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NAVY OCS and ADD medication

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a_question

New Member
Swanee said:
You should find both the NAMI requirements and the waiver guide for SNAs, and know the rules verbatim wrt ADHD and the meds you took. You need to be ready to show in writing where you are either A) good to go, B) eligible for a waiver or C) (the not good one) NPQ.

I don't know where you can find the NAMI physical requirements or the waiver guide- I would suggest the NAMI/NOMI website.

No one cares more about your situation than you do. Remember that. Do your prep work and know what you need before you show up. Don't expect that someone else will know better than you do. Ask questions.
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From checking the NAMI waiver (on their website, easy to find) it appears that I'm in the zone to be considered for a waiver - off meds for years (1 year min), asymtomatic (not sure how bad I was in the first place), and have done extremely well academically without the medications. There is no automatic "good to go" for a past ADHD diagnosis from what I can tell. Having said that, the waiver guide was not very detailed at all. The doctor at MEPS pulled out a binder and asked me a number of questions about the kind of meds I was on, how many times per day I took them, etc, and there was nothing like that here. I would have expected more detail for flight related medicine, so I don't think I'm getting the full story from this pdf.

Unfortunately the people I saw years ago were kind of diagnosis happy in retrospect and according to some clinical psychologists that I've discussed this matter with, so I hope that their BS in my records doesn't hurt. The doc at MEPS basically realized they were full of crap before I was done giving him the story, let's hope if I'm selected that whoever ends up working on me will feel the same. Thanks for your help!
 
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exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
a_question said:
So I was on them from 19 to 22, got a doctor's note, went to MEPS last week, told them that ADHD (and two other diagnoses) were bullshit, the doc agreed, I've had an great GPA without them. They didn't request a waiver and said I was ok, nor did anyone have to look at my records (other than the civilian psychologist who wrote the letter).

My question now is this: will this crap come up again during flight physicals prior to/at OCS should I be accepted? Might there be another waiver in my future, or is it over and done with since I made it through MEPS?
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Clearing MEPS doesn't mean anything as MEPS cannot clear prospective officers only N3M can, so did N3M clear you, if so that is one step in the right direction, now I have seen people in your circumstance cleared by N3M
 
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a_question

New Member
NavyOffRec said:
Clearing MEPS doesn't mean anything as MEPS cannot clear prospective officers only N3M can, so did N3M clear you, if so that is one step in the right direction, now I have seen people in your circumstance cleared by N3M
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I'm applying both Air Force and Navy at the moment, and my recruiter said that an N3M letter is what he'd have to give to the AF so I don't have to go to MEPS twice (apparently that isn't what the AF wanted, but that's another story). We had to send in a letter from a civilian doc as well as a statement I had written explaining my side of the story before he was even allowed to send me to MEPS. Once that was processed (somewhere in Maryland, as I recall) I was signed up and went. They told me that I passed, and here I am.

When you say "cleared by N3M" what exactly do you mean?
 
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exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
a_question said:
I'm applying both Air Force and Navy at the moment, and my recruiter said that an N3M letter is what he'd have to give to the AF so I don't have to go to MEPS twice (apparently that isn't what the AF wanted, but that's another story). We had to send in a letter from a civilian doc as well as a statement I had written explaining my side of the story before he was even allowed to send me to MEPS. Once that was processed (somewhere in Maryland, as I recall) I was signed up and went. They told me that I passed, and here I am.

When you say "cleared by N3M" what exactly do you mean?
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your MEPS physical will get sent to N3M, they will then review and send a letter back saying you are PQ "cleared", or NPQ "not cleared", or ask for more info.
 
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a_question

New Member
NavyOffRec said:
That is good, the next step would be getting cleared by NAMI during the flight physical part.
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So I was told that I was given a waiver in my N3M. I assume that changes nothing, and NAMI still has to clear me separately? He said that a flight physical is more about how you are now than your past and that it shouldn't be a problem, but that seems to contradict what I've found elsewhere.
 
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exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
a_question said:
So I was told that I was given a waiver in my N3M. I assume that changes nothing, and NAMI still has to clear me separately? He said that a flight physical is more about how you are now than your past and that it shouldn't be a problem, but that seems to contradict what I've found elsewhere.
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I have seen guys cleared by N3M for things like asthma and then not be cleared by NAMI, just because you are cleared by N3M doesn't mean NAMI will, different docs different views.
 
AllAmerican75

AllAmerican75

FUBIJAR
None
Contributor
Hey, if any of you guys have any questions, I was hit with the NAMI Whammy rigamarole while at OCS and can tell you what you might expect.
 
AllAmerican75

AllAmerican75

FUBIJAR
None
Contributor
You can search through the forums, I have quite a few threads but the short version is that I took ritalin as a kid, stopped my freshman year of high school because it didn't have any effect any more, and then went about my merry way. When it came time to go to OCS, it had been so long since I had seen the doc that prescribed the meds that I had trouble getting my records. Suffice it to say, the docs at OCS put me through a number of tests and even though I didn't come back as being a definite ADHD case, they worried enough that they NPQed me.The worst part is that I found a letter from my doctor buried in a stack of correspondence a few days later with his opinion being that whatever had manifested itself in my brain as a child probably wasn't ADHD and that I was fine and good to go to flight school. Sucks balls, but them's the breaks.

BLUF: Have all of your documentation in order before you go. Start talking to docs now and stop at no expense to ensure you have multiple letters in hand saying that you're asymptomatic and no longer need meds.
 
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