I was diagnosed with ADD years ago (not ADHD, as I am not hyperactive). To make my parents feel better, more than anything else, I have taken the various drugs to treat it (Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall). Most recently, due to poor grades, my parents convinced me to try Strattera, but, due to appetite problems and nausea, I quit taking it last January.

Now, I find out that taking medicine for ADD past age 12 makes you ineligible for military service. Waivers are available, but are generally not available to anyone who has taken drugs during the past three years. Fortunately, the Army is the least strict of any branches, but I am not holding my breath.

Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? I would pass a urinalisys, but it is grounds for a discharge other than honorable if I lie on the application. I WOULD be caught if I ever got any kind of security clearance.

I suppose I should talk to my doctor and my recruiter, but this is a major blow to me right now.

-Biscuits

Well, you'd be caught now that it is public knowledge..

Heh, they'd find out on their own eventually without this post.

Maybe if you told them you're gay, the two irrelevancies and (I assume) the two lies would cancel each other out.

> I suppose I should talk to my doctor and my recruiter,
> but this is a major blow to me right now.



Sorry to hear about that.

-brendan

A good buddy of mine was dead set on going into the Marines the day he graduated highshool. For the entirety of his Junior and Senior year it was all he talked about... it was like he was already in the Marines it was such a part of his psyche. So, he went to apply shortly after graduation, and found out one leg was a little longer than the other... no go. He was abliterated... like he lost his soul. It was really tough to see. It's tough when you really expect something in the future and it can't happen. Sorry to hear it man, but don't let it get you too down. There's a million other things on earth worth doing and i'm sure there is something you can do to serve in some way shape or form if your heart is set on it.

I watched a school friend grow out of his dreams...quite literally. All through school he talked about becoming a fighter pilot or navigator, but by the time he was 18 he was 6'5" and thus too tall.
At least my very early childhood dream of becoming a train driver was shattered quickly due to bad eyesight. Quite fortuitous really, I think that it'd be quite tedious and software engineering is more lucrative.