I have my heart set on joining the army as a musician and was looking through my joining pack today and think I may have discovered a problem. In the medical section it gave you a number of circumstances in which you couldn't join. Two of which I’m worried about. 1. I have (mild) joint hypermobility and 2. it says you cannot have suffered more than one instance of purposeful harm to yourself. With these it says that I’m 'permanently unsuitable for entry into the services'. I was just wondering if I could still get in as my hypermobility is only VERY mild, it only hurts occasionally, but I can work through it and my self harm is also only very little? Anyone got any advice?
When one door of happiness closes another one opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
To be honest Em, I think that as long as you dont mention your SH then you should be fine. Your scars are a little noticable but not obviously SH and could be passed off as something else.
Curly - is there a doctor/medical professoinal who can verify that even though you have hypermobility, it's only mild and therefore (for you) it's not that much of a problem? And same goes for your SI I guess.
hmmm, well thats screwed up my future plans too!
i was planning on being a psychologist in the army, particularly in their barracks in germany, as that is where my fiance is living at the moment, and wants to carry on living, and i know i wouldnt really have to know german to work there!
my self harm is pretty evident unless im wearing long sleeves.
will have to reconsider everything now!
Just don't tell them about it. Come up with an (unverifiable) excuse for the scars in case they notice them and ask, and they'll have no way to know for sure that it's self harm. It would be discrimination for the to exclude you from military service because you might have a history of self harm if you really did run through a glass door as a child, so I doubt they'd exclude you for it. For the joint hypermotility, I don't know exactly what that is, but it sounds like the main symptom is joint pain, in which case you simply don't tell them it hurts.
It's probably illegal to lie on military service eligability stuff, but I get the impression that people probably lie about minor stuff like that all the time, and if they find out then probably all that happens is they don't let you in (or kick you out, if they find out later), which is the same as would happen if you told them the truth about it from the start.
Emily
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Don't tell them and go anyway. :P
Whatever you do, good luck with it all. x
"When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”
To go against the grain here; don't lie to them. Otherwise they could happily discharge you from service or put you on immediate medical suspension. Indeed, don't ever lie to an employer, because that just gives them ammunition should they be concerned about what's happened.
What you could do though is talk (or ring) an army careers centre over this. If it's been a while since your self harm (i'm sure they say five years), then hopefully, with a psychiatric assesment that marks you as "safe" you should be ok to go ahead and join up.
The army does have to be extremely vigilant over mental health though; after all, when you consider that through training and work, you're handling weapons and going through immensely hard, pressured and stressful training.
Basically, i'd be honest with them. You have far more to lose if you were to lie, join up and then be found out to have self harmed. The army is complex over these matters somehow; so i'd consult either careers office or your GP (most will be used to clearing/assessing for the army at a vary basic level).
I agree with Blossom - don't lie to them, because in the long run it won't get you anywhere. I am pretty sure you don't need to have never self-injured, you just need to have been 'free' for a particular length of time, or have a psychological report to say that you're now 'ok', for example. (Aaron (Guardian Angel) may be someone to PM to ask for more specific details, as I believe he was in the Army for a bit.)
I think speaking to your local Armed Services would be a good thing to do, as they'll be able to advise you exactly on what the situation is. With the hypermobility, as the others have said, a doctor's certificate to say it's not that bad might be enough to see you through.
Don't forget also that things like being an army musician might have different requirements to being a squaddie or an engineer, for example - they might be able to lower some of the bars for you because you'll have a different role requirement. Was the list of requirements a general one, or a musician-specific one?
I think Blossom covered everything else I was going to say!!
Your doctor would have to fill out a medical form anyway stating you have any medical problems, but if your self-harm isnt on your medical records then just keep hush about it and bluff when you go through the examination.
I applied for the army as well but got turned down due to a HISTORY not Diagnosis of migraine, eczma (when I was 7), depression, self harm and ADHD. I will state I have never been diagnosed with any of the last 3 so again if it isnt on your med records just keep quiet about it.
If you lie on a job application about information that you're required to disclose as part of that application you'd almost certainly be dismissed if your employer found out. You'd also have committed a criminal offence in obtaining property, i.e. your salary, by deception, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment. It's always best to be up-front with potential employers.
I know this whole thread was an awfully long time ago, but I was wondering as I'm in the same boat currently, did you get into the Army as a Musician? Did you lie or tell the truth? Any general advice going?
