Adhd- how can I prepare ?

I currently have a sophomore in high school who wants NOTHING more to be accepted into the AFA . He was on ADHD meds from about 2013-2017 ( concerta 36mg) He went off them and hasn't been on them since (not at all in high school) . He is amazing academically, all advanced honors classes . Probably better than he ever was on the medication.
We are a military family and we recently moved , switching Dr. office from a civilian Dr to a military facility. His new records show he is not on any medication. I hold our records from our previous civilian Dr. and I can see he wrote " Off medication for 3 months- doing well" .
What sort of documentation did you need if my son will require a waiver ? Do I need to get his previous Dr to write a letter stating when he went off them , or will a note from his current Dr. stating he has not been on meds for X amount of years work ? He doesn't graduate high school for another 2 years , but I want to have our ducks in a row . THANK YOU!!!!

Ask the mods to move this to DoDMERB forums. Hopefully Mabry will respond. If not them, than KP2001.

To my knowledge he has to be off the meds for 2 yrs with no academic change.

I may be able to help you with your question, as I went though a very similar situation.
I also was diagnosed with ADHD and I was able to pass my DODMERB with little to no hassle but I am also applying while serving on active duty. All I did was show the evaluator my MEPS paperwork and I was good to go.

Also, how old was your DS when he stopped taking the medication?
This is huge because if he stopped taking the medication before the age of 12 then the should be fine but if he stopped taking the medication after the age of 12 then he may need to get a waiver during the DODMERB process.

There are some documents that you can get in order to help during the process. I had to obtain these documents during MEPS and I imagine it would be similar during the DODMERB (I do not guarantee that these documents will have him pass his DODMERB but they will help during the process).

1. HS Transcript
If the DODMERB evaluator sees that his grades are stellar while being off medication then there is a pretty good reason to approve him.

2. Letter from his Doctor
Have your DS' doctor write a letter recommending that the diagnosis has not affected him after he stopped taking the medication. Have HIM talk to his doctor about the situation and the doctor may be able to write a better letter recommending him because he is hearing about it from the applicant and not the parents. Parents can still be there but only for questions that the applicant cannot answer.

Make sure he is honest during the survey. He can easily lie on the form that he does not have ADHD but if he knows that it is on his medical history than please put it down. If they find out that he lied then they can remove his application and cannot apply again.

Finally, have a plan B because if he is not medically qualified then he will need to go to another school. There are a lot of people who get DQ and it can happen to the best of us. I knew about 10 active, healthy people who were applying to get an ROTC scholarship and only 2 were actually medically qualified. It is easy for you and me to say but military life is not for everyone and the medial exams are only to make sure that applicants can survive the intense physical and mental environment. He can do great things in the civilian sector.

If you need more information I am sure that there is a thread about this in the DODMERB section of this site

I hope that this information is helpful and please feel free to message me if you have any other questions.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

gibsontrio said:

I currently have a sophomore in high school who wants NOTHING more to be accepted into the AFA . He was on ADHD meds from about 2013-2017 ( concerta 36mg) He went off them and hasn't been on them since (not at all in high school) . He is amazing academically, all advanced honors classes . Probably better than he ever was on the medication.
We are a military family and we recently moved , switching Dr. office from a civilian Dr to a military facility. His new records show he is not on any medication. I hold our records from our previous civilian Dr. and I can see he wrote " Off medication for 3 months- doing well" .
What sort of documentation did you need if my son will require a waiver ? Do I need to get his previous Dr to write a letter stating when he went off them , or will a note from his current Dr. stating he has not been on meds for X amount of years work ? He doesn't graduate high school for another 2 years , but I want to have our ducks in a row . THANK YOU!!!!

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He has to be off medication for 2 years. Also, make sure the doctor annotates why the medicine was discontinued. Many times, patients (or parents) discontinue meds on their own which doesn’t hold much water. However, if your doctor says med was discontinued because it is no longer indicated, then that looks much better to the DODMERB reviewer.

Roman was spot on about the HS grades. There has to be demonstrated success off meds. It’s good your DS is off meds now and doing well. Also, doing well with ECs (eagle scout, debate team, etc) in addition to academics is even more proof that he’s going to be ok with meds.

If he works outside the home and his employer can write a good letter saying he comes in on time and stays on task, then that’s another piece that’ll be helpful should a waiver be necessary.