Is Driving a Civil Rights Issue?
Thanks to Joe for sending me this article about a man who wanted a driver’s license despite being diagnosed with schizophrenia. In my experience in community mental health, getting a driver’s license was basically impossible with such a diagnosis; psychiatrists didn’t want to sign the paperwork allowing a person to apply for a license. It was something that distressed me to no end. When I reported the problem to the city authorities, they were appropriately appalled. But nothing changed. A man would go in, ask for a signature that would allow him to simply take a permit test, and be rejected. Yet at the same time he was being told not to define himself by his diagnosis; what a mixed message. He was being told he could recover and lead a “normal” life. But what kind of life is it without being “allowed” to drive?
What made me angry is that I know plenty of incompetent drivers who shouldn’t be on the road, and they don’t suffer from mental illness. I also know drivers who have severe mental illnesses who acquit themselves quite admirably on the roadways (myself included). It’s a violation, in my opinion, of a person’s civil rights to prevent them from applying to get a license.
One woman who did get approval was empowered by it. She failed the permit test again and again, but it never ceased to be a goal, which fit in with the messages given by the community health center: Make sure the clients set goals for themselves; it gives them hope. Perhaps it was an unrealistic goal for her. I don’t think she’ll ever drive. But it was the trying that mattered, and if she ever gets behind the wheel, I hope she drives far away into the sunset with a great song on the radio. Just for fun.
A Guy, a Car: Beyond Schizophrenia by Ronald Pies M.D.
liz | 9:01 AM | DISABILITY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, bipolar disorder, depression, hospitals / hospitalization, meds, side effects, stigma
that’s ridiculous. i am, however, still one for retesting the elderly..including vision tests!!!
I’ve pulled myself off the road voluntarily because the drugs impaired me.
this is of course true of many drugs, not just psych drugs.
I think it’s a difficult subject and some people (as myself) should not be on the road due to impairment…others may not be equally impaired.
but there are TONS of other drugs on the market that impair motor functioning that are NOT psychiatric drugs so it is discrimination.
again on the other hand, I know I drove for many years in fear of killing someone and was told by my psychiatrist to shut up or he’d have to take my license away and then I would have no way to get to work…
that was real helpful and it enraged me. I KNEW I should not be driving for a more then a decade before I stopped.
I’m not assuming everyone on meds is as impaired as I was, but I honestly did live in fear of killing someone.
It makes perfect sense to not “allow someone a license” with a diagnosis that may impair judgment, cause delusions, halucinations, or otherwise make the patient unable to respond to emergent situations appropriately.
People with epilepsy cannot have a license unless they are seizure free for a year. That is protect themselves and other drivers. Each state’s laws vary in this regard as to how long a driver has to be seizure free. Is it someone’s rights to POSSIBLY have a simple partial, complex partial, status seizure, or grand mal seizure while driving and thereby cause death to themselves or OTHERS who are driving in OTHER cars. That is not a right. That is commonsense that the epilepsy community (sufferers, friends and family) understand implicitly – ie. “I have a condition that makes it not safe for me to drive”.
Also, someone that has had certain heart conditions cannot drive within a certain time period either – 6 months for certain arrythmias. This is to protect themselves and OTHERS.
Would you really suggest that someone, who at any time could go into an episode (as in with schizophrenia) become delusional, hallucinate or otherwise behave or act with or without intention to harm themselves or others be driving? Get real. How about if they get into an accident or cause an accident, you can sign off that you took responsibility personally for them. I think the real issue is that you are afraid this will trickle into the bipolar community. Should someone be driving who is in a bipolar episode and having delusions or hallucinating or be homicidal or suicidal be driving? I hope not. And I would hope that bipolar supporters would make sure their friend or relative is not driving under those conditions.
It’s like people suggesting that drinking and driving is ok. Anybody that has an impaired condition should stay off the road. Given that having a bipolar diagnosis makes one, at times, lack insight or good judgment, is no different than the other examples I’ve given.
But Drexel is doing a study on TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and driving. The tests are done on simulators. Perhaps they could also “test” schizophrenics who want to drive. Afterall, Schizophrenia is an acquired brain injury of sorts – it affects the neural synapses in the brain. . .
excuse me family member but we’re not all loose cannons who at any time might go into an episode…mental distress is not epilepsy. And I’m talking about the “schizophrenics” you so glibly smeared here as well as those of us who get labeled bipolar…
You ARE a problem…and evidence of the kind of discrimination loosely thrown at us…
this is a delicate issue that you don’t seem to be able to understand.
It was refreshing to read a story where a psychiatrist did not resort to a pronouncement beginning with “You won’t …,” You can’t …” or “You will never …” I and many of my peers have received this message and/or the “Prophecy of Doom” and internalized it. I know too many who have stumbled, regrouped and moved forward and no longer do the same having received such vitiating messages just once to often. I know of more then a few who by accepting all conceivable assigned limitations associated with their diagnoses sans consideration of their own strengths and abilities have been praised for such acceptance. After all, one is now considered to have insight into the diagnosis though not necessarily into his or her illness.
It’s a tragedy when hopes, dreams, aspirations, and abilities are shattered when they need to be nurtured. Humans thrive when they know there can be more. How do they fare when they are told there will only be less ….. so much less?
I had no idea psychiatrists would prevent people from driving. How naive I am! Mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, are so treatable. All cases should be taken case by case, like with any illness/issue – epilepsy, TBI, elderly, MR.
I understand that Canada was contemplating making treatment compulsory for drivers diagnosed with ADHD. We do have a strong body of research documenting ADHD impairments in driving safety. Yet, not everyone with ADHD is a poor driver. So, the diagnosis alone is insufficient, by a long shot.
In the case of schizophrenia and other diagnoses with commonly associated low insight, how do you establish that a person remains stabilized? Even with less severe frontal-lobe conditions, such as bi-polar disorder ADHD, and substance use disorders, insight comes and goes.
Ultimately, I understand that Canada dismissed the idea on the basis that it would cause fewer people to pursue evaluations and treatment.
And today, I helped an old couple wherein one of them (still not sure which as they didn’t speak English) ran over the parking-space break and into a tree. The man managed to say, “I didn’t feel good this morning.” They were at least in their late 70s, a time when many of us have left a significant number of our dopamine receptors in the past.
Gina Pera, author
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.?
Wow. Okay, this is totally weird! I got sick when I was about 15.5 years old, the same time I got my driver’s permit! I have been driving since I was 16, around the same time that I was first hospitalized…FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA by the way. Since when is it against the law for schizophrenic people to have a license???!!! I will admit that driving while psychotic is a bad idea, but people who are stabilized on meds are quite capable of driving! Actually, doing much of anything while psychotic is not recommended, but it isn’t like your brain is cut off while you are psychotic and it isn’t like people are sane one minute and full-blown psychotic the next…like they go into some kind of psychotic seizure or something!
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