Profile For Alfred L.

Where abouts do you live? You maybe able to get on with a LTL company doing linehaul or P&D. You should be home most nights and be able to make 75k+ no problem

I'm in Kansas, close to Kansas City. I don't know if I would be considered qualified for LTL, since I only have a year and a half of experience, but I'll look into it.

Hi, I've posted here before, but I usually just lurk. I got some good news yesterday! I passed the DOT Physical again for the first time in years. Before, I had been on meds that disqualified me, after I left my one trucking job because of personal anxiety issues. But I changed my meds to ones that are safer and just as effective, and now I'm no longer disqualified.

I currently work in a low-paying internship, which ends soon, and I need to decide whether I want to go back to trucking, or take some other job where the money isn't as good. One concern that might keep me from doing OTR again is my mom needs someone around pretty regularly to help her with errands at home, and I don't know if other family members could just fill in if I was away.

It's a lot to think about, but at least I finally have more options open.

Stoug: Thanks for the advice! I have some contacts with a local Public Works department, so I've started asking.

Don't get rushed by others. If you are going too slow for their liking, THAT'S TOUGH!

Despite my extremely limited experience, I feel like saying, this is great advice. If you're struggling while backing, and people are waiting for you--if they're ACTUALLY hoping for you to get done backing ASAP, they'll get out and spot you to help you finish.

If I may ask, what have you been formally diagnosed with and what are you prescribed? Also of major importance is if you've been baker acted before. If you've been held on 72 hour involuntary, I'd be much more concerned about getting a cdl. I've never been through the 5150 process but have been in in patient psych wards before, I've been diagnosed as schizophrenic, schizoaffective, major depressive, and also bipolar by different docs. Some also think I am autistic but they never tested me for it.

Sorry for the delayed response. I lurk here, but I'm not a regular. I've been formally diagnosed with anxiety disorder and autism-spectrum (formerly known as Asperger's). OCD is a component of my anxiety disorder. For anxiety, I've been prescribed Celexa, Klonopin, and Seroquel (in generic form). Celexa is okay for passing a DOT physical, but the other two aren't. My other meds aren't for anxiety and are fine for the DOT physical.

Be forewarned though, trucking isn't easy for most people. Compounding that with mental illness and especially anxiety is a bad recipe. Most companies team you for a while and if you're on like me, lack of sleep really exacerbates issues. Luckily I can sleep in a moving truck so it doesn't really bother me but again, you're going to need super human resilience to make it out here with anxiety and mental health problems unless you get lucky and can mesh well with the job. On the personal level for me, I'm stuck with my own thoughts endlessly which isn't really a healthy thing. I'm still in team training but even then, my thoughts are racing the whole time I'm alone and I'm sure with anxiety that isn't a good thing. Just some insights from someone out here with psychiatric illnesses. I'd suggest looking into something different first but if not, good luck. You'll need all of the luck you can get.

I'm sorry you have to deal with such bad anxiety, too. It can be devastating, and I hope it doesn't impede what you want to do in life.

My biggest problems when I was driving for 18 months were Imposter Syndrome and OCD. I often had voices in my telling me I wasn't "good enough" (not literally VOICES, but more like thoughts and memories of such ideas) and I had this nagging feeling like I wouldn't ever be a real trucker and I was only trying to play the role. Some embarrassing mistakes reinforced that. Getting embarrassed while struggling at backing reinforced that. And all of that led to OCD episodes, which went along the lines of, "What if I'm messing up? Am I sure I'm not messing up? Maybe I should analyze the situation over and over just to be sure," which led to the nervous breakdowns.

I didn't know one could get a driving job with a government organization while in the "Excepted Interstate" category. I'll look into that.

To be honest, I'll consider ANYTHING that can get me away from doing desk/computer work. I know tons of people who love IT and programming, and I respect that, but it honestly isn't something I have any love for personally. To be blunt, I never had any aspirations to sit at a desk for hours and rack my brains over why thing X isn't doing what it's supposed to in program Y, but I went to college and learned all those things because I really felt like I SHOULD, and got my degrees because I make an honest effort to finish what I start.

Oh, and anything that pays somewhere in the ballpark of $15 per hour with a full health insurance benefit would be a HUGE pay increase compared to my current internship. Even if I don't make as much as I did as a trucker, I'd be happy if I can just get by reasonably comfortably, doing something that isn't mental agony.

Rob, thanks for the tips! Two of my anxiety meds have the "may cause drowsiness" warning, but it's possible I can get them switched. I've been through a lot of medications earlier in life that made things worse for me, and it seems hard to find ones that actually work. Of course, the anxiety itself and related insomnia that I have without the meds cause drowsiness, so it seems like a catch-22 unless I can find better meds. I'll ask my psychiatrist at my next appointment. At least I have some time, and it's good to know I have some options available.

Hi, this is my first post to the forum, but I have a relevant response and follow-up question, so I thought I'd post here.

I took a DOT physical earlier this year, and I was immediately disqualified because of the specific prescription psychiatric meds I am taking for anxiety. Not all psychiatric drugs are disqualifiers, but apparently some are.

Back story: I got my Class-A CDL in 2017 and then got hired at a very good trucking company to do solo, over-the-road driving. I also got Hazmat and Tankers endorsements. I loved the job, and now I severely miss it. But I had struggled with anxiety and OCD for years, and I was consulting with therapists whom I thought could help me, but still eventually, my self-doubt and phobias over the possibility of making mistakes led to nervous breakdowns that only got worse over time. After driving for a year and a half, I eventually had a nervous breakdown so bad that I could barely even drive the truck at a decent speed, so I left. And my doctors suggested seeing a psychiatrist, who prescribed the medications that now disqualify me, but they do prevent the types of nervous breakdowns I was having and that I otherwise would likely have in day-to-day life.

I took a low-paying internship doing data analysis, but I'm struggling to figure out what I can do full-time, after this internship ends. They may hire me for a longer period, but there's no guarantee. I would eventually love to go back to doing something OTHER than office/computer/data work, and something where I can be more physically active. Now, the doctor who disqualified me from passing the DOT physical said I might not even be able to get qualified to drive a forklift. Is that true?

Can anyone suggest what kind of work I might be best suited to look for? My college degrees don't qualify me for anything that truly interests me, and I got them because I felt pressured. I have a huge interest in traffic engineering, but it seems like everyone who's hiring requires a civil engineering degree, which I don't have. Any time I've applied for any kind of construction-related job, I've gotten immediate rejections, but maybe it was just due to the bad job market and my not having any construction experience.

My CDL is now in "Excepted Interstate" status, which allows me to drive my own car, and I'm not sure what else. Are there any jobs it can help me qualify for, when I can't seem to pass the DOT physical?

Thanks.