Mental Health @lemmy.world brown567 @sh.itjust.works 3w ago

DMV learned about my depression, now I'm not allowed to drive anymore

Went to renew my driver's license today only to learn that I had a mental health hold put on me

Now I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to maybe be able to drive again in several weeks

So much for de-stigmatization, that'll teach me not to tell people about my problems

31 comments

For this to be true in the US (which is where I would guess you're talking about, since you've used the initilization "DMV"), a court would have suspended or revoked your license for some reason, and you would already know about that.

I don't think there's anywhere that would have said "This person is too mentally ill to be driving a car, but we'll just let them find out when they go to renew their license."
I'm calling BS. There has to be another reason. I know that myself and many others have/had depression and the DMV never gave a singular fuck.

Tell the truth OP. What is the real reason you can't have your license?
- I can, I just need to do some bs paperwork that needs to be signed by my doctor
  
  But it's going to take 2 weeks for the paperwork to arrive via mail, and I can't drive to my doctor's office to get it signed or to the DMV to submit it
  
  Meanwhile, I can't drive to school or work
Is depression enough alone for a mental health hold? Feels like that should require more criteria.
- If you are taking prescription medication or have declared a mental health condition, you usually have to fill out an additional form that your healthcare provider needs to complete and then the DMV goes from there.
  
  If you don't declare you have a mental health condition and/or that you are taking medication, you are lying to the government and they don't like that.
  
  So your options are fucking yourself or maybe really get fucked by the government.
  
  Source?
- You'd think so!
I didn't get a hold of anything. Just paperwork I had to have my doctor and therapist say I'm able to drive. I get it every 6 months usually and it's fucking annoying.

I get two separate ones too. One for mental health and one for my diabetes.

If I don't they will suspend my license.
- You can get your license suspended for diabetes?
  
  Yep! They give me a paper and it has a range between like 1-10 or something between like it's managed and it's not a threat to driving to completely ban you from driving (iirc could be just suspend idk that's what I remember)
  
  Mainly if your diabetic and it's not manageable or extreme enough that the doctor can consider you a threat to other people driving.
  
  There was like 8 other ones too. One for mental health. I didn't really look at it when I had it with the other ones.
  
  Doesn't low blood sugar make you pass out?
- Yeah, I think this might be similar paperwork. Except they never sent it to me, so I just got blindsided with it when I went to renew
  
  Suddenly I find out that not only can I not renew it, but I'd been driving on a suspended license for a few months and nobody bothered to inform me
  
  Probably didn't get to you for some reason. Which is exactly why I believe they should have paperless options but hey government is always 20 behind in tech.
What state?
- depression
  
  North or South?
- Utah
  
  Well, that explains the depression
  
  It suddenly makes a little more sense
  
  Thanks. I'm curious if other states do this.
Shame for them.

Do you have prescribed medications? Could one of them affect your driving?
Depends on a law, if there are no negative symptoms, you can drive.
- I hadn't thought of that
  
  My medication can cause drowsiness, but they specifically said it was a mental health hold
Meanwhile "why are no airline pilots willing to talk about their problems?"
Much as this is bad, and probably was handled wrong, the idea is sound. there are a lot of people out there who shouldn't be driving and governments are not doing enough to find them.

The real problem here is you live someplace where public transit is so bad you feel like you have to drive to live a normal life. You sometimes need a truck drivers (for your trash...) and so someone needs to drive, but this should be a minority of people in any city.
So much for de-stigmatization, that'll teach me not to tell people about my problems

Yeaaaa, you can talk about it just not to the government who likes to fuck with people.

31 comments