Went to renew my driver’s license today only to learn that I had a mental health hold put on me

Now I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to maybe be able to drive again in several weeks

So much for de-stigmatization, that’ll teach me not to tell people about my problems

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    For this to be true in the US (which is where I would guess you’re talking about, since you’ve used the initilization “DMV”), a court would have suspended or revoked your license for some reason, and you would already know about that.

    I don’t think there’s anywhere that would have said “This person is too mentally ill to be driving a car, but we’ll just let them find out when they go to renew their license.”

  • thezeesystem
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    1 day ago

    I didn’t get a hold of anything. Just paperwork I had to have my doctor and therapist say I’m able to drive. I get it every 6 months usually and it’s fucking annoying.

    I get two separate ones too. One for mental health and one for my diabetes.

    If I don’t they will suspend my license.

      • thezeesystem
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        14 hours ago

        Yep! They give me a paper and it has a range between like 1-10 or something between like it’s managed and it’s not a threat to driving to completely ban you from driving (iirc could be just suspend idk that’s what I remember)

        Mainly if your diabetic and it’s not manageable or extreme enough that the doctor can consider you a threat to other people driving.

        There was like 8 other ones too. One for mental health. I didn’t really look at it when I had it with the other ones.

        • wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works
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          7 hours ago

          It can do a lot of things. Including that.

          This would have to be a very unusual event though. Episodes of it going low enough for that should be so rare that it makes no sense to affect your license.

          If you’re going that low that often then there is most likely another issue contributing pretty heavily.

          I don’t read up on statistics for this or anything but I’ve had it happen once. There was a huge medical problem at the time that interacted with it unpredictably. That was actually the inviting event that let me know I had that problem.

          Either way, I’m sure there are people who should definitely have this bar on it. They really should get it under some kind of control. If they’re out of it that bad that often, I really feel bad for them but losing a privilege is better than losing a life. Or several lives.

          But it shouldn’t be on there from day 1. Assume the same of them that you would anyone else. If they start to develop a history for this, then measures should be taken. I would think self preservation should keep them wanting to push the line. Unless they’re in denial about it, but I’m rambling now.

    • brown567@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      21 hours ago

      Yeah, I think this might be similar paperwork. Except they never sent it to me, so I just got blindsided with it when I went to renew

      Suddenly I find out that not only can I not renew it, but I’d been driving on a suspended license for a few months and nobody bothered to inform me

      • thezeesystem
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        20 hours ago

        Probably didn’t get to you for some reason. Which is exactly why I believe they should have paperless options but hey government is always 20 behind in tech.

  • Majorllama@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I’m calling BS. There has to be another reason. I know that myself and many others have/had depression and the DMV never gave a singular fuck.

    Tell the truth OP. What is the real reason you can’t have your license?

    • brown567@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      21 hours ago

      I can, I just need to do some bs paperwork that needs to be signed by my doctor

      But it’s going to take 2 weeks for the paperwork to arrive via mail, and I can’t drive to my doctor’s office to get it signed or to the DMV to submit it

      Meanwhile, I can’t drive to school or work

  • faltryka@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Is depression enough alone for a mental health hold? Feels like that should require more criteria.

    • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      If you are taking prescription medication or have declared a mental health condition, you usually have to fill out an additional form that your healthcare provider needs to complete and then the DMV goes from there.

      If you don’t declare you have a mental health condition and/or that you are taking medication, you are lying to the government and they don’t like that.

      So your options are fucking yourself or maybe really get fucked by the government.

  • lnxtx (xe/xem/xyr)@feddit.nl
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    1 day ago

    Shame for them.

    Do you have prescribed medications? Could one of them affect your driving?
    Depends on a law, if there are no negative symptoms, you can drive.

    • brown567@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 day ago

      I hadn’t thought of that

      My medication can cause drowsiness, but they specifically said it was a mental health hold

  • bluGill@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    Much as this is bad, and probably was handled wrong, the idea is sound. there are a lot of people out there who shouldn’t be driving and governments are not doing enough to find them.

    The real problem here is you live someplace where public transit is so bad you feel like you have to drive to live a normal life. You sometimes need a truck drivers (for your trash…) and so someone needs to drive, but this should be a minority of people in any city.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    So much for de-stigmatization, that’ll teach me not to tell people about my problems

    Yeaaaa, you can talk about it just not to the government who likes to fuck with people.