Hi! My name is samuel and i want to be a naval aviator. I am worried tho cause i have symptoms of adhd. I am good at most subjects in school except for math. I am not good at math however i can do basic adding subtracting, division and multiplication. If i get diagnosed with adhd will i still be able to apply to ocs? Thanks in advance
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
Naval aviation
- Thread starter Aviadmo
- Start date
Take some time to use the search function and educate yourself on the issues you have raised. There is a treasure trove of information here that I promise you, will answer your questions and put you in touch with other aspiring Naval Aviators who are facing similar hurdles. Good luck to you !!!
Don’t get diagnosed with ADHD. If you have an issue with your concentration, try harder. If you feel active, go for a run, exercise, play…trust me, you can work through it as generations of people have…but DO NOT get an ADHD diagnosis.
Don't self diagnose with ADHD. Being fidgety and distracted is part of being a teen. If you haven't been started down the process by a school yet then you may just be fidgety and distractible. But if you have been started down the process then go with it. Getting diagnosed and then provided with treatment has been beneficial to many folks I know.
As someone who has seen a lot of Sailors show up to their first command with debilitating undiagnosed mental health issues, this is really bad advice. Got it, ADHD is over-diagnosed, but giving that advice to someone on the internet that you've never met is irresponsible.
I agree, and I hope the OP, even if young, is wise enough to get that, but there are significant tools available to help people with ADHD symptoms to have a successful and positive life without confirmation (often career damaging) or chemicals from a professional. Again, I understand and fully accept your point, but I am equally disturbed by a profession that is presently pushing an agenda that everyone is incapable of going through life without “counseling.”
I personally think that the rest of the world needs to get to the point with mental health care as they are with physical health care. If I had a broken finger or a sinus infection everyone would agree I should go to the Doc and get it treated and that I shouldn't suck it up or try and live with it. We as a society need to get to that same point with mental health so people can go get the help they need without a stigma surrounding counseling. If a few sessions talking with a mental health professional are helpful why shouldn't people get counseling?
As I said earlier, I know several folks with varying degrees of mental health issues. They've all benefited from receiving professional help.
Again, I agree and have no issue with that. NAMI, and a good deal of military medicine does not. After getting injured in Iraq, dealing with the dead and dying, and having two friends commit suicide because of the war I was rightfully diagnosed with PTSD (and in a late-to-the-game co-diagnosis of ADHD!). For over a year I was not allowed to carry a rifle or go to the range and was passed over twice for promotion. No I was already old and fat and such so having my rather erratic “career” ended was not a terrible fate. But, let’s be clear, until military medicine agrees with you a mental health diagnosis is a non-starter.
As to the rest of it, I refused to take any drugs for my diagnosis and I quickly stopped going to a military “counselor” with zero combat experience. I didn’t need to be to be told I was sad, upset, and so on…I was quite aware. I did spend quite a long time with a combat veteran “rap group” (and still help out) to get beyond the issues and find mental peace. My point is this…humans have a remarkable ability to heal their own minds, but “healing” is not a goal of the greater psychological profession - diagnosis is.
I don't think many clinical psychologists or psychiatrists would agree with that statement. If that were true, therapies and medications wouldn't exist. In some cases, being on medication for the rest of your life is exactly what healing means. You're universalizing your own suboptimal experience, which isn't helpful.
Humans also have a remarkable ability to enter into profound states of denial, not follow legitimate treatment plans, and go off their meds... usually to the detriment of everyone around them. We see that mindset all the time on this site in threads started by people like the OP.
We don't have a shortage of otherwise physically qualified applicants to aviation accessions. Those with unresolved mental health issues should be screened out and given a path forward, should their circumstances warrant one. That's the whole point of having physical qualification standards, and Johnny OP is the least qualified to determine whether his symptoms are worth disclosing or getting a diagnosis.
Off my soapbox.
I certainly can't argue with your experience and I know that many of our vets got sub-optimal mental health care, especially when the forever wars where young. My impression is that a lot of folks have learned a lot more about how to better support vets with PTSD to avoid experiences like you had. And there's a lot more vet groups outside of formal VA care to supplement.
Also agree that military medicine hasn't kept up with mental health care and it can off lead to career implications. But, I'd say that I'd hope that people would chose their own health over a career where undiagnosed and untreated issues put themselves and others at risk.
First statement: We’ll have to agree to disagree. is also a profound difference in the two studies.
Second statement: No, no Brett, I am not. know it is hard for you to hear this from another human being, but you are wrong.
I have noted it here already, I have no axe to grind against the profession and I encourage all people to seek the help they need if they need it, but I also recommend always looking for a second (or third) diagnosis especially when it comes to certain mental health matters.
Absolutely agree, 100%.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
I would be more open to recommend people see mental health professionals if I saw more than them throwing meds at people after 1 or 2 30 min sessions, too often medications just mask the problem and do not fix it, then they feel they are fine and quit meds and the problem is back.
I have a friend of mine that saw patients until he passed away, and he hated prescribing meds, he took the time to dive into the real problem and looked at ways to avoid meds and still fix the problem, he always said there will be people that need meds, but there are far more that won't if we listen and solve the real problem.
I’m not here to argue with you, but you just threw an entire profession under the bus and you’re painting with a mile wide brush on a topic with which you apparently have very little expertise.
I get that you “feel” that way, but that is not what I did nor what I intended. I have more experience than you might think, both academic and professionally.
I think you and I are quite close together in what we think, you just happen to be a glass half-empty kind of guy and I’m a glass half-full…or it could be the other way around. Not sure.