ADHD and the military. Diagnose or not?

[OverTheHillAndDownTotherSide]

DD is 12. She has always wanted to be a pilot, potentially in the RAF.

She is currently undergoing assessment for ADHD. When we spoke with the paed about her future desires they advised we may not want the diagnosis made formal if she was potentially going to want to join the military, as they will ask if she has ever been diagnosed and would have restrictions of the answer was yes.

She’s only 12 so things could change of course but someone said it would be better to take the diagnosis and get the support and hope that by the time she might be looking to a military career she would have the ADHD under control.

I think it’s too big of a risk in terms of narrowing her potential future options.

school have said confirmation of the traits is enough to get the support she may need for exams etc.

(It’s highly likely I have ADHD as well. Have forged a good career despite the struggles but do wonder what else I could have been had I had the support at her age.)

Shes in the NHS process as well but unlikely to be seen for 2.5-3 years. Plan would be for her to join air cadets at 13 to decide whether it is something she would want to pursue. If it puts her off she could then get the formal diagnosis at 15 ahead of GCSEs.

what would you do?

ADHD can be a bar to a flying career.

And that's not for shitz and giggles, it's because it is unsafe

Get your DD properly assessed and any condition/s she may have properly controlled.

Could you live with yourself if she brought a plane down, killing herself and possibly scores of others? When you knew she probably had a condition that might have disbarred her?

Yes, I'm being a bit brutal in putting it as bluntly as that. But that's where the bottom line lies

Just do the right thing and get your kid diagnosed!

My DD not getting meds until 14 absolutely ruined her. If your DD has actually got ADHD, than I think being a pilot is the least of your worries. It's so hard growing up with it as a girl.
Besides, you can be a pilot as long as you're not actively taking meds.

I’m not sure my posts are clear/being understood.

• She is being assessed.
• The question is about whether to take the likely (private) diagnosis now or wait a couple of years, accessing support as appropriate, for the NHS process.
• I obviously don’t want her being a risk (although RAF pilot is a pretty risky career anyway) and there is every chance she will change her mind/not pass the assessments for other reasons. (I’m not convinced her constant challenging of rules makes her the perfect candidate for a forces career either.)

It’s really a question of timing.

She is coping with school. The issues are mainly at home and socially. I don’t know whether meds would help her, I suspect coaching around scheduling and relating with others would be more helpful. Plus possibly loop earplugs to help with filtering sound (she’s very noise sensitive).

it’s not about getting her into flying of she shouldn’t. It’s about not wrecking her dreams at 12.

I am officially diagnosed with ADHD. My daughter shows all the signs and her life would have to be at risk before I perused a diagnosis and drugs for her. The initial prescription I tried (Elvanse) made me anxious, aggressive and suicidal. I wouldn’t want to put my daughter through the processes of testing different meds whilst she’s at school and already has to already manage a very stressful environment. Especially as diet, exercise and having a supportive environment have had a much greater impact on my ADHD symptoms

You go ahead with the diagnosis!

it’s not about getting her into flying of she shouldn’t. It’s about not wrecking her dreams at 12.

Really? Just wreck her life instead?

Eh?

I’ve been looking at the Keys clinic.

regardless of diagnosis/not diagnosis getting her support for the things she is struggling with is absolutely the point.

Sorry, I missed this. Thank you for sharing.

Honestly I'd get the diagnosis and support. She's got a few years to get her head around everything and in a few years, she might not want to be a RAF pilot!

If she's exhausted from masking all the time at the moment, it'll only get worse without support / medication etc.

There's lots of pilot adjacent careers she can go into if she wants in the future 😊

DS 28 is in the military (int corps) . He was diagnosed as an adult at university. Fortunately he has always managed without meds so could join and deploy - all good. But honestly I think he would be better if he were able to try the meds. He is absolutely a loose cannon which is exactly what is not needed in the military, I would have thought but what do I know? Actually he keeps getting promoted so must be doing something right.
But if she can function without meds she will be okay. It's the reliance on meds that is the determiner, not the diagnosis.

I thought the military had relaxed restrictions on ASD related conditions, mainly because in the past they would have employed so many undiagnosed ASD codebreakers etc, but with more people getting official diagnoses it was narrowing their recruitment pool.

Some of the replies here are unbelievably ablist. Having ADHD does not automatically equal putting lives at risk. Catch onto yourselves.

You could be putting her and others at risk .

Ex RAF pilot here.

There are many many things that could rule out a military career generally and yet more for flying. Some of these she won't know about until she's older (eg: biometric measurements have to be within limits so you fit in the aircraft and reach all the switches etc) or when she applies (eg: you do hours of aptitude tests that you can't really prepare for).

So I'd suggest focusing on what's right for her now. If she is diagnosed then she will be able to access treatment that hopefully will have a positive impact on the rest of her life. To my mind that outweighs the benefit of preserving the opportunity to apply for a job she might not want/be suitable for/get in the future.

On a personal note, I've never been diagnosed with ADHD but I do tick a lot of the boxes and my "ADHD" attributes have definitely had an impact throughout my life. Looking back - if I'd had the option of effective treatment for those at the expense of a flying career, I think overall I would have been happier with the treatment (though I may not have thought that as a teenager)

the NHS here won’t accept this diagnosis either so not clear what happens with drugs etc (if advised).

I'd still get her a diagnosis ASAP for her benefit. I wasn't struggling in high school either, I was doing very well then I hit a brick wall. Extra support would have really helped me. Of course that may not be the case for her but I think I'd rather school were aware of her needs and perhaps have a plan to offer some support/allow extra time/make accomplishments if necessary.

Sorry, totally off topic. Are you the poster who had the big grumpy Maine coon and used to post threads on them?

DSS is joining the military with an ADHD diagnosis, we had to jump through a lot of hoops but it's been deemed not to be an issue now. However the critical part is medication, you can't join if currently on medication. The military is slowly changing in its attitude towards ND though, you can take medication for ADHD once you are serving.

Some of the replies here are unbelievably ablist. Having ADHD does not automatically equal putting lives at risk. Catch onto yourselves.

Of course a condition that can affect your attention span/concentration/judgement/response time etc can make you more likely to have an accident. Most crashes are caused by pilot error. Standards are very high for pilots for very good reason. Sometimes a disability/condition rules people out for good reason not because it's ableist but because safety is the first priority. There are some jobs I'd love to have done but my disabilities mean that it wouldn't be safe and/or feasible to do them. It sucks but that's life.

I can't believe a kid saying she fancies being a pilot means her whole future is jeopardised by indulging her whim and delaying, possibly refusing, a diagnosis which will make a difference long term!

It's negligent!

Why are you talking about ASD restrictions?

Also, it's not ableist to suggest an assessment for someone who may have ADHD, neither is it ableist to suggest they may not be pilot material.

Calling things ableist because you don't like them doesn't make them ableist.

If you have a disability that affects your ability to maintain focus then you really don't need to be flying fast jets.

My DH is an air traffic controller in the military. He's in his 40s and recently has mentioned he thinks he has undiagnosed ADHD. I agree with him, a lot of it fits. Not sure whether a diagnosis would have been a bar to his career or not (there are lots of conditions which preclude you from joining the military and more specific requirements for air crew and even more for pilots). However what I find interesting is that he's good at his job, he can manage a load of air craft at once, he can listen to two different audio at the same time, he can decipher what pilots are saying, and he had passed courses to do all this in combat situations. However he can't do two things at once at home. Really simple stuff. The way he explains it, he's been training for 20 years to do his job, and he knows all the procedures so he doesn't have to think, he just responds to a situation as per protocol. But at home when he has two things to do, there's no set process and it's the thinking that lets him down. It's very annoying but it kind of makes sense.

This is the FAA but this article covers the issues that are more likely to occur with pilots who have ADHD. medium.com/faa/pilots-with-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd-6518967ac46e

It's not because they're big old ableist meanies.