004 Iraq, when I truthfully answered questions on how I was feeling. "Oh...well, that sounds alot like (insert ailments)....you need to take these meds to help you feel better..." fast forward to my RET in 2018...again, I told the truth on MED EXPRESS and came out of pocket 6k for all the test required for my medical....by this time, 2019 is here and I get a letter from the FAA saying I need to get a new check up from my AME, which I did, and he sent it forward with a favorable write up, like the ones he did at start of all of this. I went right in the middle of COVID....I then got a letter stating that...unfortunately...everything you paid for has now expired and you re do all exams...not to mention, you are now officially an alcoholic, which will require 6 months to a year's worth of documented treatment...still can't figure that one out...fortunately, I already had a career in construction, before I became a helicopter pilot in the Army and RET after 26 yrs of service, which I am thankful for
 
Yikes! That's a good example of one of the things that's wrong with medicine as it's practiced today. Many patients expect the doctor to do or prescribe something for whatever symptom they were experiencing. It's easier for the doc to write a prescription than it is to explain why they don't need it, especially over the patient's objections. If the doc does nothing then the patient tells all their friends that the doctor "didn't believe me" or "didn't care". Good medical care doesn't always mean patient satisfaction.
 
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