Hgv medical and anxiety.

[Baldy91]

Hi all just looking for a bit of advice. I suffer from a degree of anxiety and only just recently gone to the doctors with this and now on an antidepressant type meditation (doctor advised me I'm ok to drive on them) Now my question is will this affect my hgv medical when the time comes. It is a while off yet but it's something that's really bugging me. Many thanks for any advice.

[blue estate]

Be honest up front and prove it's under control and you should be ok but it depends on the type of tablets your on
I have had and still get rerely panic attacks but that was doing day work driving
now I do tramping and have had next to no issues apart from the London driving


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[ROG]

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=143926

[stuh]

Don't use your own doctor for the medical, plenty of places that do the medical that haven't got access to your records

[DrPhilThornley]

I think you are probably worrying about this too much. DVLA have two categories of anxiety and depression, so they would either put you in the "mild-to-moderate" category or the "severe" category of anxiety or depression.
You can read the exact rules in the official DVLA medical standards, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/526635/assessing-fitness-to-drive-a-guide-for-medical-professionals.pdf on page 71 of the current version.
In general terms, the mild-to-moderate category is for people without significant memory or concentration problems, agitation, behavioural disturbance or suicidal thoughts and who only suffer from this for a short time.
The "severe" category is for people with significant memory or concentration problems, agitation, behavioural disturbance or suicidal thoughts.
If your symptoms come into the mild-to-moderate description then you don't need to inform DVLA and DVLA won't take any action if they do find out.
If your symptoms come into the severe category, the rules are much stricter and say that you should stop driving group 2 vehicles, and they would generally stop you driving for the duration of the illness and then another six months on top.
If you notify DVLA of anxiety or depression, they will send a questionnaire to your GP. Their decision very much depends on what the GP says, so if you are going to notify DVLA because you think you come into the "severe" category then it's worth having a word with your GP to warn him that he will be getting a questionnaire from DVLA. Although he obviously has to tell the truth, you do need to make sure he understands the importance of describing your symptoms accurately so that DVLA don't overreact to your condition.
When we do DVLA medicals on people who tell us about a history of recent depression, it is very, very rare for them to have a problem with DVLA.
Hope this helps.

[dieseldave]

Don't use your own doctor for the medical, plenty of places that do the medical that haven't got access to your records

Fortunately, there's some other ( = wiser) advice available.

I'm sure that readers can evaluate both and decide for themselves.

At this point, I'm reminded somewhat of the Glasgow bin lorry driver... nuff said eh?

[kcrussell25]

I had a similar situation when I applied for my provisional. All that happened was they wrote to my gp for further details and confirm that there was no other issues and that was it.

Only things is it took about 3 months to get the gp report done and pass through the system so be ready to wait. I did find phoning to chase helped