[fire creek]

i am wanting to get a service dog for my ptsd, to help me when i dissociate to recognize it and get out of it faster. Does anyone know what it's like to have one for that?

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Please let me know if you find anything out... I've been diagnosed with many things including PTSD and DID if there were a way a dog could help me from having as many blackouts I would be in heaven!

Best of luck in finding your answers, sorry I could be of no help!

[DelusionsDaily]

Thought this might be a place to start:

http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html

http://psychdog.org/faq.html#I_disabled

[Perna]

Service just for ptsd:

http://sfgsservicedogs.com/ptsd_service_dog.html

[Notdamooma]

Absolutely get a pet that you can actually take care of. Whether it is a cat or dog. Nothing feels better than stroking and loving an animal and getting unconditional love back. Take your time though and get the perfect animal. One that you really connect with. A small animal that you can cuddle with is best. I have a sweet chihuahua that helps me through many a manic episode just by sitting beside me and I know alot of other people that have "service dogs" and cats as well. To be declared "service dogs/cats" just talk to your PDoc and they can write a letter saying you need a service animal to help with rent deposits, etc. Hope this helps.

[Notdamooma]

As a side note, a hamster or nice fish tank can be just as therapeutic. Whatever you can decide will give you calm and a peaceful feeling. It's totally up to you and your PDoc and Therapist to figure out.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Would a person with DID/PTSD/Anxiety disorder be able to somehow qualify for a service dog even though they are not on disability? I would love to be on disability but I'm a single mom, I can't afford it. I fight every single day since I started working to go to work. Force myself every day and have had blackouts and such at work and on a daily basis float away at work but I can't afford to take a pay cut for disability. So could you still be able to get a service dog despite that? I've read that they can be very helpful for a lot of the issues I have and would actually help me a lot. Sorry to ask questions in your thread but I didn't realize you could get a service dog for PTSD or I would have looked into it ages ago

[lostmyway21]

I can be a bit of help in this area. I have PTSD and I have a licensed service dog. He is trained on specific tasks related to my PTSD and is by law allowed everywhere I go. He is trained to get medication during an anxiety attack. He is trained to stimulate me when I dissociate and he recognizes when I start holding my breath too long. As well as a few other smaller tasks. It is amazing to have him. He means more to me than anything. He is a Yorkshire terrier and I have had him since he was 8 wks old. I never intended for him to be my service dog but once I realized his ability. I trained him for tasks to be licensed. He comes with me to all my dr appoints and most my therapy sessions. He really helped to break the ice my first day of therapy. He tends to act silly when I get really nervous.

Someone said to get a note from your doctor. That is incorrect. A note from your doctor would only qualify them as an Emotional Support Animal. That ONLY helps you have a dog in a rental situation or on flights. They do NOT get public access. Service dogs MUST be trained to specific task regarding your disability.

That being said...Its not ALL great. You will VERY often get be challenged for public access from ignorant people. Sometimes it makes things worse, because they trigger your PTSD even more. It's a constant education. Stranger will stop you often and try to distract and play with your dog. It's just the life of having a SD to be honest.

If anyone has specific questions I'd be more than happy to answer them.

Oh and I am not on disability. It has no effect on whether or not you can have a SD.

Heres a pic of my little man..

[lostmyway21]

Oh and cats can be serivce cats but to be declared a Service Cat they would have to be able to perform specific tasks as well. So i'd imagine training a cat is not easy.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Thanks for the info, it was very informative. How would you go about training your own dog? I have a lhasa Apso poodle mix right now. He seems as if he would be easy to train but I may want a larger dog for support when I'm dizzy and faint. But my dog now, I noticed a couple weeks ago, I started spacing big time. I was sitting in bed doing paperwork and somehow came back to the world with him barking staring at me and I was somehow laying down. Everything was foggy and I couldn't move at first, it took a minute for me to feel connected enough to do anything at all. But at that time my dog was at the foot of the bed staring at me and barking at me, that's what I believe caused me to snap out of the dissociation. I didn't even know last week that dogs could pick up on it until mine did. He seems to want to do tricks though, he's really fast at learning them and enjoys it so maybe I should work with a trainer for him or would a large dog be beneficial for someone who gets very dizzy? I don't have a t as of yet. I am at a low paying job that is still refusing me medical insurance even though I have been here 1 year 6 months. I have a free primary care doc but I can only see him once every three months and my next appointment isn't until January 25th and I was hoping to get info from him at the appointment for t's in the area that I may be able to afford but I've got a while to go just before I can see him. I will bring this all up with him, I just want to make sure I'm well educated on the matter...

Sorry, not trying to take over the thread but you asked good questions and it just made more questions arise from me

[lostmyway21]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

Thanks for the info, it was very informative. How would you go about training your own dog? I have a lhasa Apso poodle mix right now. He seems as if he would be easy to train but I may want a larger dog for support when I'm dizzy and faint. But my dog now, I noticed a couple weeks ago, I started spacing big time. I was sitting in bed doing paperwork and somehow came back to the world with him barking staring at me and I was somehow laying down. Everything was foggy and I couldn't move at first, it took a minute for me to feel connected enough to do anything at all. But at that time my dog was at the foot of the bed staring at me and barking at me, that's what I believe caused me to snap out of the dissociation. I didn't even know last week that dogs could pick up on it until mine did. He seems to want to do tricks though, he's really fast at learning them and enjoys it so maybe I should work with a trainer for him or would a large dog be beneficial for someone who gets very dizzy? I don't have a t as of yet. I am at a low paying job that is still refusing me medical insurance even though I have been here 1 year 6 months. I have a free primary care doc but I can only see him once every three months and my next appointment isn't until January 25th and I was hoping to get info from him at the appointment for t's in the area that I may be able to afford but I've got a while to go just before I can see him. I will bring this all up with him, I just want to make sure I'm well educated on the matter...

Sorry, not trying to take over the thread but you asked good questions and it just made more questions arise from me

It largely depends on where you live. BUT the ADA allows owners to train there own service dogs but they have to be trained to tasks that THEY list here: http://www.iaadp.org/psd_tasks.html

My city accepted my training because I have a background in training working dogs, combined with the fact my doctor signed off that he was trained to the tasks.

It is more common to have them professionally trained. You could potentially train your dog but MY biggest concern is the age. They may be trainable to the task, but it is almost impossible to get dogs accustomed to the life of being a SD at a later age. They have to be able to avoid everything around them, and be perfectly sociable and non aggressive/territorial toward anyone or anything. These dogs are generally starting this training at 12 weeks.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

I thought about his age when I was considering him, I was wondering if it would effect his ability to be trained appropriately. I'm going to look into it and be 100% ready if I do it. I would like to but I know there are other things to consider than just "I want a dog friend". I've got my little guy already for that, I really just want a way to be comfortable out on my own but I'm not. I've had to have my boyfriend go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet while I showered because I'm afraid of what will happen when I'm alone. At work it's even harder, imagine how embarrassing it would be to faint in front of the customers or have a seizure or just blackout and change personalities at the flip of the hat... I'm sure many can relate and it's not the easiest. Especially when I already have so much anxiety. I only feel safe at home and my social anxiety peaked years ago and never subsided so it would benefit me a lot I believe but it would be a lot of work so there's a lot to learn here, so please forgive me for any annoying questions.

[lostmyway21]

Originally Posted by PurpleFlyingMonkeys

I thought about his age when I was considering him, I was wondering if it would effect his ability to be trained appropriately. I'm going to look into it and be 100% ready if I do it. I would like to but I know there are other things to consider than just "I want a dog friend". I've got my little guy already for that, I really just want a way to be comfortable out on my own but I'm not. I've had to have my boyfriend go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet while I showered because I'm afraid of what will happen when I'm alone. At work it's even harder, imagine how embarrassing it would be to faint in front of the customers or have a seizure or just blackout and change personalities at the flip of the hat... I'm sure many can relate and it's not the easiest. Especially when I already have so much anxiety. I only feel safe at home and my social anxiety peaked years ago and never subsided so it would benefit me a lot I believe but it would be a lot of work so there's a lot to learn here, so please forgive me for any annoying questions.

Oh no please ask away. Not annoying at all.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

Do you work? If so do you bring him to work? That I think is going to be the biggest obstacle for me because at work is when I need it the most. I spend 1/2 my work day in some sort of emotional turmoil. Dissociation, rage, anxiety, fear, depressed... The list goes on. But I have to work so I'm trying to figure out how I can work and somehow get better mentally and not worse from work. Was this an obstacle for you or were your employers understanding if you are employed?

[lostmyway21]

Yes im employed and yes I need him at work, but no I do not bring him. I do security work on a ferry and besides it being to dangerous, I was employed before I had him. It gets very sketchy reguarding if they need to accommodate me. I need the job so I do the best I can to deal with it. I will be looking for a new job accepting of having my SD soon.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

That's what I've been thinking. My job is fairly safe, I work at a hotel and mostly I just have to worry about people trying to rob the place BUT... With my extensive SA history, I tense up and often have flashbacks and or dissociative episodes just from men making moves on me which happens fairly often here at the hotel. My boyfriend thinks I say it to make him feel better but in all honesty, when someone makes an advance at me, it's a pretty big trigger for me because in my experience the word "no" isn't enough. I've had melt downs, even refused to leave my apartment for weeks (not even to get groceries and had to cancel all my t appointments back then) because there were construction workers outside working on the apartment and they hit on me. They were rather vulgar with it and of course I brought it to the apartments attention but it didn't make me feel any more safe so I stayed inside my apartment until they were finished working. I have a lot of triggers that cause me to dissociate, more than I can even count for and most of them I don't know where they come from.

Working in any kind of environment where I and people of the opposite sex work I understand there will be times where I feel uncomfortable and have to blow them off but I used to work as a server/bar tender that's why I quit. I couldn't handle it any more.

I hope you find a job you enjoy that allows you to bring your service animal. I'm pretty sure my work will refuse but it's only an $8 an hour job, not hard to find another like it. But I'll stick it out for now at least. What tasks does your dog help you with?

I've been reading the things that they can do and a lot seem pretty helpful in my circumstance. The medication, losing things and having the dog be able to find them (keys purse etc), helping bring the person back from a flashback/dissociative state and mostly the waking me up from them and sleep for alarms. My alarm clocks don't work not to mention just a couple of weeks ago I was watching TV and my little 3 year old was playing in her room. The next think I know I'm laying on the couch the fire alarm is going off and the house was filled with smoke. I very very vaguely remember getting up and putting some spaghetti o's on the burner but I don't remember anything other than a flash of myself pouring the spaghetti o's into the pan. Well I wake up with the fire alarm beeping and the apartment full of smoke, the thing that woke me up was of course my dog. He started barking from the halway and somehow that over the fire alarm woke me up. I sat up and was in a fog for a few minutes before I even realized the alarm was going off. I just stared trying to make sense of anything really. When I snapped back in and realized what was going on I jumped up and went into action turning off the burner and the fire alarm and clearing the aparment of smoke, I was so lucky it didn't start a fire, it seems there was about 30 minutes unaccounted for there where a fire could have broken out.

Does your dog help you with things like these? There were a few others that would be beneficial for sure but those are my main goal if I do/can do this

[lostmyway21]

In this list of tasks he knows:

1. Wake Sedated Partner, Alerting to Doorbell
(If I take meds to help me sleep I won't wake up for the door bell, or alarm clock or anything, if he hears any of them go off he wakes me up.)

2. Provide Tactile Stimulation to Disrupt the Overload.
Dog is trained to vigorously lick someone’s face on command to bring his partner to full awareness. (He's commanded on "help me")

3. Break the Spell
Dog or partner initiates a game of fetch or tug with a toy, which assists the person to resist sedative side effects and may break the grip of obsessive thoughts or memories.

4. Arouse From Fear Paralysis or Disassociation Spell
Dog is trained to nudge handler during freezing behavior to rouse handler from a disassociative state or fear paralysis. (He reminds me to get off at my bus stop and train stop when I am dissociating.)

5. Provide a Reality Check - Who’s There?
Ask the service dog, “Who’s There?” in excited tone of voice. The tone of voice and body language will encourage the dog to listen and to alert if need be. If nothing is there, the dog’s initial interest will wane. He will relax and wander off to do something else.

6. Bring Medication to Alleviate Symptoms
(He's trained on "find medicine" he will find it any where in my home and bring it to me.)

Sorry took so long to get back to your questions. I kept forgetting to respond.