Can you be cabin crew with anxiety or a history of depression? What the medical asks
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#1 Norwegian, Oslo, two years, and I had a period of treated anxiety at 22 that I declared on the medical and that was reviewed and accepted. Paul's mental health thread covers the support once you are flying. This is the applying side: the declaration, the medications, the review, because the applicants with a history read the medical form and freeze.
What the medical asks
The questionnaire asks about mental health history, treatment, hospitalisation and current medication. It asks because some conditions and some medications affect the safety functions, and because the aviation doctor needs to assess fitness. It does not ask to exclude you.
What is reviewed
A history of anxiety or depression that was treated and is stable is reviewed and, at the regulators I know (EASA, the Nordic authorities, CASA, the FAA), generally accepted with a note and sometimes a letter from the treating doctor. A current episode, a recent hospitalisation, or a condition that is not stable is a conversation and sometimes a deferral until it is. The aviation doctors are used to it and the three of us who compared notes (me, a colleague at SAS, a friend at easyJet) all had the same experience: a question, a letter, a note on the file, cleared.
The medications
Some antidepressants are accepted by EASA and the FAA under a protocol (a stable dose for a period, the treating doctor's letter, a review). Some are not, because of the sedation or the cognitive effect. The aviation doctor knows the list and the applicant should ask the specific airline's medical department in writing before the assessment, as Lotte's chronic condition thread advises. Benzodiazepines are not compatible with flying and the doctors say so.
What the doctors told us
That a treated and stable history is common among crew and is not disqualifying. That hiding it is the thing that ends careers, because the medication turns up or the episode returns and the file says nothing. That the fatigue and the body clock of the job can affect a history and that the crew who know their own warning signs manage it. And that the EAP and the peer support exist for exactly this.
For the applicants with a history
Declare it. Get the letter. Ask the airline's medical department about the medication in writing. And know that the three of us are flying with a note on the file and nobody has ever mentioned it since the medical.
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#2 Virgin, and the applying side was the thread my mental health one did not cover and Emma has written it. Declare, the letter, the note. The hiding is the thing that ends careers. Every time.
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#3 Virgin, peer supporter, and the crew who come to us with a history declared at the medical are the ones who manage it. The ones who hid it are the ones in crisis at 3am with no file. Emma's three experiences are the normal ones.
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#4 Lufthansa, German AME, and the antidepressant protocol under EASA is real: a stable dose, the letter, a review, and several of my colleagues are on it and flying. The AME knows the list. Ask in writing.
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#5 SAS Stockholm, and I am the SAS colleague Emma compared notes with. A question, a letter, cleared. Three years ago. Nobody has mentioned it since.
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#6 Leeds, aspiring, with a treated history at 24, and this is the thread I was afraid to search for. Declared, the letter, the note. Applying this winter.
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#7 Delta, and the FAA protocol for certain antidepressants exists and the airline medical departments apply it. The US version is the same shape: declare, the letter, the review. Emma's list of regulators is right.
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#8 SAS, and my chronic condition thread said 'do not hide it' and Emma's says it for the mental health history with the same reasoning. The file protects you. The silence does not.