I've only ever seen one therapist and it did not go well. But I have social anxiety that I would consider moderately debilitating. I've dropped out and failed out of college before because of it; I've also stopped showing up/ quit my job because of it. I have extreme difficulty going out into public, to do anything at all (even the basics like going to the store), by myself.

The only reason I graduated from my community college was that I realized that I could manage it if my best friend took ALL of the same classes that I did and we went everywhere on campus together. The support of having her there made it bearable, even though I would occasionally still have to leave the classroom. Even when I was medicated for the anxiety/ depression, I still ended up dropping out of school that year.

It's worth stating that I do have a couple physical disabilities that I wouldn't normally think about requesting a service dog for. Which includes muscular dystrophy and heart arrhythmia. An already irregular heartbeat (that I take medication to slow down) does not mix very well with anxiety/ panic attacks.

The reason I thought about a service dog is that now that I've graduated and will be moving on to a university, it is impossible for my friend to take any of the same classes as me due to us having completely different majors. So without her physical and emotional support, I have no idea how I'm going to manage.

My question is: Would a PSD help in my situation? Could a PSD possibly replace that role my friend had and then more? (Give me more freedom to be able to go out into public "on my own" and not have to depend or rely on my family? It's also worth mentioning that I will be moving out soon (that friend will be my roommate, however, I don't want to have to rely on her just to leave the house.)

I realize that a lot of people might think that having a service dog would only bring more attention to me and would make social phobias worse. But I feel like that wouldn't be a problem because they would be focused on the dog and not me (or at least I'd feel that way).