This week's post is a bit off-topic compared to the usual posts: Psychiatric Service Dogs (PSD). Once I learned that people with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) are legally allowed to have a psychiatric service dog, I began looking (ahem, obsessing) into it for myself, despite the lack of family support.
It's been a long week at work (as they are all turning out to be these days), so this won't be a very long post, even if it does take half a day to write just a few hundred words.
Service dogs, also known as assistance dogs, are generally thought of as only helping those with visual, audio (hearing), or physical disabilities. Their use in psychiatric issues has become more common over the years, though they are hardly as well known as traditional service dogs. There are all sorts of terms and definitions related to the legalities of what's classified as a disability, who can utilize a service dog, etc., but I'm not getting into that. Today is how a psychiatric service dog can help those with ADHD.
Psychiatric Service Dogs help people with mental issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and panic disorders, depression, and yes, even ADHD. These dogs help their owners by reducing the person's anxiety, blocking people from becoming too close to their handler, bringing the person back to focus or keeping them on task, reminding their owner to take their medication, and even escorting the person away from overstimulating situations.
Psychiatric service dogs for ADHD are even less common than for those who suffer from the above-mentioned disorders. ADHD is often thought of as a disorder that only children have, or it makes the person hyperactive. For those who are more of the inattentive type, this is often seen as not paying attention, daydreaming, or losing focus on tasks. Due to having this subtype, also known simply as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), I've been told by people that "I don't look like" I have it, or that I'm not hyper so I must not have it.
It's frustrating enough to go through life with something like ADHD. Being told you don't have it, or that you don't need the extra help that a service dog could provide, makes you wonder if you aren't "disabled enough" to need a service dog. That leads to asking yourself questions like: Do I really need a service dog when I've gone x-number of years without one? How could a service dog help me, especially when I'm used to doing everything on my own? Would they actually be of any help, or do I just think they would help? Would it be worth the time or money to train the dog or buy one already trained? It's all very confusing.
To qualify as a PSD, the dog must be trained to perform at least one task directly related to the handler's disability. The word "disability" raises the question of whether a person is disabled for having ADHD. Legally (at least in the United States), yes ADHD is considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities (ADA). While I am legally able to claim myself as disabled under this law, I find it difficult to do so. I have never thought of myself as disabled: I'm just me, getting through each day. Some days are better, some days are harder. Some days I'm just so overwhelmed, that I don't know where to start, so I do nothing at all, and then beat myself up over not getting anything done.
Back to the topic: As mentioned above, a psychiatric service dog can help those with ADHD. The most common tasks are:
Medication/ water/ snack retrieval
Alerting to change tasks, take a break, eat, etc.
Guide their handler away from an over-stimulating environment
Grounding the handler to help them focus on the present during overwhelming moments
Interrupt the owner's self-harming behavior
Block people as a barrier in crowded places to reduce anxiety
Provide deep pressure therapy by applying their weight to calm the handler during episodes of distress
Wake up the owner in the morning
Creating a routine. This isn't necessarily a trained task, but it does help with the consistency of having a daily routine for feeding the dog, taking them outside, grooming, etc.
Many other tasks can be taught, but these are some of the more common ones concerning ADHD. As for myself, I would like to train one of my dogs, the younger German Shepherd, to become a PSD. There are no trainers for this where we live, so I'll have to rely on books, YouTube videos, or, if I feel it might be worth it, I could pay for an online training program. I like the idea of a training program to get things going and to make sure I don't overlook anything, but at the moment we don't have the extra money for it.
For now, it will be about the basic obedience training that has been neglected these last few years and then progressing onto the task training itself. Yes, it sounds bad that I didn't bother training the dogs. The yard is enclosed with a 6' high fence, we have very few people over to the house, and there are few places to take dogs in public aside from walking them in the state park or the odd store that allows dogs. Thus, despite knowing how important basic dog training is, I just didn't get around to it. This leads to the difficulty of actually starting the training process, as I'm unsure where to start. It's overwhelming trying to figure out what's the best thing to start working on when the dog isn't an 8-week-old puppy like so many are when they start training.
That wraps up this week's post that I wanted to post on Monday. Until next week...I hope.
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