Licensing with past substance abuse/ mental illness 10 years ago

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throwaway3993

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Hi all,

I am currently a medical student but was looking at state licensing apps because I heard that some states may look into your health records. Long story short when I was 19 I abused MDMA and ended up being hospitilized and treated for possible bipolar disorder and substance abuse. I stopped doing any illegal drugs after the diagnosis and remained under treatment for BPD for about 2 years. I got a new psychiatrist who felt I was likely misdiagnosed and my main problem was substance abuse. at 21 I stopped being treated for BPD and as soon as I stopped taking those meds my life drastically improved, and I ended up working hard enough to get into medical school eventually. I am currently 27 have not had a single issue with substance abuse since 18 and have not been under treatment for any type of mental illness since 21. By the time I apply for my license there will be even more time.

On most of the state licensing apps I have seen it asks about this type of thing in the context of "in the past 5 years have you" but for New Mexico it asks about substance abuse in terms of ever in your entire life have you abused any drugs.
What happens when I say yes to that question? Will I not get licensed in that state? Is there a way I can be licensed in a different state that says "in the past 5 years" and then just transfer it to New Mexico without having to say to that question?

I am so embarrassed about what happened to me and regret my decisions every day. I genuinely do not have mental health issues and do not drink or do drugs. Nobody who meets me today would ever believe I made these decisions in my past.

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Be honest. State medical boards pretty much have carte blanche via state law to ask such questions (whether they should or not is another topic), and also the nearly unrestricted ability to take away your license if you get caught lying by not answering truthfully. The NM medical board may make you provide extra documentation or jump through other hoops to get and keep a license, but that is much better than losing a license for lyin or being required to participate in expensive remediation or rehab you don't need. I doubt they will outright deny you licensure based on your story. If they denied a license to every single clinician who did dumb things as a teenager there would be a lot fewer clinicians.

That said, I'm not an attorney. You may consider getting a free initual consultation with an attorney with experience representing physicians in licensure matters just to be safe. Most attorneys will do this or at least tell you on the phone if it's worth talking about. Then if a medical board decides to screw you, you have someone who can potentially represent you and is familiar with your situation.
 
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This has nothing to do with psychiatry residencies, which is what this forum is. If you go to the General Residency forum here, this question has come up before and you can find other threads addressing this.
 
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Yes, but ironically, every psychiatrist I've ever heard pipe up with their answer in both real life & on this board, knew the actual answer to this question. There are threads & threads on this topic & it only gets an accurate answer here. Wonder why.

@hamstergang if you feel this belongs elsewhere, the best action is to tag the moderator listed for this forum & explain why.

My 2 cents is that while it is unfortunate the wrong topic in the wrong forum perhaps, an important question for many aspiring/current physicians has been answered accurately. We even gained some information about NM specifically perhaps. I hope other psychiatrists see this since they are often the ones asked this by physician colleagues with concerns re: mental health, substance abuse, licensing.
 
Yes, but ironically, every psychiatrist I've ever heard pipe up with their answer in both real life & on this board, knew the actual answer to this question. There are threads & threads on this topic & it only gets an accurate answer here. Wonder why.

@hamstergang if you feel this belongs elsewhere, the best action is to tag the moderator listed for this forum & explain why.

My 2 cents is that while it is unfortunate the wrong topic in the wrong forum perhaps, an important question for many aspiring/current physicians has been answered accurately. We even gained some information about NM specifically perhaps. I hope other psychiatrists see this since they are often the ones asked this by physician colleagues with concerns re: mental health, substance abuse, licensing.


Well what is the actual answer? Talk to a lawyer?
 
@hamstergang if you feel this belongs elsewhere, the best action is to tag the moderator listed for this forum & explain why.
I wasn't asking for the thread to be moved. I was telling OP where they could find answers to their question.
 
Well what is the actual answer? Talk to a lawyer?

Wolgang covered it very well. I'm partial to the threads I have participated in. Search my post history for "mental health licensing."

There is no size fits all EXCEPT

NEVER LIE TO MEDICAL BOARD

However, as you might guess having read some apps, what boards ask to know and how you might answer varies and might be subject to interpretation when it comes to telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

When you must tell a truth that might hurt you (and telling the medical board the truth is a must, and unfortunately when it includes mental health/substance abuse it might hurt you):

IMHO that is WHY attorneys exist.

To figure out that nuanced place where you did not lie and you presented the best truth someone was entitled to.

If you are not comfortable with my or anyone's breakdown on this in an SDN thread in a vacuum with your form & pen, then I suggest you get advice from people who make a living getting a good result for people in your exact same situation. Never had an experience with an attorney that wasn't worth the money, but guess it depends on what for, and to my knowledge avoiding any amount of medical board trouble ever is one of those things.

Other advice will be between other extremes:

You don't have to tell them any of that even when they ask, tell those punks to suck it.

Just sign over all of your healthcare information since birth & trust the system will see to the public good and it will go well for you too.

You probably came here for the middle ground. Middle ground is it varies, read SDN, come to peace with your Gods when you fill it out using essentially word of mouth, or get a professional opinion. We are professionals, we fill out legal forms, we are not legal-form filling-out professionals.

I am partial to my own views on this.

You have to define what "abused drugs" means in your particular example.

This is why an attorney who does this is the way to go.
 
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Sometimes getting a license in one "permissive" state and then applying later in another "strict" one can work well even when nothing about the forms or filling them out changes, ie past successful uneventful licensure tends to ease the way in a lot of stories.

HOWEVER

There are people who despite having a long time license, currently well controlled mental health issues, meeting standards for that by jumping through years of PHP hoops, and then transferred to a different state, had to jump through them all again only worse, even in a more "permissive" state.

It's a horror story. All told I have learned:

Get an attorney whenever you have a dealing with the medical board and anything about it makes your butt hole twitch.

Discretion, discretion, discretion. Get the help you need but documentation about your personal life is the enemy. The personal life of a doctor is always the enemy.

Get medical/mental/legal health professionals that know how to protect you, your privacy, and have discretion in documentation.

The PHP is the enemy until YOUR personal psychiatrist not from your school/employer AND your medical-board experienced lawyer have said otherwise.
 
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