Chris Finlayson
Appearances
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
The other requirement is to be evaluated by a board certified psychiatrist. The psychiatrist that I was seeing, she was a nurse practitioner. That wasn't at the level for which the FAA would require. So I then had to search out a MD.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
I had to go through a cognitive screening, a personality screening, as well as an interview by a neuropsychologist.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
It is boring. It is paying about four grand out of pocket to play. Oh, what's the app on the phone? Basically like paying four grand to play luminosity while a doctor stares over your shoulder. That's all elective testing. None of that is covered by insurance. So it's all out of pocket.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
So, yeah. So in the FAA world, it is absolutely required. It is a requirement for me to get a medical. It is a requirement to have a medical to do my job. Requirement, requirement, requirement. Insurance land, it is, I do not need to be a pilot. This is not medically necessary for my health. It is medically necessary for my employment.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
I got a really bad bout of long COVID. Memory loss, brain fog, fatigue. That really tanked my serotonin that all of a sudden triggered every anxiety I possibly had. December 19th, 2021 was my last flight.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
The woman just said, yep, you were denied. I was like, what? I actually requested my full file from the FAA with the application notes and things that they normally don't send you. They see me as in remission, but I need to check more boxes, essentially. That's probably the most frustrating thing for me right now is the fact that, like, I kind of got hosed.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
And now there's no recourse other than to start it all over. So...
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
I remember sitting in my bed after a panic attack and just thinking, I can't do this. And I remember going into the doctor's office in February of 2022, thinking that, frankly, I was throwing my career away.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
Yep. Basically, I'm having to restart the whole process. So I have to wait on the FAA to send them my paperwork. I have to wait on my other doctors to send them paperwork. I have to wait on all that stuff for them to compile that. I'm probably going to have to redo some testing because, you know, the FAA is not going to want to see a test that's a year and a half old.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
10 milligrams. Did that for about six months, tried to go off it. And unfortunately that didn't work.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
And that's when my psychiatrist was like, look, like, I get all this stuff, but we should really escalate you up to 20 just to see what happens because there's nothing to lose at this point. And that's when I really gave up like, okay, I guess I'm just going to be on this rug no matter what. So I am going to, no matter what, need these special issuance.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
When I started that higher dosage of my SSRI, After about six weeks on that, I was like, oh, this is clarity. This is awesome. This is a good state to be in. I've maintained that ever since.
Radio Atlantic
Why Pilots Don't Get Therapy
I didn't know how long it was potentially going to take. I wasn't sure what exactly that cost was going to be, how I was going to pay for that if I wasn't going to be working. the lack of transparency involved with the FAA's processes, all of those things.