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Comment by teamonkey | Hacker News Reader

That reminds me of an article I read which claimed that being diagnosed with ADHD will prevent you from being a commercial pilot. Pilots will avoid getting diagnosed and medicated because it will kill their career, even though medication may make them safer.

(I suspect ADHD pilots would handle takeoff and landing very well, as well as emergencies, but oh god the checklists and schedules and that whole middle part of the flight…)

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Pilot licences and any mental health issues seem to be a massive pain in general. Lots of people will avoid treatment/diagnosis to not get affected. Xyla has a video on it https://youtu.be/aj0H8oVS7qg + the Pilot Mental Health Campaign.

My meds have me on the ball from about 9am - 5pm. Outside that window I wouldn't trust myself flying a plane unless it was an unusual flight, like flying a new aircraft or flying into a storm, or on a rescue helicopter landing on a highway or mountain. The more routine the more dangerous it gets which is not ideal for your average pilot :-(

What a terrible policy. I sure don't feel any safer knowing that my pilot could have problems going untreated. Just getting licensed seems like it would be difficult without treatment, but it's not like ADHD or other mental conditions are consistent either. You can have good or bad days, or even good/bad months. Those times can be handled with treatment, but I guess we're just supposed to hope our pilot isn't having a bad day when we get on the plane.

> Pilots will avoid getting diagnosed and medicated because it will kill their career, even though medication may make them safer.

Yeah, it's an issue! To the best of my understanding, it's not a mark against you if you have had treatment in the past. You can't have a valid license and be taking active treatment, though.

It's not a mark against you in that you can still get a medical, but it is a HUUUGE pain in the ass, and very, very expensive.

It is definitely a mark against you, in that you must do a huge amount of additional work proving it is no longer a problem.

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