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Psychotic depression & driving

6 replies

Seasidegirl5 · 19/11/2022 11:07

Morning. My husband has been finally diagnosed with psychotic depression and will be taking anti psychotics. The psychiatrist yesterday told us we need to inform the dvla, she will fill in the form they send her, and all will be OK.
But after googling yesterday, it appears that when you first notify the dvla they will immediately revoke your license. You then need to meet criteria to get it back such as 3 months of stability, and the go ahead from your psychiatrist.
Now I do completely understand the reason for this, the dvla don't want someone driving round with suicidal thoughts or having hallucinations etc. I do understand this.
But obviously on a personal level this impacts things. We have had to wait months between appointments, and because of this and him taking sertraline, my husband is now much better than he was at the start. He has been off work for 8 weeks already and we were hoping that he could start back soon as he's feeling ready to get back to a more normal life. He works 50 miles away from home. In a very senior role. His workplace have been very good so far, but if we have to tell them now that he can't drive for at least another 3 months I don't know what will happen.
Has anyone actually been through this and NOT had their licence revoked? This will cause a really big set back in his recovery because otherwise he just sits and stares at the TV all day and another 3 months of that will not have a good effect on him at all.

OP posts:
theferry · 19/11/2022 16:03

I have bipolar and also suffer with psychosis. The DVLA didn’t cancel my license automatically and gave me a 1 year license, but I had been stable for more than 3 months by that point. My pdoc agreed I was fit to drive.

The only thing you can do is apply and see. But be prepared it may take a while. I renewed my license and it took 11 months to get it approved. (I could still drive during that time, providing I'd applied to renew within the last year).

You may find by the time that the DVLA gets in touch with the doctor that he has 3 months of stability already.

8 weeks off work is not very long for something so serious. I’m guilty of going back to work too quickly and the effort has proven too much for me. He could request a phased return. My work allows me to build up to returning to work over 6 weeks. In the past I’ve added in annual leave to enable me to work part time for a bit while I am still getting better.

Seasidegirl5 · 20/11/2022 08:48

Yes he's going to do a phased return. But he has to start working again soon as only gets 12 week of sick pay :-/ so kind of forced to go back.
Thank you for your reply. So you can continue to drive until you hear anything back from them?

OP posts:
theferry · 27/11/2022 16:54

Sorry, just seen this. You can still drive while they’re renewing a license, providing you’re well and your doctors agrees. I don’t know whether you can drive when you’re firstly informing them. Your DH probably shouldn’t be driving. It is law that you inform the DVLA of this kind of illness and not doing so could invalidate your insurance. It’s a pain but the DVLA is very clear about this.

HariboReckoning · 27/11/2022 17:13

Has he started antipsychotics yet? He will need to adjust to them before he goes back to work. It’s not just his illness that could affect his driving, those drugs are incredibly sedating (at first) and affect things like speed of reflexes, etc.

Unhappymumma · 30/11/2022 16:12

He's not driving at the moment, he hasn't driven for 10 weeks now. He will certainly not be driving when he starts the tablets. Completely understand this. Its just we haven't notified them yet. I've printed the form off. It's asking for consultant details, address, contact details etc which we don't have. He was just having video calls with a psychiatrist so not sure who to put on there

Unhappymumma · 30/11/2022 16:12

Sorry, name changed

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