Weird mental health situation

[Gustafel]

Hi everyone! It’s my first post here, so glad to meet everyone! Sorry for my first post to be a novel, but it’s a slightly sticky and pretty weird situation. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read!

So, I’m in a somewhat weird situation with my mental health records. I took some meds I know are associated with ADHD from ages 6-12 or 11. I turn 27 in September so I’m a little hazy on the details. Anyhow, I have some weight to lose so I’m trying to get my ducks in a row for all that stuff so I can be ready to go when I hit the magic number. Here’s where things get interesting.

I didn’t even remember where I went for my psychiatry appointments so I had to ask my mom. She told me where, and said she believes I “have” aspergers syndrome. I called the hospital and it turns out the records are destroyed and they don’t even have a record of me even being a patient there.

So, I did my homework and found some hints that aspergers is sometimes waiverable after consulting with a DoD behavioral health consultant. Nothing solid, and there’s a fair amount of naysayers. BUT, and this is a big but, I took an online AQ test, which is often used to screen for autism, and my scores were even less autistic than your standard neurotypical. PLUS, my work history has been mostly in retail. I haven’t been on any medication of any sort for any reason or received psychiatric care since I was 12, never needed any accomodations at school, etc. Plus, Aspergers has been rolled into Autism Spectrum Disorder as of 2013 and no longer exists. Technically existing diagnoses are supposed to be grandfathered in, but I never went to a doctor to do that.

So, is there a case to be made to the waiver authority that since there’s no proof of me having anything, that I could just get a waiver for, say, ADHD? I considered not mentioning the Aspergers part to MEPS for like a minute before deciding my worst nightmare is I go to OCS and while I’m there the clearance investigators work their black magic and dig something up that only they could find, then felony charges, DD, etc.

From conversations with some friends who went into psychology and psychiatry, they were surprised when I mentioned it. I don’t think it would be hard to find a psychiatrist who would officially declare me “not autistic” and I might even go big or go home and just go to the office where my old psychiatrist used to work (now she’s gone without a trace) and get them to do it. BUT I don’t know the system well enough to know if that would be overplaying my hand when I could just scoot under the radar with no records of any sort.

So, please and thank you! Any help is appreciated!

 

[taxi1]

I'm not a doctor but...

Sounds to me like you don't actually know what you had, your mom not being an MD, you took some particular meds for a while at the turn of the century, and the records are destroyed if they ever existed. Your record since then suggests to this non-MD that someone screwed up your diagnosis as the most likely sequence of events.

What did MEPS tell you?

 

[Gustafel]

Haven’t gone to MEPS yet. I still have some weight to lose. This thread is just me getting all my ducks in a row so that when I make weight I’ll have everything else ready to go.

Someone screwing up my diagnosis was actually an angle I thought of, too. To hear my dad tell it my mom took me to a string of psychiatrists until she found one who would diagnose me with something.

I really hope when I do go that MEPS can just hand-wave everything away since all records are gone, because I find the idea really ironic I could be forced to jump through a million hoops to disqualify myself just so I could then beg for a waiver.

 

[taxi1]

Who have you told, and what did you tell them?

Someone screwing up my diagnosis was actually an angle I thought of, too. To hear my dad tell it my mom took me to a string of psychiatrists until she found one who would diagnose me with something.

If you told them anything, I'd tell them that too.

 

[Gustafel]

As of right now, I’ve only discussed it with a handful of past teachers who don’t remember the exact diagnosis, and a handful of my friends. By coincidence, a former teacher now teaches at pensacola college right by the air station.

As far as “official” people, my conversation with the recruiting screener was basically just her telling me what weight I needed to be before officially contacting a recruiter. As far as I know nobody else knows except an extremely vague maybe on a National Guard officer my mom used to be friends with when she covered the local base for the newspaper.

What I’ve told everyone I’ve talked to is I know I’ve taken meds before, and it may or may not have been for aspergers syndrome, and there may or may not have been a proper diagnosis, since the records are gone.

 

[taxi1]

So you took a particular med between the ages of 6-11, for reasons unknown to you, and no record of why remains (you checked). That’s all you know therefore that’s all you say if it comes up for some reason. You don’t guess at what it was for, you were only 11 and not a doctor then or now. Taking a med suggests a diagnosis, but it is not a diagnosis. You feel fine now anyway. Don’t go around volunteering what you might have had.

Dear Old Mom is an unreliable narrator, leave her wild guesses and Munchausen Syndrome out of it.

That’s my 2 cents

Best of luck!

 

[Gustafel]

That’s pretty much what I plan to do. The only fear I have is of the FBI pulling some sort of black magic and finding something I couldn’t. I agree it’s not even misrepresenting or trying to cover up by not mentioning aspergers because I just have no way of knowing or finding out.

Plus, it ought to count for something I’ve been off all meds and psychiatric appointments since I came off my meds at like 11-12.

 

[Brett327]

That’s pretty much what I plan to do. The only fear I have is of the FBI pulling some sort of black magic and finding something I couldn’t. I agree it’s not even misrepresenting or trying to cover up by not mentioning aspergers because I just have no way of knowing or finding out.

Plus, it ought to count for something I’ve been off all meds and psychiatric appointments since I came off my meds at like 11-12.

The FBI doesn't do your background check, and the agency that does isn't going to pore over your medical records. That's not the purpose of a background investigation for a security clearance. I agree w/ Taxi. I wouldn't bring it up.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Hi everyone! It’s my first post here, so glad to meet everyone! Sorry for my first post to be a novel, but it’s a slightly sticky and pretty weird situation. I appreciate anyone taking the time to read!

So, I’m in a somewhat weird situation with my mental health records. I took some meds I know are associated with ADHD from ages 6-12 or 11. I turn 27 in September so I’m a little hazy on the details. Anyhow, I have some weight to lose so I’m trying to get my ducks in a row for all that stuff so I can be ready to go when I hit the magic number. Here’s where things get interesting.

I didn’t even remember where I went for my psychiatry appointments so I had to ask my mom. She told me where, and said she believes I “have” aspergers syndrome. I called the hospital and it turns out the records are destroyed and they don’t even have a record of me even being a patient there.

So, I did my homework and found some hints that aspergers is sometimes waiverable after consulting with a DoD behavioral health consultant. Nothing solid, and there’s a fair amount of naysayers. BUT, and this is a big but, I took an online AQ test, which is often used to screen for autism, and my scores were even less autistic than your standard neurotypical. PLUS, my work history has been mostly in retail. I haven’t been on any medication of any sort for any reason or received psychiatric care since I was 12, never needed any accomodations at school, etc. Plus, Aspergers has been rolled into Autism Spectrum Disorder as of 2013 and no longer exists. Technically existing diagnoses are supposed to be grandfathered in, but I never went to a doctor to do that.

So, is there a case to be made to the waiver authority that since there’s no proof of me having anything, that I could just get a waiver for, say, ADHD? I considered not mentioning the Aspergers part to MEPS for like a minute before deciding my worst nightmare is I go to OCS and while I’m there the clearance investigators work their black magic and dig something up that only they could find, then felony charges, DD, etc.

From conversations with some friends who went into psychology and psychiatry, they were surprised when I mentioned it. I don’t think it would be hard to find a psychiatrist who would officially declare me “not autistic” and I might even go big or go home and just go to the office where my old psychiatrist used to work (now she’s gone without a trace) and get them to do it. BUT I don’t know the system well enough to know if that would be overplaying my hand when I could just scoot under the radar with no records of any sort.

So, please and thank you! Any help is appreciated!

I always tell people to tell the truth but you have to know what the truth is, that means you need to have documentation to back up what you say.

Your mom may think you have Aspergers but since she isn't a doctor and there isn't a documentation at this point it is just her opinion, just like if she said you have the highest IQ out of the family if there is no proof it is just her opinion.

If you start talking about ADHD, Aspergers or other things and you don't have any documentation you will start a years long process of trying to have a chance to apply, and if by chance a doctor says you have Aspergers you can forget about trying to get in.

 

[Gustafel]

So for the MEPS prescreening form should I tell the recruiter I went to counseling and had meds but the documentation is gone? I might be able to dig up a record of destruction of my medical records if I talk to the right people.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

So for the MEPS prescreening form should I tell the recruiter I went to counseling and had meds but the documentation is gone? I might be able to dig up a record of destruction of my medical records if I talk to the right people.

you can do what you want, but if you disclose something that you can't back up with documentation, and by documentation I mean medical documents with a doctors notes and diagnosis, you could be in for a long process that may not end well for you.

A record of destruction mean almost nothing as they don't know what was in the destroyed documents.

 

[Gustafel]

you can do what you want, but if you disclose something that you can't back up with documentation, and by documentation I mean medical documents with a doctors notes and diagnosis, you could be in for a long process that may not end well for you.

A record of destruction mean almost nothing as they don't know what was in the destroyed documents.

Right. I guess it just makes me really nervous to think of not mentioning it, since I know SNAs need a TS clearance, and that gets investigated by the pros. I guess I could always say I just forgot all about that since it was so long ago (not even technically a lie) but the risk of a DD is pretty terrifying.

 

[robav8r]

Right. I guess it just makes me really nervous to think of not mentioning it, since I know SNAs need a TS clearance, and that gets investigated by the pros. I guess I could always say I just forgot all about that since it was so long ago (not even technically a lie) but the risk of a DD is pretty terrifying.

No, they do not.

Consider this: if a tree falls in the forest, but no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Sound requires a source, a receiver, and a medium. Perhaps your medical history, or lack thereof, is lacking a "source."

 

[HAL Pilot]

You’re worrying too much. Your Mom is not a doctor and sounds kind of crazy. Your Dad confirmed this. Your Dad said you went to multiple doctors because your Mom was looking for a problem that didn’t exist. There are no records. Your Dad said you were never diagnosed.

IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. FORGET ABOUT IT AND DON’T EVER MENTION IT AGAIN.

This is not lying and not hiding anything. It will never come up in a security clearance interview unless they interview your Mom (unlikely as they want unbiased interviews). If it does, your Dad can tell them he told you it was Mom’s witch hunt and you never had any mental issues or diagnosis. They at will be the end of it. From what you are saying, that’s the truth.

Quit overthinking this or you’ll overthink yourself out of any chance of being a SNA or even an officer.

Forget about it. Don’t talk about it.

In fact, ask the Mods to just delete this thread. (They probably won’t but you can always ask). Not that this thread will come back to haunt you but it might help you to stop stressing over this.

 

[picklesuit]

N-O spells Naval Opportunity. There is zero reason your mom’s Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) should be entered into your medical record. It’s her mental illness, not yours.