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End of the line

Jae.brown

Member
Greetings everyone,

I received some disappointing news recently and wanted to share my thoughts with you all. I recently graduated with my degree a month ago, but had been in talks with a recruiter for the past six months or so arranging the OAR and other stuff for the application. It was only a recent goal of mine, but I really wanted to serve as a SWO. I know a lot of people rag on SWO as a terrible designation, but I welcomed the challenge and the experience to grow as a leader and as a person. The opportunity to travel around the world appealed to me, as well as having a relatively cool job.

For the past several months, my recruiter and I have been going back and forth requesting various medical documents, getting an updated diagnosis, and preparing for MEPS. The biggest hurdle my recruiter predicted was going to be my diagnosis of depression and ADHD back in junior year of high school (2015). I was not a motivated student in high school, and was dealing with the deaths of two grandparents in a relatively quick time frame that year. I continued to use medications through sophomore year of college, although I quickly began to wane down and come off of them completely as the side effects were quite nasty. Additionally, I was diagnosed as a teenager and I feel like I've since grown out of those problems and have a good mental health. I've been off both medications for the past 2 to 2.5 years, and received an updated diagnosis from a psychologist clearing me of both mental health issues as well as the medications. However since my diagnosis of ADHD and depression were initially disqualifying, we opted to submit a courtesy waiver to Navy Medicine.

Ultimately, I received an email finding my application not warranted, and therefore ends my Navy journey. I'm obviously disappointed and it stings. I would give everything in the world to find myself in the sandpits at OCS with Drill Instructors and Chiefs yelling down my back, but ultimately this was not the path in life chosen for me. I still want to be a leader so I'm looking into Army OCS/ROTC as well (I've heard that their waiver process is less strict, although I'm worried I'll run into the same problems as Navy) and considering going back to grad school or law school. I'd like to use my experience in the military as an officer to strengthen my leadership skills, strengthen my personal development, and ultimately serve in the intelligence community at one of the various three-letter intelligence agencies, so I'm pursuing that angle as well. I appreciate all of the help and information I've been gotten from this site, from asking questions about daily life on a ship to the OAR, I've really learned a lot. Thank you all.

P.S. I've allegedly heard that only medical issues within the last 7 years need to be disclosed? Supposedly if I were to wait a couple more years, could I apply without having to disclose my previous mental health conditions? Is there any validity to this statement? Does a "no" on my waiver from N3M permanently disqualify me from future service?

(Apologies if this is in the wrong thread, I just thought it would be relevant because it's a discussion of health and waivers)
 

Jae.brown

Member
You're not qualified to make that determination.

No.
Understood, thank you. With my psychologist clearing me of both the medications and my mental health conditions, I had her write me a letter but apparently letters mean nothing to N3M or MEPS. How could I prove that I've gotten better?
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Okay thank you, had a suspicion it was BS. Would you happen to know if I'd be able to re-apply at a time in the future, or does this N3M decision end the Navy completely for me?
N3M ends it
Understood, thank you. With my psychologist clearing me of both the medications and my mental health conditions, I had her write me a letter but apparently letters mean nothing to N3M or MEPS. How could I prove that I've gotten better?
letters do mean something to N3M, but the condition is disqualifying because the manual says "current or history of", your history must be significant enough for N3M to say no.
 

number9

Well-Known Member
Contributor
For the past several months, my recruiter and I have been going back and forth requesting various medical documents, getting an updated diagnosis, and preparing for MEPS. The biggest hurdle my recruiter predicted was going to be my diagnosis of depression and ADHD back in junior year of high school (2015). I was not a motivated student in high school, and was dealing with the deaths of two grandparents in a relatively quick time frame that year. I continued to use medications through sophomore year of college, although I quickly began to wane down and come off of them completely as the side effects were quite nasty. Additionally, I was diagnosed as a teenager and I feel like I've since grown out of those problems and have a good mental health. I've been off both medications for the past 2 to 2.5 years, and received an updated diagnosis from a psychologist clearing me of both mental health issues as well as the medications. However since my diagnosis of ADHD and depression were initially disqualifying, we opted to submit a courtesy waiver to Navy Medicine.

Ultimately, I received an email finding my application not warranted, and therefore ends my Navy journey. I'm obviously disappointed and it stings. I would give everything in the world to find myself in the sandpits at OCS with Drill Instructors and Chiefs yelling down my back, but ultimately this was not the path in life chosen for me. I still want to be a leader so I'm looking into Army OCS/ROTC as well (I've heard that their waiver process is less strict, although I'm worried I'll run into the same problems as Navy) and considering going back to grad school or law school. I'd like to use my experience in the military as an officer to strengthen my leadership skills, strengthen my personal development, and ultimately serve in the intelligence community at one of the various three-letter intelligence agencies, so I'm pursuing that angle as well. I appreciate all of the help and information I've been gotten from this site, from asking questions about daily life on a ship to the OAR, I've really learned a lot. Thank you all.
First of all, sorry to hear about your result. I was in a somewhat similar situation to you albeit I was applying for a DCO application slot. I managed to secure a waiver, so please DM me if you want to hear about my experiences and what I did to make it through the process. Maybe it will help? To be honest I couldn't have done it without a letter from my PCP, but obviously every situation is different. In my case, I argued that I was actually misdiagnosed.
 
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