As a pilot, would you pursue this?

U

Unregistered

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My wife and I have been seeing a marriage and family counselor for a little while, nothing serious - just kind of a 20 year tune up and boost up our toolbox to deal with empty nest, mid-life career changes, etc.

Some of the discussions have brought up the fact that my personality has changed in the past few years: like from organized to disorganized, from pre-emptive to procrastinator, from sharp focus on problems to somewhat scatter-brained.

This counselor is strongly encouraging me to pursue a SPECT imaging with these folks Brain Matters Imaging Center regarding these "personality trait" changes, especially since my wife and I were able to relate a timeline of my changes somewhat coincidental with some adverse reactions to Lopid, a year of huge stress around problems with a teen child, and a car accident (where my wife sustained a closed head injury but I had nothing diagnosed from that)

What do you all think? Everything I see on their web page tells me "kiss your medical goodbye if you even make a phone call to these people"
 
Hey unreg, I can't speak to the medical aspect of your question but my marriage and health are both more important to me than retaining my medical.
Good luck with your situation.
 
kevin47881 said:
Hey unreg, I can't speak to the medical aspect of your question but my marriage and health are both more important to me than retaining my medical.
Good luck with your situation.
Click to expand...

Another Kevin chiming in, Kevin has it right, which is more important your health/marriage or the Flying.
 
Is your counselor a psychiatrist? If not, I suggest you consult with one first. Nearly all the conditions that this exam is advertised as testing for are disqualifying, so one would certainly not want to be misdiagnosed.

However, all of these conditions are pretty severe, and as Kevin said, life and love come before the pursuit of happiness.

Best wishes.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far. My marriage is fine - like I said, this is a 20 year tune up and adding some more communication and coping tools to the tool box.

Counselor is not a psychiatrist.

My health is also generally fine, both mentally and physically. The counselor focused on my situational sadness and wanted to invoke the generic "depression" blanket term, which I've come to believe is very very different than what the FAA's blanket "depression" term means.

I suspect that this SPECT scan is a "solution in search of a problem" - as noted, all the conditions advertised on the website are FAA no-no's. A mis-diagnosis from a "let's take a look and see what might going on here" test and I'm permanently grounded? I think THEN they might be valid in classifying me as clinically depressed and most likely "clinically ****ed"!!!
 
DO NOT GET MEDICAL TESTS UNLESS RECOMMENDED BY AN M.D. OR D.O.

It's that simple. Heck, I would expect that sort of exam to require a prescription. At least talk to an MD/DO first.
 
Unregistered said:
Counselor is not a psychiatrist.
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What are the qualifications of this counselor? I agree family, friends work, come before flying but I would also not go down an avenue based on the opinion of a person with little understanding of what the medical issues really are. Many of these things that counselors expouse seem a little too snake oily to me.
 
Unregistered said:
What do you all think? Everything I see on their web page tells me "kiss your medical goodbye if you even make a phone call to these people"
Click to expand...
NO. CAN I BE MORE CLEAR? What could possibly be at value of an unvalidated test, that lead to no useable intervention?
 
Unregistered said:
My wife and I have been seeing a marriage and family counselor for a little while, nothing serious - just kind of a 20 year tune up and boost up our toolbox to deal with empty nest, mid-life career changes, etc.

Some of the discussions have brought up the fact that my personality has changed in the past few years: like from organized to disorganized, from pre-emptive to procrastinator, from sharp focus on problems to somewhat scatter-brained.

This counselor is strongly encouraging me to pursue a SPECT imaging with these folks Brain Matters Imaging Center regarding these "personality trait" changes, especially since my wife and I were able to relate a timeline of my changes somewhat coincidental with some adverse reactions to Lopid, a year of huge stress around problems with a teen child, and a car accident (where my wife sustained a closed head injury but I had nothing diagnosed from that)

What do you all think? Everything I see on their web page tells me "kiss your medical goodbye if you even make a phone call to these people"
Click to expand...


I apologize, I misread this the 1st time.
I have no where near the experience to justify a reponse to this medical question, Bruce is correct, see a true doctor before making any kind of decision in this matter, a marriage counselor does not qualify.
KT:dunno:
 
kthompson2k said:
I apologize, I misread this the 1st time.
I have no where near the experience to justify a reponse to this medical question, Bruce is correct, see a true doctor before making any kind of decision in this matter, a marriage counselor does not qualify.
KT:dunno:
Click to expand...

Also ask the real doctor what a diagnosis would actually buy you. If they say you might have a tumour or something that can be treated, then go for it. If all you get is a long greek or latin name and a grounding from the FAA, what's the point? A realy doctor should be able to run through the probabilities and risks with you.

I'm curious about the car accident. You said you didn't have anything diagnosed. Is it possible you sustained a head injury? My sister has had fairly significant personality changes after a head injury in a car accident, but there was no question she'd had a good concussion, so the following may not be relevant to you. The tough thing was that the doctors said she was fine and we really weren't looking for signs of trouble. Because she's grown and away from the familly, it took a couple years to piece together that she has had significant damage.

You always think of people with brain damage as being significantly impaired, but in her case it's more of a personallity change and some mild trouble with memory. She's also not great at things like having good judgement and planning ahead anymore.

There's no medical intervention that can help her out, it's just a matter of adjusting to the new reality. There's no reason she can't live just as happy and a productive life as before, she just has to adjust a bit. For example, she needs to write things down more so she doesn't forget.

I think if I was in your situation I'd be freaking out a bit. I think the most important thing is to see a doctor and make sure that there isn't something underlying the change. If the change is likely to be permanent, then you need to make sure you and your familly are adapting to the new reality. You aren't necessarily better or worse than you were before, just different. You need to be able to accept the change and adapt. Not all of your old ways of doing things will work in the new reality.
 
It is unsettling when just talking to a doctor can put one under the microscope. I wish we had our privacy back.:blueplane:
ApacheBob
 
Unregistered said:
Some of the discussions have brought up the fact that my personality has changed in the past few years: like from organized to disorganized, from pre-emptive to procrastinator, from sharp focus on problems to somewhat scatter-brained.
Click to expand...

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being disorganized, procrastinating,
and scatter brained. I've been trying to make that transition from being
overly detailed and anal. I find the new approach a lot less stressful.

DON'T go for any voodoo tests.

RT
 
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