depression/anxiety in school and HPSP

[worriednow]

---

Members don't see this ad.

First year HPSP student here.

If I'm getting counseling with a school psychologist or psychiatrist while on HPSP do I tell somebody?

If you are clinically diagnosed with depression or anxiety while in school on HPSP, what happens and how does it affect the scholarship and career? What if SSRIs or benzos are prescribed?

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

First year HPSP student here.

If I'm getting counseling with a school psychologist or psychiatrist while on HPSP do I tell somebody?

If you are clinically diagnosed with depression or anxiety while in school on HPSP, what happens and how does it affect the scholarship and career? What if SSRIs or benzos are prescribed?

If you'e already done your entrance physical and been commissioned, absolutely nothing happens. Meds or not, nothing happens.

 

[worriednow]

Do you think it will affect residency competitiveness?

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

Do you think it will affect residency competitiveness?

Not unless you go around telling people.

 

[DD214_DOC]

I feel for you. I have anxiety issues as well. GAD with some social/performance anxiety and anticipatory anxiety (probably all just under GAD). I find myself blanking a lot or mixing things up when pimped, so I come off as looking like a ***** a lot. Let me know if you find anything that works. I haven't yet.

 

[former military]

Never tell the government anything....
if they find out just feign ignorance and apologize...
nothing ever good ever comes of it

 

[IgD]

I love it when people say they want to avoid getting help to protect their job. The truth is 9 times out of 10 if they get help they will be a better more productive employee. Just getting help doesn't mean you will be prescribed meds. Everyone can benefit from getting help. It used to be in psychiatry you had to have your own psychoanalysis before you graduated. Just do what you need to do and figure out the rest later.

 

[NavyFP]

I love it when people say they want to avoid getting help to protect their job. The truth is 9 times out of 10 if they get help they will be a better more productive employee. Just getting help doesn't mean you will be prescribed meds. Everyone can benefit from getting help. It used to be in psychiatry you had to have your own psychoanalysis before you graduated. Just do what you need to do and figure out the rest later.

Completely agree. You are already in the program, so you don't have to worry about your medical eligiblity. If you get help and perform better in school, you will only improve your chances of being competitive for your chosen career path. I have lost count of the number of colleagues who are on or have been on anti-depressants. No adverse action has ever been taken.

 

[sethco]

I love it when people say they want to avoid getting help to protect their job. The truth is 9 times out of 10 if they get help they will be a better more productive employee. Just getting help doesn't mean you will be prescribed meds. Everyone can benefit from getting help. It used to be in psychiatry you had to have your own psychoanalysis before you graduated. Just do what you need to do and figure out the rest later.

In their defense, the patient population I deal with (flyers) try to hide any psychological problems for fear of what it will do to their flight status. Most conditions need a waiver and are potentially disqualifying. While I might feel that everybody would be better served for grounding somebody temporarily, the flyers don't always feel this way. In fact, they will go to such great lengths to avoid us finding them out that they will avoid Life Skills and tell Flight Med everything is fine, while using Military One Source to be treated by an off-base provider. Apparently, there is nothing I can do to stop this from happening. Oh well.

 

[DD214_DOC]

This is an interesting thread. When I was diagnosed with OSA, I was told by some of the retired mil docs that I would require a med board and potentially be d/c because of it. I reported the condition within a couple months of getting the diagnosis (as far as I can remember). I have yet to hear a single thing about it after more than a year.

 

[notdeadyet]

I think a lot of the problem comes from the insane CENTCOM policy on "psychiatric medications". If you're not on a stable dose for 3mo, you can't deploy, regardless of the nature or severity of the condition. They make no distinction between the barely-function severe PTSD case and the guy with mild depression and low-back pain.

Do they have a similar blanket policy for other classes of meds, or is this psych med specific?

 

[former military]

apparently none of the other posters saw physicians decredentialed or limited in their scope of practice when coming forward in this situation.

in the military they can do with you what they want. It isn't your best interest they are concerned with. it isn't like talking to your private practice shrink or physician.

when I was a resident one of the residents was thought to have a substance abuse problem... alcohol...it was a stressful residency and he had been having marital problems too. He was accused of drinking on the job... somebody thought he was having "irish coffee". Nobody grabbed the drink for analysis or subjected him to a blood alcohol level. he was also obviously depressed.... they gave him a choice of being fired from the residency or quitting. Fired, did not mean leave the military. So instead, they sent a pgy4 gen surgery resident to go do a flight surgery or GMO gig unsupervised. They could have grabbed him, put him in rehab or had the psychs evaluate him.. have him chaperoned but they just wanted to get rid of him. they didn't care that maybe he wasn't safe for other patients they just got him away from them. He blew his brains out a few months later. The program directors did not feel one ounce of guilt or remorse and were simply glad that he didn't do it on their watch.

 

[CBMD]

Actually, just check the MOD 9 for specific info on CENTCOM restrictions (just replaced the MOD 8). Tired, you can pretend you didn't read this but it does appear to be a blanket policy, ie. they like 3 months stability for any "significant" medications, including asthma meds, BP meds, cholesterol meds, etc. (Although you can always get a waiver from the guys in Tampa - they're a great resource) The SSRI's are similar but at the same time a whole different bag of worms. They actually require flag level waivers and psych evals which can occasionally be a pain in the butt, especially if you have a new commander who doesn't think the admiral should be bothered about something so "insignificant". (Once we had our sitdown he felt much differently and we now have a fairly expeditious process in place for them.)

To the OP, you should certainly get the help necessary for your issues and if that includes medication you would be better off taking it and doing well in your classes/tests/boards/etc. than to not get it and do poorly. That being said there are potential limitations associated with mental health medications in the military or at least Navy. I've had to turn down several folks who wanted to do subs because on subs you can't be taking SSRI's for at least a year and have a clean psych eval (DMO/UMO can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what my UMO at USUHS told me). Flight can also be an issue as noted above and then there's the whole CENTCOM issue, which is actually fairly laid back comparatively speaking. These are not reasons to not get help, just an overview of the situation as it is so you can make the most informed decision possible. I've enclosed links to the mod 8 and the waiver process below. Hope this is somewhat helpful…


OK, got the MOD 9 to load it just takes a while..
http://www-nehc.med.navy.mil/postdep/Policies/Mod%209%20to%20USCENTCOM%20Policy_2008.pdf

Of note, Tab A is for DOD civilians, and the waiver form is attached at the end.

Of note the Navy waiver for SSRI's and mental health medications is actually derived from response to the OPNAVINST 3591.1E which is about small arms, but that makes sense as you'll need your small arms in CENTCOM. I beleive the flag level waiver is specific to the Navy. Here is a link to that instruction, the pertinent section is paragraph 6.c:
http://www.usnst.org/Refs/OPNAVINST 3591_1E.pdf
Still looking for the waiver forms, can't seem to find them.

 

[jabreal00]

First year HPSP student here.

If I'm getting counseling with a school psychologist or psychiatrist while on HPSP do I tell somebody?

If you are clinically diagnosed with depression or anxiety while in school on HPSP, what happens and how does it affect the scholarship and career? What if SSRIs or benzos are prescribed?

I would be very careful about revealing that information. When I was a resident, a new active duty staff was kicked out of the AF because of her "depression." She worked my program's sister AF hospital. She had to hire a lawyer because they wanted her to pay back the money they put into her training. I don't know the full circumstances and obviously I only know her side of the story. The bottom line is that the information could be used against you if someone is gunning for you.

---------------- Now playing: Lamb - Transfatty Acid (Kruder & Dorfmeister session mix) via FoxyTunes

 

[IgD]

One thing to consider- when you apply for a medical license you have to answer questions about mental health treatment. If you are dishonest and it comes to light that could be pretty serious. For example there would be a discrepancy if you indicated on your license that you had received treatment but told the military no.

 

[CBMD]

OK, so Tired is right, it doesn’t specifically state the 3 months for non psych conditions, and actually in Tab A Paragraph 6 section B sub-section 2 it does state that all personnel with medical issues which also includes dental, oral, psychological and emotional (from tab A paragraph 1) have to be in a stable phase of treatment and not likely to worsen. I realize I just used the 3 months from the psych meds portion as my definition of being stable which I think is reasonable. Regardless, it was my interpretation, and not actual instruction. So I hope we all learned something here today kids, and that is never take advice from random strangers hiding behind anonymity on an internet forum. I sure hope no-one briefed their CO in the interim J

 

[deuist]

When I was at COT, Maj Frisco told us that we were allowed to take psychotropics during medical school, but not on ADT's. I'm not sure how they would know unless you tell them.

 

[genomic girl]

Never tell the government anything....
if they find out just feign ignorance and apologize...
nothing ever good ever comes of it

I just found out i will most likely not be able to qualify for the HPSP with the Air Force because I have been on psych medicines less than a year ago. And I didnt even need the medicines and finally got around to seeing a doc and getting off of them. Ugh! 🙁

 

[genomic girl]

I just found out i will most likely not be able to qualify for the HPSP with the Air Force because I have been on psych medicines less than a year ago. And I didnt even need the medicines and finally got around to seeing a doc and getting off of them. Ugh! 🙁

i feel like i shouldnt have said anything about it!

 

[faith2]

Maybe you can try the ARMY, and try for the waiver. I do not know if this will work, but I have read various threads of people getting a medical waiver. It can not hurt to try if you did not change your mind.

i feel like i shouldnt have said anything about it!

 

[genomic girl]

Maybe you can try the ARMY, and try for the waiver. I do not know if this will work, but I have read various threads of people getting a medical waiver. It can not hurt to try if you did not change your mind.

I thought about looking into the Army or Navy now at this point. Does anyone know if the Navy or Army are more relaxed about this situation?

 

[bleeker10]

I can't comment specifically on SSRIs and waivers but I was in a similar situation last year. I applied Air Force, told them at MEPS I had inhalers as a kid and they disqualified me without even doing a PFT or CXR to see if I still have asthma. I applied next to the Army and they flew me down to BAMC with other HPSP applicants and put us through their physical. They did a PFT and CXR and said I don't have asthma anymore (which I already knew) and gave me a waiver. I didn't have to go through the MEPS BS again which was great. I am glad I got into the Army over the Air Force. I was told by my AF recruiter that the reason they didn't do any extra tests after MEPS was because they knew everyone wanted to go AF so why take the risk on testing someone who supposedly has asthma when you can easily take someone who has no problems.

 

[IgD]

I was a Navy psychiatrist and it was interesting reading through this thread. There was a recent news story that the FAA is allowing pilots to fly with anti-depressants:
http://www.militarymedicine.com/node/234

I've received information that state and local governments encourage law enforcement personnel to receive state of the art treatments including psych meds while they are on the job.

I think a lot of the policies listed above are bull**** and probably create more problems than they help. Not to mention they are a waste of time and drain resources. In my opinion there would be utility screening out individuals with severe bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, depression with ECT treatment and individuals with recurrent psych hospitalizations but not much else.

Why split hairs over whether or not a high functioning individual who needs simple outpatient treatment can be in the military or not?

 

[a1qwerty55]

Why split hairs over whether or not a high functioning individual who needs simple outpatient treatment can be in the military or not?

Because "mild depression" can evolve into severe depression and bullet through head when you are taking care of soldiers with 90% burns, missing lots of pieces and are away from home.

Plus the military is taking a lot of heat for suicides. Everytime a kid pumps a bullet through his head or downs 500 tylenols, mom and dad put in a Congressional on how little Johnny shouldn't have been downrange.

 

[a1qwerty55]

This is an interesting thread. When I was diagnosed with OSA, I was told by some of the retired mil docs that I would require a med board and potentially be d/c because of it. I reported the condition within a couple months of getting the diagnosis (as far as I can remember). I have yet to hear a single thing about it after more than a year.

Beautiful -

So marginal student based on your prior posts.
have something close to GAD,
OSA - which makes you potentially nondeployable -

The Army really scored!

 

[AF M4]

Beautiful -

So marginal student based on your prior posts.
have something close to GAD,
OSA - which makes you potentially nondeployable -

The Army really scored!

OSA? GAD? Come on down to the AF, we got a flight suit/muumuu and a fast-track MEB with your name all over it baby!

 

[IgD]

Because "mild depression" can evolve into severe depression and bullet through head when you are taking care of soldiers with 90% burns, missing lots of pieces and are away from home.

That's the theory but never seen any hard evidence that is the case. Think the military has much bigger problems (stigma, privacy, access to meaningful treatment like qWeek psychotherapy) than trying to screen fairly health people out.

Plus the military is taking a lot of heat for suicides. Everytime a kid pumps a bullet through his head or downs 500 tylenols, mom and dad put in a Congressional on how little Johnny shouldn't have been downrange.

Curiously no matter what the military does the problem seems to stay the same or get worse. I would argue it's time for a fresh approach or at least not to waste money on ineffective screening.

So recently I provided inpatient psych care for a service member. This individual was overwhelmed at work and at home. Recommended this individual receive a brief amount of time off in the same way that we do for any patient. Spoke to the military doctor responsible for the patient. The military ignored my recommendations and not surprisingly the guy didn't do well. Most companies are much more accomodating. Someone stops off at HR, employee assistance and turns in paperwork for a brief leave of absence.

 

[Anchorsaweigh]

First year HPSP student here.

If I'm getting counseling with a school psychologist or psychiatrist while on HPSP do I tell somebody?

If you are clinically diagnosed with depression or anxiety while in school on HPSP, what happens and how does it affect the scholarship and career? What if SSRIs or benzos are prescribed?

Hi, I'm struggling with the same issue… Considering looking into counseling because I think I may have anxiety or depression. I don't have a history of either but am nervous that if I go see a psychiatrist they'll want me to start taking meds. What happened with your situation? Did you keep the scholarship?

 

[DrMetal]

Hi, I'm struggling with the same issue… Considering looking into counseling because I think I may have anxiety or depression. I don't have a history of either but am nervous that if I go see a psychiatrist they'll want me to start taking meds. What happened with your situation? Did you keep the scholarship?

Doubt you'll get a response from such an old poster. In any case: go see someone, get the help that you need. No one's gonna take away your scholarship. If your condition is mild, you could benefit a lot from counseling or CBT, no one's gonna force meds on you if you really don't want them. If you do need meds, most of the garden variety anti-depressants are very commonly prescribed to active duty folks (it wont get you kicked out of the military, they wont kick you outta hpsp).

 

[bcmcCormick]

Bump! Lots of good info in here from such an old thread -
I was commissioned into the AF a few months ago, I plan on attending COT in June, and my doctor has just recently suggested to me a prescription for an SSRI.

If I'm on the medication before I arrive at COT, do I need to show a medical waiver? Or would they even check?

 

[j4pac]

Because "mild depression" can evolve into severe depression and bullet through head when you are taking care of soldiers with 90% burns, missing lots of pieces and are away from home.

Plus the military is taking a lot of heat for suicides. Everytime a kid pumps a bullet through his head or downs 500 tylenols, mom and dad put in a Congressional on how little Johnny shouldn't have been downrange.

The problem is that the military is under the false assumption that mental health problems isn't common. The assumption should instead be that everyone has mental health issues. In the military it would be closer to the truth.

In aviation it's a big problem. It's a barrier to care and it puts our fliers at risk.

 

[bcmcCormick]

Doubt you'll get a response from such an old poster. In any case: go see someone, get the help that you need. No one's gonna take away your scholarship. If your condition is mild, you could benefit a lot from counseling or CBT, no one's gonna force meds on you if you really don't want them. If you do need meds, most of the garden variety anti-depressants are very commonly prescribed to active duty folks (it wont get you kicked out of the military, they wont kick you outta hpsp).

I'm curious as to whether or not this applies to COT as well. An SSRI prescription (e.g, lexapro) is a daily regimen, so is this something that you'd be required to disclose upon arrival to COT or should you keep it to yourself and feign ignorance if it's discovered?

 

[DD214_DOC]

You know, psychiatrists don't physically shove pills down people's throats. You do have the option of declining meds.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[astrostellar]

FWIW, I've been AD for 4.5 years now and have been seeing mental health services for about 3 of those years. I spent a year and a half on and off every type of SSRI/SNRI there was, even a mood stabilizer, and I was never threatened with a MEB. Once you're in, if you're not flight status (sometimes even if you are), people rarely get booted for depression/anxiety unless they 1. try to kill themselves 2. try to kill someone else 3. are diagnosed with a definite, incompatible personality disorder or something like schizophrenia. I never even lost my clearance, and I would have been cleared to deploy on SSRIs if I wanted to.

 

[bcmcCormick]

You know, psychiatrists don't physically shove pills down people's throats. You do have the option of declining meds.

Yeah. I was on the meds for a year, then I chose to stop, and now I just started them again. I just feel better on the meds. My question was more about how to reconcile taking the meds while at COT.

 

[Helpful Troll]

Yeah. I was on the meds for a year, then I chose to stop, and now I just started them again. I just feel better on the meds. My question was more about how to reconcile taking the meds while at COT.

Did you report your previous history of medication (SSRI) and the diagnosis that led to the prescription at your MEPS/DODMERB physical?