Question for Dr. Chien... (likely beaten to death)

[WILLYD]

Hey,

Years ago I was diagnosed with Depression and ADD at the same time. I was going through a rough patch in my life and was really pushed by my parents to seek help. I began seeing a nurse practitioner and he prescribed an anti-depressant and adderall. I took them for about a year and quit taking them after I got better. I've been off the medication for just about for years now. Recently I decided to pursue flying as it has always been something I wanted to do. I applied for a medical with an AME and have yet to have an appointment. I was reading up on the medical stuff and found that the depression and ADD in my past will likely prevent me from obtaining any sort of license. Is there anything I can do?

 

[SkyHog]

Hey,

Years ago I was diagnosed with Depression and ADD at the same time. I was going through a rough patch in my life and was really pushed by my parents to seek help. I began seeing a nurse practitioner and he prescribed an anti-depressant and adderall. I took them for about a year and quit taking them after I got better. I've been off the medication for just about for years now. Recently I decided to pursue flying as it has always been something I wanted to do. I applied for a medical with an AME and have yet to have an appointment. I was reading up on the medical stuff and found that the depression and ADD in my past will likely prevent me from obtaining any sort of license. Is there anything I can do?

Not the good doc here, and he may have an option to get you to third class, but I will tell you that the FAA has determined that they'd rather you be unhealthy than to seek treatment for your maladies

As such, having treated ADD is worse than not having it diagnosed or treated at all.

Go sport pilot and wait it out until the FAA finally loses all rights to determine medical fitness. You may find Sport Pilot a better option anyway

 

[frfly172]

Sport pilot.

 

[flyingron]

If you really had ADD, you likely still have it. It doesn't get better and certainly not just because you medicated for a while and stopped. The NP was unconsionably reckless. You're going to have a very hard time getting certified with those diagnoses (and medications) in your history. You certainly don't want to blunder into a third class exam.

You need to talk to a good HIMS AME. There are two on this board. Dr. Chien and lbfjrmd.

 

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

If you want an FAA medical, you will have to do the testing to prove to the FAA's satisfaction that the ADD diagnosis was all a big mistake and you don't actually have it after all. Be prepared to spend money.
See attached. May or may not be the current edition.
Note: I ain't no doctor.

 

[flyingron]

By the way the core test battery ran over $1200 about a decade ago when I had a friend that had to go through it for another reason (the list of particulars is slightly different and since he wasn't ADD they didn't worry about drug testing him). Insurance will not cover this. The neurospsych evaluation is going to take as many sessions with you as the provider thinks is necessary to understand your situation. It could take a few visits.

 

[bbchien]

WILLYD:

Well, when you have depression, you do have ADD really by definition because during depression, Cognition isn't right. So attentional problems abound.

However, unless you had competent psychiatrist at that time, who could clearly separate the two issues (and it sounds like you had the lease qualified practitioner to write you powerful stuff), you will have to have it sorted by a HIMS current psychiatrist and a HIMS current neuropsychologist. These professionals are not published- we are not to disclose the ever changing list on pain of being dismissed.

So what FAA wants you to do, is to engage a HIMS AME (that list is published), have him gather the record, do a due diligence on the record for whatever other landmines lie therein, refer you to the two specialists, and if you have favorable evaluations (...and Not dysthymic depression - a "APN doing psychiatry" may have HEARD of that, but maybe not). and if you outscore cognitively the bottom 15ht percentile of age matched aviators, then the FAA will allow you to be issued. If you have it all, and the HIMS AME thinks "its a go", then you apply. Why? if you get denies, you lose the ability forever to do light sport aviation.

This takes FRUSTRATION resistance, and a $6,500 to $7,000 war chest. The two specialists are about $3,000 apiece and will not act without your entire record.

**

The CFI side of me wants to know how much you weigh. It's relevant to "light sport flying" or not. You can get the entire light sport license for about $7,000 total cost. Day only, 2 seats, Visual weather conditions, limited to 120 knots airspeed.

Which you do depends on your stamina for doing "the waiver" which I have described above. No, the agency NEVER waives the Waiver.

Dr. Bruce