DOJ/Fed Gov't Intern + Mental Health Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 1L applying to summer gov't jobs and having a crisis of faith. In the summer of 2014 (15 mo's ago?) I had a psychotic break due to an allergic reaction to prescription drugs and ended up in psych wards for a couple of months. I am fine now and the verdict is I don't have any of the biggies (originally diagnosed as schizophrenic) it literally was a prescription drug-reaction/crazy that should not reoccur. Am I going to fail a security clearance? Should I not apply to gov't because I'll fail my background check at the last second and be SOL? The rest of my mental health history is pretty tame but existant (mild depression, etc) and I'm obviously in school and functioning.

[Anonymous User]

DOJ does ask about mental health - I can't remember if they ask only for "diagnosis of condition that affects your ability to practice law" or if they want to know about any kind of treatment. But you'll be fine - you will just need to get your mental health care provider to submit a letter saying that you do not currently suffer from any condition that affects your ability to practice law, and no one will care (especially since in your case it really wasn't an actual mental illness). That sounds like an incredibly unfortunate experience, but it really shouldn't affect your approval at all. (They want to know if anything about you poses a potential security risk - the chance that someone will give you a prescription that makes you psychotic is pretty low on that scale.)

[Mr. Archer]

I never did DOJ internships but interned at two different agencies. They didn't require security clearance and at most did a basic criminal record check (not sure if they checked for mental health). You got into law school so I don't see it being a problem for an internship. You should talk to your career services office to see if they have handled something similar. Sorry for your situation. Good luck.

[nevdash]

DOJ does ask about mental health - I can't remember if they ask only for "diagnosis of condition that affects your ability to practice law" or if they want to know about any kind of treatment. But you'll be fine - you will just need to get your mental health care provider to submit a letter saying that you do not currently suffer from any condition that affects your ability to practice law, and no one will care (especially since in your case it really wasn't an actual mental illness). That sounds like an incredibly unfortunate experience, but it really shouldn't affect your approval at all. (They want to know if anything about you poses a potential security risk - the chance that someone will give you a prescription that makes you psychotic is pretty low on that scale.)

Some of the forms certainly do ask about mental health in a way that would seem to cover OP's situation. Google forms SF-85, SF-85p, and SF-86, and check out the relevant mental health questions on each. Which form you'll have to complete is entirely dependent on office -- even different USAOs require their employees to fill out different background forms upon hiring.