Any success stories of high school students with ADHD stopping stimulant medication to qualify for a service academy?

[Anonymous]

My brother tried this. He managed to get into the cadet program at Texas a&m but I think the hit to his grades put a service academy out of reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does this restriction exist for flying? It's absurd to think that someone who would do better on attention meds might need to try not to take them to qualify for this, when attention is absolutely what will be needed. It seems like a case-by-case qualifying situation would be far better.

are you actually asking this? because we need people who fly airplanes to be able to have HIGHER than average exec function and focus. not lower.

And (medicated) they may be able to achieve it. If they can’t take the med, they couldn’t fly that day. But it seems odd to care how they are able to focus and fly safely as long as they CAN do it.

Who is actually going to monitor whether they have taken their meds or not. The safety of hundreds of passengers is at risk for each flight.
Schedules cannot be swapped out easily at the last minute. You are living in la la land

[Anonymous]

The service academies don't allow ADHD meds, IEPs within a certain period of time and SATs have to be taken without accommodations.

What about talking about college ROTC? I think that is a great way to have a nice college experience combined with military.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, my husband was at a service academy and now that we both know more about ADHD from our son, there is no way my husband doesn't have it. I think the structure helped him a lot. He taught himself habits to stay organized, at least at work. Home is a whole other story, but he has been working on it. (He's 55, so...). He has been unmedicated this whole time. He was infantry though.

Structure, highly defined career pathway with clear supports to next steps, high degree of oversight and accountability, interest and adrenaline can sometimes make up for ADHD meds. My kiddo cannot learn to pick up his room. He would learn it (the hard way) if he were in a service academy. I chose not to be his drill sergeant on that in order to preserve our mother-son relationship.

He is not doing a service academy but a paramedic program. He would forget critical items for school, but he will never forget paramedic stuff because the interest, novelty, urgency and challenge all help his focus. The real life practical hands on teaching and high degree of physicality help. OFC, YMMV since ADHD is a wide-spectrum.

I think one thing to member is that getting into a service academy in no way guarantees that you will become a pilot, so you better be happy with a wide-range of military outcomes because if you choose that path, you may not actually have that much control over your final career.


I think commercial passenger aviation also has a lot of rules about medication, so check that out carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of my college friends is a commercial airline pilot. It has been kind of a miserable career, though he still loves flying airplanes. Help your son think through all the dimensions of career and what might be desirable for him. Here are real pilots talking about the pros and cons: https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/wii9ar/airline_pilots_how_are_you_liking_your_career_do/

They seem to only mention pros

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is he on meds in the first place? The over diagnosis and over medication of ADHD is pretty well documented.

oh STOP this nonsense on the special needs board.

It’s not nonsense - it’s in fact well established. I brought it up because OP wants her child to possibly be off meds so it seems extremely relevant.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/

I do not think that study means what you think it means.

[Anonymous]

I think this entire thing is nuts, and hope the standards will change in due time, because surely a person who recognizes and fixes their disability with medication that works is higher qualified than those who never admit or disclose disabilities of which there are many.

But that aside, my nephew is a senior in high school and stopped taking meds. Your child's brain is developing. They need the medication for support now. It doesn't mean they will always need it. But you dont know what that timeline will look like for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is he on meds in the first place? The over diagnosis and over medication of ADHD is pretty well documented.

oh STOP this nonsense on the special needs board.

It’s not nonsense - it’s in fact well established. I brought it up because OP wants her child to possibly be off meds so it seems extremely relevant.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8042533/

I do not think that study means what you think it means.

It says:

“ In this systematic scoping review of 334 published studies in children and adolescents, convincing evidence was found that ADHD is overdiagnosed in children and adolescents. For individuals with milder symptoms in particular, the harms associated with an ADHD diagnosis may often outweigh the benefits.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does this restriction exist for flying? It's absurd to think that someone who would do better on attention meds might need to try not to take them to qualify for this, when attention is absolutely what will be needed. It seems like a case-by-case qualifying situation would be far better.

are you actually asking this? because we need people who fly airplanes to be able to have HIGHER than average exec function and focus. not lower.

And (medicated) they may be able to achieve it. If they can’t take the med, they couldn’t fly that day. But it seems odd to care how they are able to focus and fly safely as long as they CAN do it.

stimulant medications do not cure ADHD much less impart the ABOVE average executive functioning needed to be a safe pilot.

that’s what gets me about this: either your kid is disabled or not. it seems like many parents want to pick and choose based on the benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does this restriction exist for flying? It's absurd to think that someone who would do better on attention meds might need to try not to take them to qualify for this, when attention is absolutely what will be needed. It seems like a case-by-case qualifying situation would be far better.

are you actually asking this? because we need people who fly airplanes to be able to have HIGHER than average exec function and focus. not lower.

And (medicated) they may be able to achieve it. If they can’t take the med, they couldn’t fly that day. But it seems odd to care how they are able to focus and fly safely as long as they CAN do it.

stimulant medications do not cure ADHD much less impart the ABOVE average executive functioning needed to be a safe pilot.

that’s what gets me about this: either your kid is disabled or not. it seems like many parents want to pick and choose based on the benefits.

No. This is ablest crap. People can both need accommodations and still be able to do things. (I don't have military experience so I'm opting out of that discussion, but to say one is picking and choosing when the kid is disabled is just nonsense)

[Anonymous]

DD has ADD and dyslexia. No meds. Tried them at the start of HS (was only dx in 6th partly b/c good academics and Covid hit at the end of her testing.
She didn’t like the way she felt in the afternoons/ evenings, even after trying a few different meds /dosing.

Just to say, try it and evaluate performance.

[Anonymous]

OP, we are in the same exact boat as you are. DS is 13 with ADHD and fixated on becoming a pilot. Doing online ground school, reading always about flying, wanting to visit flight schools, etc.

DS is not on stimulants but non stimulants for his ADHD. Stimulants never worked for him. There is a possibility that a loophole might exist for him to become a pilot.

Still, we are trying to steer towards other careers —with a sport pilot license on the side. You can become a sport pilot without getting a medical review as long as you have never been denied the medical approval (as others have said). So, DS wants to go first for drivers license, then sport pilot, then maybe something else later. And he is looking at engineering careers related to aeronautics.

I am honestly uncomfortable with all of this including him going for a drivers license as soon as he is eligible. But I also recognize that this particular kid is responsible, risk adverse, and has great visual perceptual skills. (Yes, I said risk adverse for an ADHD kid. He can still be impulsive). So, maybe he should have the chance to pursue his dreams. At least if he is only a sport pilot he will only kill himself if he gets distracted while flying.

And definitely don’t want him to die while flying! He is my only child and it would be devastating. But to not allow him to pursue even a fraction of his dreams also seems like a recipe for great unhappiness……

[Anonymous]

It is clear there is a bigger risk of crashing a car if you have ADHD. I don't see how it would be any different for flying a plane:

Adolescents with ADHD have 30–40% higher car crash rates.

[Anonymous]

No absolutely not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does this restriction exist for flying? It's absurd to think that someone who would do better on attention meds might need to try not to take them to qualify for this, when attention is absolutely what will be needed. It seems like a case-by-case qualifying situation would be far better.

are you actually asking this? because we need people who fly airplanes to be able to have HIGHER than average exec function and focus. not lower.

And (medicated) they may be able to achieve it. If they can’t take the med, they couldn’t fly that day. But it seems odd to care how they are able to focus and fly safely as long as they CAN do it.

stimulant medications do not cure ADHD much less impart the ABOVE average executive functioning needed to be a safe pilot.

that’s what gets me about this: either your kid is disabled or not. it seems like many parents want to pick and choose based on the benefits.

No. This is ablest crap. People can both need accommodations and still be able to do things. (I don't have military experience so I'm opting out of that discussion, but to say one is picking and choosing when the kid is disabled is just nonsense)

The military has no tolerance for accommodations, though. You don't need easily distracted individuals handling weapons and with other peoples loves on the line.