Hi everybody
This summer, I will have to go to a medical commission for driving licence. I have two conditions that require to go to this medical commission and I really fear they don't give my licence because of the meds I take for one of my condition.
What do you suggest me for not fearing this commission ? I fear to be scantily dressed in front of three GPs and in 20 minutes they judge if you are able or not to drive. In some cases you have a specialized exam (in my case psychiatric exam) and I fear that too.

Some ideas not to fear it ?

Another question, do you have a medical exam for your driving licence ?


Thanks for your answers

Hi, the best advice i would give you is, if you feel you are medically fit to drive, then dont sweat it. Just explain why you feel you are good to drive, how much you would love to drive ect and if you are in fact ok to drive i cant see them saying no. Theyre not as bad as you think.

Hi Little K
My doctor will make a letter to tell them I am well stabilized and that I am fit enough to drive. But I fear that despite this letter they tell me unable to drive.

Listen, you will never know unless you try, and if your doctor says yours ok to drive then really youve got nothing to worry about

Thanks Little K for your kind words. My doctor told me to wait until the summer to be sure that I am well stabilized. But I have to try, you're right.

well good luck to you whatever happens Im sure youll be fine, have faith in yourself x

Hi
I have a question and I won't open another thread for this question. Do you have any medical exam for driving licence in your country ? If yes, what do they check ?


Thanks for your replies

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Originally posted by Giulia
Hi
I have a question and I won't open another thread for this question. Do you have any medical exam for driving licence in your country ? If yes, what do they check ?


Thanks for your replies

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Originally posted by Jesus

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Originally posted by Giulia
Hi
I have a question and I won't open another thread for this question. Do you have any medical exam for driving licence in your country ? If yes, what do they check ?


Thanks for your replies

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I only had to fill in a form with a few questions about my medical history. If they could all be answered with "No" then it was ok, if not, further research would be necessary.
Luckily I could answer all questions with "No"

Oh yeah, during the driving exam (and sometimes during the lessons) I had to read a distant license plate to test my eyes.

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Couldnt you have lied? Just wondering

If I lied I would have problems in the future with insurence.

What kind of questions do they ask?

I don't remember all the questions they ask, but they ask if you have a pathology which can limit you to drive (I answered yes to this question) and if you have a disability income (I answered no). I don't remember all the questions, sorry

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Originally posted by Giulia
I have to go back to this medical commission because I take meds who can be incompatible with driving (Smilie)

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Originally posted by Chrono
Couldnt you have lied? Just wondering

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My doctor said when I asked her that I should wait to be sure that I am well stabilised. I told what's happens at the medical commission in another thread, wait a sec to find out where it is.

Edit : I found it !

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For me, it was a medical examination for driving licence.
Since I have a SSD (Single Sided Deafness) I had to go to a medical commission.

I am the only girl between men in a middle age, two of them were totally drunk at 08:00am !! (Smilie)
So after an ophtalmologic exam and an urine sample (Smilie)(Smilie) I have to be in front of 3 GP, in underwear (Smilie) (Smilie) and BTW, they were only men (no offense guys ! (Smilie)).
First of all I had to reply to stupid questions :
1) Why I was there ? (SSD)
2) If I've ever been in hospital in my life (only for a minor surgery, a screw in my head)
3) If I've ever suffer from faintness (never)
4) If I've ever suffered from epilepsy (never)
5) If I currently take medicines, and which kind (antihistaminics when I have an allergy attack)
6) If I smoke (never)
7) If I drink alcohol (I never drink alcohol even a glass of wine with lunch or dinner (Smilie) )

They tested me for strabism and for lateral seeing, then they tested me for balance.
After ? Only the classic of each medical examination (Smilie) Heart, blood pressure, weight and heigh.

Result :
1) In good health for driving despite my SSD
2) Don't panick like that
3) Don't get thinner, otherwise we'll cut you the licence (Smilie) (Smilie) (Smilie) (Smilie) (Smilie)

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Originally posted by Giulia

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Since I have a SSD (Single Sided Deafness) I had to go to a medical commission.
...
I have to be in front of 3 GP, in underwear

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Originally posted by Jesus

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Originally posted by Giulia

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Since I have a SSD (Single Sided Deafness) I had to go to a medical commission.
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I have to be in front of 3 GP, in underwear

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In underwear??  For SSD?? weird...

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Okay, here I am. I have started to work on the road code for my driving licence. I know I have to declare my meds, so I rang a doctor which is a specialist of these medical commission, he told me that a letter from my psychiatrist will be enough for the commission. However, I talked with someone with autism and he told me that despite the medical letter from his doctor, he had to give a psychiatric examination.
So I concluded myself that there is very little possibility to have to give this psychiatric examination, but if this possibility happens, I will prepare it with my psychiatrist.
I am happy

Hi,
Two years I have not updated the situation, but of course, things are even worse than I thought
Of course, I still can't get enrolled for driving licence, since even worse administrative problems arose

In the meantime, I received a diagnosis in December 2008, confirmed to another specialist in January 2009 : ADHD, and I have to take Ritalin.
This doesn't change I have to declare it to the administration, since it's a mental health pathology (it should have been cared in neurology, but this fact doesn't change the problem, since a pathology in neurology or psychiatry has to be declared at the administration for driving licence in France).
Things are administratively worse since my diagnosis, since ADHD is not recognized to adults in France (psychiatry in France are 40-50 years late, we can say that it's Middle Age !).
I have spoken with a GP which is in an association for doctors which helps victims of body damages with the experts (whatever the cause : medical error, hospital infection, injuries from a home accident....). Of course, I didn't fit the criteria to receive the help of this association, since my administrative trouble are after the diagnosis of a condition which is not relative to an external event. But they didn't care of this fact, this doctor has helped me and if he reads this message, I thank him very much for his help
He told me that the expert psychiatrist cannot make again the initial diagnosis, which has done the physician. He can only tell how long I can get my licence before another exam.
However, I have learnt by some research on the Internet that if the doctors in 2nd grade (Appeal Commission, which comes after the Primary Commission) says that your pathology is chronic and definitive and makes you definitively unable to drive, you can't do nothing to be administratively able to drive for all your life. What I fear most is that a doctor uses this point of procedure in the inability report, without being sure at 100% that it's the truth : for some pathologies (like Alzheimer dementia or Alzheimer-like dementia), you can be absolutely sure that it'll never improve and the person will be unable to drive all life long ; but for ADHD, or even pathologies like bipolar 1 disorder or schizophrenia, you can't predict the evolution 1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 50 years later (even the best psychiatrist can't, and even Miss Cleo can't do it). In two words, this point has to be used with plenty of caution, and there is no mean to control in France the level of caution for this point of procedure's use.

Here is the update after two years. I try to solve this story, but it's not an easy task to solve (I took 3 months to find the right persons to help me, because even the best professionals in the law field often mix up with this process, even in its basic steps)

why one earth are you bringing up 2 year old threads

It's an update on a thread I started a few years ago (well before I receive the right diagnosis and care for my ADHD, which took more than three years to be diagnosed). It still continues because my problem has not been solved yet (I hope it'll be solved asap, but it'll take time)

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Originally posted by todd toddington
why one earth are you bringing up 2 year old threads

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Originally posted by Voldemort

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Originally posted by todd toddington
why one earth are you bringing up 2 year old threads

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did you even read what she wrote nub

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Well, new update. I know I know, it's an old one but boy, this driving license story doesn't seen to have a end !!!!

A year ago, I started to fight to make a law change.
In two words (I won't make a lecture about French law, but a few words won't harm), the law about driving under narcotics doesn't make any kind of difference between a medical treatment like morphine, Ritalin etc... and narcotics like LSD, ecstasy etc....
Clearly speaking, if I take my Ritalin to prevent my cognitive impairment from showing up while driving, I am considered as in offence because the test for narcotics detect a false positive, despite prescription. I am punished for curing me, even if I have the ok from the medical board for driving license.
Completely crazy, I know !
So, I had to contact the American researcher which conducted and made publish all the studies about driving and ADHD in peer-reviewed journals, after I had to write to the ex Ministry of Justice (he is now a depute), we had a completely odd answer from a written question addressed to a minister (I had to find by myself the legal texts currently in vigor to explain why the answer in itself is completely odd and doesn't solve the problem), now we are waiting for a reply from the French Ombudsman of Republic.
And still, this story doesn't seem to end !

Because I also had to solve a second problem (this time about the medical exam itself), like if one problem weren't enough ! I had pericarditis (viral and dry ones, very tricky to diagnose even from the cardiologist) and in the user's leaflet, it's a precaution of use for Ritalin. But as soon as your medical file is atypical, physicians in this kind of medical exam often try to find the slightest thing to mess up everything, in order for you not to get the license. Even if there is nothing behind. So I had to convince my GP (story of Social security : otherwise, I'll spend a delirious amount of money, exams in cardiology are quite expensive. But to have the full refund, I have to get a referral from my GP) to accept that I see the approved specialists before the medical exam for driving licence (psychiatrist and cardiologist), that the aim is not absolutely changing specialists but letting my driving license story go ahead.
She suggested me that my psychiatrist and cardiologist (I see the cardiologist very rarely, only when my GP suspects a problem. It happened only twice, so....) write a letter to explain that my history of pericarditis is not a problem for Ritalin. I replied that theoretically, her idea is a good one, but in practice, the physicians for driving license (as I told before, they are 2 GPs, approved from the prefect of the department) will quibble  that the two specialists are not approved for driving license, so they'll get a great motivation for sending me from a specialist to another. So, since we want to avoid at all cost this kind of craziness (it's already enough crazy like that, no need to add further craziness to all this mess), the only solution it remained is seeing the approved specialists before the medical exam with the two GPs.
My poor GP (I hope she won't get a heart attack from such a craziness) couldn't believe that physicians for driving license can bug a patient for a pericarditis....

All this stress had deteriorated my health : I had lost so much weight (only 41 kilos for 1,52m, which is not much) that my GP was fearing a bad avitaminosis, I didn't sleep well at all (I had to take an hypnotic), and well, I had no one to help me, except of course my GP and psychiatrist (when I see her, which is not so easy : ADHD is not neither well known nor recognized for adults among the vast majority of French physicians. So the only 2 hospitals for adults who can diagnose and treat ADHD adults have a tremendous waiting list.....).
I had to rely only on myself to put myself together : I had no other choice but this or being at hospital. At this time, I was trying at all cost to avoid to have to be hospitalized, so I had to find in my deepest side the way to go back on track. Otherwise, my health would have deteriorated itself even greater.
It was so hard. Sometimes, I wish I had something but ADHD : if I had a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, I wouldn't have been in such a mess for my driving license or to have my 100% at Social Security.
I don't say that bipolar disorder is fun (no neuropsychiatric illness is fun) but with bipolar disorder, administration never treats you like if your psychiatrist gives you this diagnosis to make you become a drug addict (I heard more than once at administration that my psychiatrist diagnosed me with ADHD to make me become a drug addict. Wow, those guys are even crazier than psychotic patients !!!).
Each small stuff with administration becomes itself a craziness, and of course, French association for ADHD does everything but help (they asked me to make a fake declaration in the health form for driving license. Of course, I refused, because in case of accident, I'll have to pay everything because there won't be any insurence to pay. Well, the president told everyone in the association that I have to be sectioned under the French equivalent of Mental Capacity Act, and this, I knew it only because a so-told-good-friend told me it. The same so-told-good-friend who told me like if she were a physician that it's my fault if I caught a pericarditis, it's because I am too stressed. The cardiologist was absolutely shocked to hear such a story, she took her head between her hands and blew : "what we don't need to say !").
Incredible, I know. And I can sometimes wonder if it's only a dream or if it's the terrible truth. And if, one day, I'll be able to see my rights recognized without having to fight alone for them. Alone, without anyone to hug me when I collapse and cry because my health is deteriorating, or when I believe I would never recover when I'm sick.