u/taviddennant03

Started flight training Nov. 2025. Fought long and hard for a special issuance medical that I finally received Jun. 2026. Was days away from my presolo stage check in Jul. 2026. Broke my foot while moving apartments. Now I'm grounded for the next six weeks because I can't add any right rudder. Damn you, left-turning tendency!

This post is both a PSA for those seeking medical certification with conditions such as mental health diagnoses as well as the r/flying community at large.

I think the Automod message that appears on any post discussing medical certification makes an excellent point that more people would benefit from realizing. When it comes to complex or deferred cases, the medical process is simply not the same for any two people. The sheer amount of variables that go into the process and outcome of each case is something that is not always easy to realize without having been through a deferral or a HIMS case before. So much comes down to individual life factors, diagnostic semantics, finances, location, choices of AME and evaluator, and so much more.

This is why if you're a new student pilot, or perhaps a seasoned pilot with a new medical complication, I cannot stress enough how important it is to be aware of this fact when seeking advice on the Internet. Having been through the process myself, I know how tempting it is and how important it is to find perspectives and anecdotes that may help you find some more certainty or understanding of what the road to certification may look like for you. There's nothing wrong with doing this, but it's also important to consider the veracity of your sources.

I say this because in the three-quarters of a year that I've been in the aviation world, I spent much of that time navigating the medical process from start to finish. I now hold a first-class special issuance for an SSRI prescription. However, throughout that time, I have seen time and time again people ask fairly straightforward questions about what the certification process even looks like for things like SSRI use and ADHD diagnoses on this subreddit and be answered with holier-than-thou coldness or flagrant misinformation.

Just earlier today, I chimed in several times on a very basic question about SSRI usage in the aviation industry that received multiple responses that were both needlessly discouraging and patently false, even going as far as to claim that it is impossible to be medically certified while taking or having taken SSRIs. Other times, I have seen people's understandable and fairly typical questions about the process answered with condescending personal remarks. No matter what the truth is in those individual cases, the fact of the matter is that being a certified pilot does not give you the ability to understand a person's mental health history and status based on a one-paragraph Reddit post asking an administrative question. It's one thing to have opinions on the process, but it's another thing to posture yourself as either a mental health expert or as somebody familiar with the nuances of the special issuance program if neither of those things are true.

This is why my advice to those like me who may just be getting started in their medical certification journeys and are simply trying to understand what needs to be done is to be extremely cognizant of where you're getting your information. I left the subreddit for quite a while as I was getting my evaluations done because if I had allowed the knee-jerk reactions and poor advice I had seen on r/flying to color my idea of whether I was qualified to be a pilot or whether I stood a chance of getting certified, I may have given up a long time ago. It really was amazing to me interacting with my AME and the evaluators I needed to see in the process and understanding just how important it was to have proper consultations with qualified people.

Secondarily to that, if you do see a post asking about a topic, especially a medical-related one, that you do not have the experience or background knowledge necessary to answer, please be cognizant of that and think before you speak. I'm not perfect when it comes to this, but I don't even chime in on posts about the ADHD certification process because of how different and how personal all of the pathways are. In the same vein as the idea that a good pilot always understands that there's more to learn and grow from in the cockpit, please do what you can to apply this to your time out of the cockpit as well.

I think I may need some help from a sackologist after Claudette pulled out and showed everybody me underwears while I was making out with Michelle at your place.