Doc is my service dog I chose to seek different modalities to help heal my PTSD one of the issues when you're suffering from PTSD is having an isolation you don't want to deal with the public but obviously you can't live like that you need to be able to reintegrate into society we know that veterans with PTSD are struggling they face High rates of depression anxiety their body is exhausted from the hypervigilance that they are facing those with a service dog appear to be struggling less it's not intended to be a standalone treatment to cure PTSD
on its own it's intended to help veterans struggle less and that's really what the data is showing is that they are exhibiting less PTSD symptoms I call him an early war in detection system because now that he was in the house any little thing that he would have heard he would have gotten up and he would have alerted me so now I can sleep better at night I don't have to worry about the insomnia well am I going to get attacked is this going to happen am I going to have a night tear and not
be able to get out of it and Doc knowing he was beside my bed it gave me that opportunity of peace and ease to be able to good night's sleep the VA is the primary body that determines what treatments are evidence-based which treatments are recommended currently service dogs are listed as not having enough clinical evidence to be supported and listed in this manner and that's one of the reasons that we wanted to conduct this study is to bring evidence behind a practice that appears to be increasingly popular yet historically did not have the scientific base
behind it you know I can't really say that I've had really dark moments since I've had him yes I've had moments but they're now manageable moments so whereas they this used to be debilitating for days and weeks on in right you could take now a situation in which I I might be triggered but I could hopefully get that within hours to days the best love doc