Never EVER select "anxiety" with the FAA
 

Hey everyone,

Even if you're an honest person, some advice: NEVER click the radio button in FAA MedXpress that reveals you have been treated for anxiety. You will regret it!

I thought I would be Mr. Honest, because I saw a therapist for some anxiety, and the FAA has cost me thousands of dollars and put me through bureaucratic hell to prove I'm not a suicidal maniac.

The FAA is inept, outdated and ineffective, and you will pay a steep price for your honesty.

NEVER click that "anxiety" button!

Happy flying,
Chrid

That is idiotic advice.

It would have cost you more if you lied on the form.

The FAA does need to evolve on issues like anxiety and others as they did with depression. With the severe consequence known the problems never get address. That’s not good.
Depression and anxiety are a natural part of human life.

Bad advice. They will quite literally send you to prison if they find out...

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/p...dictments.html

Better to do another career than to do federal prison.

They actually tried to evolve with some policy changes, and then the germanwings thing happened. Now the bureaucrats are running scared, and I can understand why.

But the good news is that you will get fully cleared once your temporary, situational depression/anxiety is fully resolved. Obviously they need to verify that, can't just take your word for it. Unfortunately if you have a chronic mental health problem, that's a no-go, as it should be. Depression/anxiety is very likely to degrade your piloting performance, even discounting the rare risk of suicide-by-plane.

Bureaucrats have never been known for their willingness to stray even slightly outside of the box, and coming now from a generation where public schools have been known to have banned the playing of dodgeball because of fears it will ‘increase aggressiveness and lead to injury’, I can imagine it getting worse in the future.

What it would require, IMHO, is a process by which the individual would agree to subject themselves to the sort of scrutiny military flyers on the HRP/PRP/Nuclear Surety program routinely endure where their every medical encounter is monitored and their commanders/supervisors/coworkers are expected to inform and get them evaluated if they behave less than ‘normal’ and they are in fact temporarily removed from their duties on a no-fault basis if they are going through life stresses that may be too difficult for them to compartmentalise (divorce/serious illness or death of a loved one/etc).

That would also require at least HIMS levels of medical observation and followup and an assurance of HIPPA levels of confidentiality at all levels, including by coworkers and supervisors.

Unfortunately selling that program to ANYONE other than those who would otherwise lose their jobs without it would be real tough. It’s a perceived rusk (and certainly a PR risk) that the bureaucrats don’t believe they need. But such a program would have likely avoided the Germanwings disaster. It certainly wasn’t’ as If that pilot’s problems hadn’t been identified. They’d just never been reported to anyone empowered to do anything about the risk he posed.

Coukd such a program work? Sure. Will we ever see it in the civilian world? Doubtful.

That's pretty much the way it is when dealing with any part of the government.

Maybe people shouldn't be running for therapy every time there is a traumatic event half way across the country that doesn't involve them in any way.

Yes...I have a problem with 'cry rooms' at college campuses when there was a bomb threat at a school across the country. If people are that fragile of a mindset then they are not people we need in the cockpits of airplanes IMO.

Absolutely. You don't need someone who is going to be shocked into immobility by a rapid decompression, or an engine out, or an FMS going tango uniform. That's when you need them at their best. The laws of aerodynamics don't allow you a time out to compose yourself.