I have bipolar and so I am on a one year driving licence, I didn’t drive for three years and was okayed to drive again this time last year.
I sent my renewal off this time and got a letter back saying saying they needed to check my other condition. This turned out to be a survey about drinking and drug habits.
At the height of my poor MH I did used to drink too much, this was while I wasn’t driving or working and amounted to drinking a bottle of wine most nights, with a few binges where I drank spirits and got myself in a state. After one binge I made dh come with me to the GP and asked for medication to stop me drinking. She referred me to alcohol services, I went for an assessment and they said I didn’t reach their threshold for involvement and pointed me to AA.
It was a wake up call and shortly afterwards I got a job, started engaging with life more and my MH has been stable for two years.
Anyway, I answered the questions honestly (I drink up to a bottle of wine, DH has beer, on a Saturday night when I don’t have to work or drive the next day), drank more over Christmas (normal?) but stick well within the 14 units a week.
They’ve come back to me and said I need a full medical screening and a blood test. I’m happy to do this, I’ve done dry January and the last drink I had was last friday when we went out to dinner. But all the literature and forms refer to me as a ‘high risk offender’ and google tells me that this screening is for people who have been banned for drink driving. Which I’m finding quite offensive if I’m honest.
So I’m wondering if otherwise healthy people who go to the GP once for problem drinking automatically get reported to the DVLA? If not this feels like it’s been flagged up purely because of my bipolar diagnosis and that feels discriminatory to me.
Especially as it’s been added on to this renewal request when it wasn’t mentioned at all last year. It’s massively stressed me out, if I don’t have a licence I can’t do my job and that’s a slippery slope for me. I’m worried that even passing the blood test, the doctor will flag me as unable to drive.
Does anyone have any experience of this and is it worth a complaint?