Questions in regards to medical background for CDL

No, but they will ask you if you're currently on any medication. In addition, the medical form that you have to fill out will have related questions. (Look it up online). How you choose to answer those questions is completely up to you.

But, do us all a favor.
If you feel like you're in the middle of a freak out, just park. Don't hurt other people.

Good luck

 

Your medical records are private, no one is going to search your history. Don’t offer more information than is necessary to fill out the questionnaire…in other words, don’t over think it.

I will warn you now, trucking will push you to your limits psychologically. Especially being OTR and particularly the first 6 months or so..

Make it the first six months and it gradually gets better.

If you can easily be triggered into a deep depression then trucking isn’t the best career. Anxiety, you’ll get a daily dose of that.

Good luck

 

There is a database for all drug prescriptions. Few ever look in that database for anything other than drugs than are widely abused. If any of your medication were pain-killers, powerful stimulants, you may have a problem if you forget to mention them. If your insurance company was paying bills for your treatment, that info will be available to other insurance companies, but they may not use it. When you are filling out the DOT Medical Card questionnaire, they are going to know what you tell them. If you don't mention things in the past, and there are no serious scars or strange devices implanted in your body, you will walk out of the clinic with a DOT Medical Card. The DOT doctors and nurses are not drinking buddies, or partners in health, or life coaches. They serve one purpose, taking away the ability to drive if you have serious or dangerous medical conditions. Technically, if you can't bring the names, addresses, summary of every medical condition you have EVER been treated for and put that on the questionnaire you are not able to pass the exam. You can spend hours tracking down the doctor that took out your tonsils and the doctor that stitched up your cut when you were 12, or you might forget those happened. They will only know what you tell them. If you admit to snoring or having difficulty sleeping on occasion you will be prescribed a sleep test. Your urine sample will only check for too much sugar (diabetes) and blood/evidence of infection. They are not putting your urine sample into a $12 million dollar mass-spectrometer to detect if you have some exotic illness. They won't even test your urine for pot, cocaine, heroin, or meth. That test will happen at CDL school or before you get hired by a company. Let your conscience be your guide.

For me, trucking was ALWAYS an anxiety-filled job. There are lots of situations nobody trains you for and you may not know what to do when they happen. I found the people in trucking were the major problem. EVERYONE in shipping/receiving/trucking blames their lack of effort or performance on the man that is conveniently not here, the driver. The dispatcher will blame the driver for being late when she is talking to an angry customer looking for their freight, even when that dispatcher hasn't given that load to ANY driver yet. The last-shipping shipper will conveniently blame the driver when the receiver doesn't get the freight they shipped 6 hours late. Get ready to be blamed for the traffic in every city, the lack of truck parking in only 95% of the country, and be blamed for the bad weather when it causes you to be late for a pick-up or delivery. "You should have left earlier!" Earlier than the shipper shipped it?

 

Those are rather personal questions for a company to ask, unless the anti depressants where going to effect your driving performance you've got nothing to really worry about. As for thinking your a psychopath don't lose to much sleep over that one as most of the population already think that about most drivers.

 

There are two issues. First, generally speaking, nobody is going to spend a lot of time researching your medical history. As @Concorde has correctly said almost all of it is private and covered by HIPAA, they are only going to know what you report. These medications are NOT part of the urine drug testing either. So as to this aspect stop worrying. This leads me to the next part. Trucking can be one of the most stressful jobs out there. Nothing wrong is attempting to enter it. No shame in giving it a try. If you do look right here at the what if it snows thread. Want a laugh? Look at some of that stuff. Also, YOU DO NOT have to be a trucker to be a part of this community. Join in, heck if in the future you are feeling down come pay us a visit. You might enjoy it. I retired in 2012 and I remember once being stuck in Iowa peeved off and sitting in my bunk laughing at some cutups. You have a wealth of knowledge in these forums. The mods have all their shots too!

 

The above posts about anxiety are pretty much spot on.

Trucking is not a good choice for people who are not mentally tough.

That first year...to 18 months....will truly test your mettle.

--Lual

 

Medical certificate is pretty much voluntary info. It’s always my ritual of smoking a cigarette before going inside and checking ‘no’ on the ‘do you smoke?’ question. Trucking companies might request your long form for your medical certificate and that’s that.

But as someone with pretty bad anxiety and bouts of depression, trucking honestly made it more manageable. The independence and enough alone time to drive most people insane ended up being my therapy. It’s a stressful job for sure, but I think the stress is what keeps it interesting. Pretty rewarding when it seems like there’s no way you’ll get where you need to be on time, but you end up making it with minutes to spare.