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A service dog is defined as dog that provides one or more task for their handlers disability. For PTSD, this could be deep pressure therapy (DPT), blocking (keeping people from approaching by standing between you and them), alerting to panic attacks/episodes, or whatever else can help you.
What is *not* a task is providing emotional comfort (as defined by the ADA)
If you feel having an animal provide these or other tasks, a service animal might be right for you however your care team knows you better than random redditors. Do be aware tho that having a service dog draws significantly more attention in public. People will stare, talk about you and your dog, confront you, tell you weird stories, ask you inappropriate question, and much much more.
If you can't handle attention from strangers, a service dog will make things worse. When you use a SD in public, people stare constantly, they bother the dog while it's working, they take pictures of it, they ask you questions at really inconvenient times. The amount of public attention can be very overwhelming. I'm on my third guide dog and I still find the public interference extremely annoying because it never stops, no matter what breed you have.
I'm pointing this out because I'd hate for you to commit to this kind of dog and end up in a worse situation. If I didn't absolutely need a guide dog for physical safety, I wouldn't have one.
This is definitely something to consider. The opposite can be true too though. with a service dog you know people are looking at the dog and not at you. This can provide some ease for some people. And in general, dogs make people smile so the world seems like a much happier place.… for me it’s become a lot easier to interact with other people because the focus is on my service dog instead of me so I feel like I can put my guard down. Small talk about Rosie is a lot more enjoyable than about the weather..She also provides an excuse to leave situations when I am getting overwhelmed, which is actually considered a task surprisingly. Of course, everyone is different so consider what works for you.
This. If the trigger around people staring is that it feels sexualizing as in OP’s case, knowing that people are staring more at your adorable service dog than at you can actually be comforting than distressing. People do not notice Me in public, they notice my poodle. I haven’t had guys stare at my boobs nearly as often in public since having my service dog.
It would be best to talk to your health team. A service dog is tasked with training to help mitigate the disability and has public access right. An emotional support animal does not. Please note it can take 2+ years to fully train a service dog and 10-15k+ with the training and dog. However, emotional support animals don't require any training.
If you struggle with hypervigilence, having a service dog can make things exponentially worse. With hypervigilance, it could *feel* like people are watching you, talking about you, approaching you, or going to target you even when they're not. With a service dog, people actually *are* talking about you, watching you, approaching you, getting up in your space, talking about their dead dogs, confronting you, and in some cases actually targeting you.
The hypervigilence is something that you really should work on before going on the service dog journey. Take it from someone who's been there.
It's worth it to note that I get exponentially more insistent and unwelcome attention from men when I have my dog than when I do when I'm alone. Many take it as a challenge, and men are the *first* people to try and screw with my dog as a joke. And I have "scary dog privilege" (not really a privilege in any way).
I don't say this to dissuade you, but it is something you must be aware of.
I guess I felt like a service dog would be like an extra set of eyes and tell me when I need to change course or go home. My cat isn’t a trained ESA, but he picked up on keeping me on a sleep schedule on his own. This is most likely because he knows I will stay in bed, ruin my routine for the rest of the week, and cause boredom for him. Also, he meows when I drone out into my phone too hard. It keeps me on focus during the day. I guess that falls within the ESA umbrella, since it’s not a definitive task? More just emotional feedback?
Sometimes men like to get closer to you then they should, and I imagined a dog would protect me in a sense. I guess I never thought about it causing more attention. I can be very charismatic and sociable, when I’m not overstimulated and hypervigilant. What really sets me off is sexualization. It’s more about getting looked at as a sexual object.
I was just thinking about it as possibility, to help me actually get out of the house more. ESA aren’t allowed in all situations, which is why I was thinking about service dogs.
So a couple of things:
Tasks have to he specifically trained. They can't be naturally offered behaviors unless those are specifically proofed and polished, and the dog has to help you in a way farther than "just existing." It has to be more than their presence that helps you, which is what you're describing. Their task-training status is what allows them to be taken into public spaces.
A service dog should never be specifically used to protect you. It's not ethical, it's not safe, and depending on the extent of the protection, it's not legally permissible, and the dog could be excluded from being a service dog. I've been sexualized more since I've gotten my dog because men are men, and they take it as a challenge ("Can a little thing like you handle that big dog?" said suggestively). A dog, unfortunately, doesn't prevent others from looking at you as a sexual object; it invites more and more eyes to look at you very closely. Some people may argue that others are looking at your dog, but the reality is that the dog is an extension of you in these contexts, and someone who looks at the dog is also looking at the handler. I never really attract insistent attention of any kind from any type of person without my dog; I attract *a lot* of it with her.
The thing with the idea of "getting a dog to leave the house" is that it almost never works out that way. When you train your own dog, you *have* to go train and socialize even if you don't want to, and the nature of our disabilities often means that we *can't*, regardless of the reason, and the dog never becomes socialized or trained in public. If you have a program dog, you still have to do outings with the dog since dogs can lose their mojo without keeping up with their training. In the end, you find *many* people who just end up equally as homebound, but now they have a dog with behavioral problems, and it isn't a good compromise for anyone. Or people who prematurely retire their dogs because the pressure of outings with a service dog was far too much for them.
Honestly, it sucks that people have zero boundaries when it comes to people normally, but negative boundaries with handlers of service dogs, but that is the unfortunate reality.
Edited to fix a typo.
As spicy said, a dog is just going to create opportunities for men to be ***MORE*** bold in how they sexualize you. The fact is that I have had many instances where I had a man come up behind me without saying anything as they reached their hand on my butt or between my thighs then when I said something they just claimed they were trying to pet my dog. Or that they use the dog as something to include in their attempts to hit on me.
With the protection issue our dogs have to be neutral in these situation, especially if you have a "scary" breed. If your dog even goes from a sit to a stand people will often misinterpret that as aggression and may lash out at you or your dog. Being protective at all is an automatic disqualification from service work and quickly could result in you having to deal with the many restrictions that owning a "dangerous dog" entails.
Otherwise, I have no notes to add to what spicy said.
If you cannot handle attention from strangers then the service dog may not be for you. You will have more people stare, whisper behind back (especially chikdren and parents), people touching dog without asking, etc.
Additionally they can not just be emotional support and must be trained to do specific task or tasks. They could be trained to circle to keep people from being too close or trained to give DPT if you have panic attack but must be task trained to do something. A dog just for emotional support would be considered an ESA and they do not have public access rights.
I want to add on to the other comments about attention and PTSD. I used to be a handler and a trainer. I have complex PTSD and some of my no longer handling isn't just changes that meant cats are not allowed but how my needs changed over time. I developed agoraphobia from more trauma and I couldn't cope with the children approaching and the demands for petting anymore. My cat was nearing retirement and I didn't realize that change until after she retired and I was less stressed when I forced myself to go out. That forcing was part of my care decisions but also hell.
I no longer have agoraphobia but it's recent and I know that handling a dog, if we found a fit that didn't make my allergies go nuts, would set me back. Some of this depends on triggers but when deciding if you're going to benefit from a SD I highly recommend with your care team sitting with the idea of multiple strangers demanding you justify your now visible disability, trying to pet the dog, while having your worst level of PTSD.
If that's manageable for you then you probably will be fine but if not? It's important to assess the benefits during the worst case scenarios not the best because the dog's job is the worst case scenario. What helps me is having my cat at home. The current kitten has been doing services for me without training so I have trained tasks with him both to engage his brilliant mind and to help with the bad unhelpful options he tried like peeing on my head when I had PTSD nightmares. Not helpful but scent masking vulnerable colony members is a cat thing. He hasn't tried that since my surgery fixed the worst of the physical stuff and he will actually close himself out of the room if I need a nap.
I know these are not the answers you hoped for but an at home service animal is actually a thing that is still protected. It is however still not an option if you're violent during PTSD. This is also something that I had issues with as a kid but out grew and merits mention because the safety of you and your animal companion matters too.
For at home tasks it's not different training than outside the home. My cat when I had my first PTSD was on my chest and pressing himself to me with a purr and gentle face touch on his own. My PTSD is not visible since my survival as a child depended on never showing anything vulnerable. My therapist had to admit that she couldn't tell when I had to pause during a session. The only tells for others are me verbalizing it's starting if possible or the cat suddenly in my face. It's different than his cuddles. I don't know how he knew but he did.
So while he isn't protected in the way a dog is? My cat does these tasks naturally and is very happy to learn other things. If you already benefit from the comfort of a dog and they can be trained for more tasks and for in emergencies good behavior? This can be a compromise.
I really hope this helps with the self assessment. Being told no sucks when we hope for better but it's vital to assess this part and maybe you are a good candidate. Some folks are. It is hard when you don't get the choice to not advertise being disabled on many levels. I use a wheelchair now for the physical side of things but it's very vulnerable when the answer is PTSD because people can be assholes about that especially if they're not aware civilians can have that too.
First of all, a dog needs to do a task to be considered a service dog, and emotional support doesn't count as a task. They need to have been trained to do a specific behavior that mitigates your disability. But the bigger issue is that your social anxiety, particularly since you mention it being worse when you feel people watching you, is likely to result in a service dog making your condition worse instead of better. Having a service dog is an invitation for the general public to stare, to talk about you, to approach you, to ask questions, etc. It's basically walking around with a blinking neon light that says I HAVE A DISABILITY, and it's going to draw all sorts of attention.
Yes, you can get a service dog for PTSD ***BUT*** what you described is ***NOT*** a service dog. A service animal is a dog that is trained to perform specific actions to mitigate a disability, these actions are also known as tasks. Just existing with you is not a specific action and thus would not be a task, but standing behind you to create space would be a task. Now it is my experience that having the dog stand between you and the general public means that people take it as an open invitation to invade your space to pet the dog, because clearly PTSD stands for "pet the service dog" or something which is especially true if you have a 'scary dog'. I personally use it because my knees are weak and having people accidentally bumping my legs with their carts can cause me to fall and hurt myself but I will be honest it is the point in our day where we are most struggling to deal with the general public.
With that said there are a lot of reasons a service dog can be a bad idea, and something that you do need to be mindful of when asking in spaces like this one that there is going to be a very strong bias. Just be aware of the fact that people are in this sub because the pros outweighed the cons for us and we were likely successful in obtaining a service dog, both things that aren't actually a majority of experiences. That said there are individuals that are very open about many of the less ideal aspects of having a service dog, like the fact that your boundaries will almost certainly not be respected, posting about a service dog outside the community can result in a lot of hate including threatening messages, that it is a gamble where even if you stack the odds in your favor chances are still only about 40% that you spend the $20,000-$25,000 and actually get a service dog for your time, money and energy. I am only touching the surface, but as others have mentioned it is most likely the case that the attention and treatment you will experience from the public could make your hypervigilance worse or result in you isolating yourself more because the general public is not inherently safe around service dog handlers.
I do actually have a [page](https://www.reddit.com/r/service_dogs/wiki/sdconsiderations/) that I recommend people read before they decide to get a service dog. Or even this [story](https://www.reddit.com/r/service_dogs/comments/nxy435/having_a_service_dog_is_not_glamorous/) from during the pandemic which having people actually kick my dog is not common thankfully, but the conflict with people that are convinced that you are faking is unfortunately not uncommon.
We have removed your post/comment for violating Rule 2: Know and Obey Your Local Laws. Posts encouraging illegal behavior or "stretching" the rules will be removed. When giving advice, make sure to evaluate all the relevant laws for OP's location. For example, in New York, USA, SDiTs receive the same protections the ADA grants, as long as they are with a qualified trainer. This is not the same situation for someone in Michigan, USA. Citations aren't required, but highly encouraged. Citations are important so OP can read more and so you can reconfirm the information you give is entirely correct. If you have any questions, [Message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs). If you continue to give misinformation or encourage breaking the law, it could result in an immediate ban.
Your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 6: No Fake-spotting.
This is not the place for fakespotting. Unless the person you are discussing has specifically told you that they are not disabled, and the dog is not trained in tasks, you have no way of knowing if a dog is 'fake'. We are not the service dog police and this behavior can lead to a lot of harm and anxiety for SD handlers as a community.
This does not preclude discussing encounters with un-/undertrained dogs, but if the focus of your post is complaining about a "fake" SD, reconsider your phrasing and what point you're making.
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Can’t answer the dog thing, but I am being treated for severe General Anxiety Disorder. I take Buspar and it’s like night and day. You might ask your doctor about it; it’s not a benzo or SSRI, so no risk of dependency or any side effects. It takes a week or so to take full effect.
So emotional support animals and service animals are very different, as ESAs do not have public access rights , and service animals are trained to do specific tasks.
That said, a service animal could be an option for you, as there are several tasks a SD can do to assist with PTSD.
At home tasks can include nightmare interruption, grounding techniques, and deep pressure therapy.
Public tasks can include grounding, heart rate alerts, deep pressure therapy, body blocking, dissociation interruption and guiding, etc.
Now, having a service dog in public does mean people will genuinely stare at and interact with you more, not less, which could make things worse, but not necessarily.
These aren’t tasks, but personal experience as someone with cPTSD from childhood SA and other abuse who also feels triggered by men staring in a sexualizing way, I find that people staring at me and my SD means I can convince myself (and it usually is true) that people are staring because I have a dog with me and not because I’m attractive which is actually comforting. People notice me less because the dog is more “out of place”.
Having an SD also worked as a form of exposure therapy when it comes to being firm and setting boundaries with people. I had to learn to set and maintain boundaries for the sake of my service dog, and as a result I’ve become more comfortable in tense situations, and less of a people pleaser.
A service dog is something that ultimately you should discuss with your care team as their advice is going to be more accurate to you and your situation than internet strangers.
I used to raise PTSD service dogs. You could have a full on service dog. You can get one trained yourself or go through an organization. If you're in the Cali bay area, lmk if you want the organizations contact info.
You could also get in touch with a group that trains service dogs and start learning the .methods they use. An old coworker (wheelchair bound) got a puppy for himself, and he did all his own training by working with a group that trains dogs professionally.
The short answer is yes, it is possible. PTSD is a disability covered under the ADA. Maybe the better question is why are you considering an SD over an ESA? My experience is that MY DOG gets the attention, not so much me, although people do ask questions, etc. some times. I don’t find it uncomfortable since the dog is the buffer and I have been known to say “sorry, we’re training” and walk away. I’ve only had one man approach me in the past four months. A trained task could be a touch to your leg when someone approaches, signaling you to walk away or give the excuse that the dog needs to toilet, etc. If you think a dog will help you navigate public spaces, I say try it. Find a team or trainer and ask if they’d be ok going out with you for you to see. Lastly, depending on what you need, think about what kind of dog you might want. I chose a Coton de Tulear originally for different reasons, but then my trauma event happened and three weeks later I got the call one was available. I took her not knowing I’d have PTSD. She’s super smart and very trainable. She’s little so doesn’t get much notice, but also stupid cute which does lol.
https://preview.redd.it/85aewhpvv49d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b04df8e1c37dae557b77233890869bfff2e309ab
Now SOME districts(cities and counties- I can only think of two) in the us allow ESAs to work PA as long as they meet the exact level of training as SDs- king county, which includes Seattle comes to mind. They also allow cats as SAs. I believe this is legally held and not a misunderstanding of the law as far as I’ve understood and read the law.
If you don’t live in these VERY specific areas, where you will still receive tons of PA issues, you’re out of luck.
So if you had the money for the dog AND the move to Seattle and you never used the dog outside of king county I’d say it’s possible
On another point, ESAs are an allowed work accommodation so if you put the training work in and made your case to your works HR AND it was an accommodation that was reasonable you could have your dog at work. This wouldn’t grant PA, but could help bring you some comfort in your day
It looks like you're asking a question about Emotional Support Animals. Please check out our [Wiki Page about ESAs](https://www.reddit.com/r/service_dogs/wiki/esa) that answers a lot of commonly asked questions. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/service_dogs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A service dog is defined as dog that provides one or more task for their handlers disability. For PTSD, this could be deep pressure therapy (DPT), blocking (keeping people from approaching by standing between you and them), alerting to panic attacks/episodes, or whatever else can help you. What is *not* a task is providing emotional comfort (as defined by the ADA) If you feel having an animal provide these or other tasks, a service animal might be right for you however your care team knows you better than random redditors. Do be aware tho that having a service dog draws significantly more attention in public. People will stare, talk about you and your dog, confront you, tell you weird stories, ask you inappropriate question, and much much more.
If you can't handle attention from strangers, a service dog will make things worse. When you use a SD in public, people stare constantly, they bother the dog while it's working, they take pictures of it, they ask you questions at really inconvenient times. The amount of public attention can be very overwhelming. I'm on my third guide dog and I still find the public interference extremely annoying because it never stops, no matter what breed you have. I'm pointing this out because I'd hate for you to commit to this kind of dog and end up in a worse situation. If I didn't absolutely need a guide dog for physical safety, I wouldn't have one.
This is definitely something to consider. The opposite can be true too though. with a service dog you know people are looking at the dog and not at you. This can provide some ease for some people. And in general, dogs make people smile so the world seems like a much happier place.… for me it’s become a lot easier to interact with other people because the focus is on my service dog instead of me so I feel like I can put my guard down. Small talk about Rosie is a lot more enjoyable than about the weather..She also provides an excuse to leave situations when I am getting overwhelmed, which is actually considered a task surprisingly. Of course, everyone is different so consider what works for you.
This. If the trigger around people staring is that it feels sexualizing as in OP’s case, knowing that people are staring more at your adorable service dog than at you can actually be comforting than distressing. People do not notice Me in public, they notice my poodle. I haven’t had guys stare at my boobs nearly as often in public since having my service dog.
It would be best to talk to your health team. A service dog is tasked with training to help mitigate the disability and has public access right. An emotional support animal does not. Please note it can take 2+ years to fully train a service dog and 10-15k+ with the training and dog. However, emotional support animals don't require any training.
a service dog cannot solely provide emotional support. there are tasks they can perform for PTSD, but emotional support isn't a task
If you struggle with hypervigilence, having a service dog can make things exponentially worse. With hypervigilance, it could *feel* like people are watching you, talking about you, approaching you, or going to target you even when they're not. With a service dog, people actually *are* talking about you, watching you, approaching you, getting up in your space, talking about their dead dogs, confronting you, and in some cases actually targeting you. The hypervigilence is something that you really should work on before going on the service dog journey. Take it from someone who's been there. It's worth it to note that I get exponentially more insistent and unwelcome attention from men when I have my dog than when I do when I'm alone. Many take it as a challenge, and men are the *first* people to try and screw with my dog as a joke. And I have "scary dog privilege" (not really a privilege in any way). I don't say this to dissuade you, but it is something you must be aware of.
I guess I felt like a service dog would be like an extra set of eyes and tell me when I need to change course or go home. My cat isn’t a trained ESA, but he picked up on keeping me on a sleep schedule on his own. This is most likely because he knows I will stay in bed, ruin my routine for the rest of the week, and cause boredom for him. Also, he meows when I drone out into my phone too hard. It keeps me on focus during the day. I guess that falls within the ESA umbrella, since it’s not a definitive task? More just emotional feedback? Sometimes men like to get closer to you then they should, and I imagined a dog would protect me in a sense. I guess I never thought about it causing more attention. I can be very charismatic and sociable, when I’m not overstimulated and hypervigilant. What really sets me off is sexualization. It’s more about getting looked at as a sexual object. I was just thinking about it as possibility, to help me actually get out of the house more. ESA aren’t allowed in all situations, which is why I was thinking about service dogs.
So a couple of things: Tasks have to he specifically trained. They can't be naturally offered behaviors unless those are specifically proofed and polished, and the dog has to help you in a way farther than "just existing." It has to be more than their presence that helps you, which is what you're describing. Their task-training status is what allows them to be taken into public spaces. A service dog should never be specifically used to protect you. It's not ethical, it's not safe, and depending on the extent of the protection, it's not legally permissible, and the dog could be excluded from being a service dog. I've been sexualized more since I've gotten my dog because men are men, and they take it as a challenge ("Can a little thing like you handle that big dog?" said suggestively). A dog, unfortunately, doesn't prevent others from looking at you as a sexual object; it invites more and more eyes to look at you very closely. Some people may argue that others are looking at your dog, but the reality is that the dog is an extension of you in these contexts, and someone who looks at the dog is also looking at the handler. I never really attract insistent attention of any kind from any type of person without my dog; I attract *a lot* of it with her. The thing with the idea of "getting a dog to leave the house" is that it almost never works out that way. When you train your own dog, you *have* to go train and socialize even if you don't want to, and the nature of our disabilities often means that we *can't*, regardless of the reason, and the dog never becomes socialized or trained in public. If you have a program dog, you still have to do outings with the dog since dogs can lose their mojo without keeping up with their training. In the end, you find *many* people who just end up equally as homebound, but now they have a dog with behavioral problems, and it isn't a good compromise for anyone. Or people who prematurely retire their dogs because the pressure of outings with a service dog was far too much for them. Honestly, it sucks that people have zero boundaries when it comes to people normally, but negative boundaries with handlers of service dogs, but that is the unfortunate reality. Edited to fix a typo.
As spicy said, a dog is just going to create opportunities for men to be ***MORE*** bold in how they sexualize you. The fact is that I have had many instances where I had a man come up behind me without saying anything as they reached their hand on my butt or between my thighs then when I said something they just claimed they were trying to pet my dog. Or that they use the dog as something to include in their attempts to hit on me. With the protection issue our dogs have to be neutral in these situation, especially if you have a "scary" breed. If your dog even goes from a sit to a stand people will often misinterpret that as aggression and may lash out at you or your dog. Being protective at all is an automatic disqualification from service work and quickly could result in you having to deal with the many restrictions that owning a "dangerous dog" entails. Otherwise, I have no notes to add to what spicy said.
Then that would be an esa.
If you cannot handle attention from strangers then the service dog may not be for you. You will have more people stare, whisper behind back (especially chikdren and parents), people touching dog without asking, etc. Additionally they can not just be emotional support and must be trained to do specific task or tasks. They could be trained to circle to keep people from being too close or trained to give DPT if you have panic attack but must be task trained to do something. A dog just for emotional support would be considered an ESA and they do not have public access rights.
I want to add on to the other comments about attention and PTSD. I used to be a handler and a trainer. I have complex PTSD and some of my no longer handling isn't just changes that meant cats are not allowed but how my needs changed over time. I developed agoraphobia from more trauma and I couldn't cope with the children approaching and the demands for petting anymore. My cat was nearing retirement and I didn't realize that change until after she retired and I was less stressed when I forced myself to go out. That forcing was part of my care decisions but also hell. I no longer have agoraphobia but it's recent and I know that handling a dog, if we found a fit that didn't make my allergies go nuts, would set me back. Some of this depends on triggers but when deciding if you're going to benefit from a SD I highly recommend with your care team sitting with the idea of multiple strangers demanding you justify your now visible disability, trying to pet the dog, while having your worst level of PTSD. If that's manageable for you then you probably will be fine but if not? It's important to assess the benefits during the worst case scenarios not the best because the dog's job is the worst case scenario. What helps me is having my cat at home. The current kitten has been doing services for me without training so I have trained tasks with him both to engage his brilliant mind and to help with the bad unhelpful options he tried like peeing on my head when I had PTSD nightmares. Not helpful but scent masking vulnerable colony members is a cat thing. He hasn't tried that since my surgery fixed the worst of the physical stuff and he will actually close himself out of the room if I need a nap. I know these are not the answers you hoped for but an at home service animal is actually a thing that is still protected. It is however still not an option if you're violent during PTSD. This is also something that I had issues with as a kid but out grew and merits mention because the safety of you and your animal companion matters too. For at home tasks it's not different training than outside the home. My cat when I had my first PTSD was on my chest and pressing himself to me with a purr and gentle face touch on his own. My PTSD is not visible since my survival as a child depended on never showing anything vulnerable. My therapist had to admit that she couldn't tell when I had to pause during a session. The only tells for others are me verbalizing it's starting if possible or the cat suddenly in my face. It's different than his cuddles. I don't know how he knew but he did. So while he isn't protected in the way a dog is? My cat does these tasks naturally and is very happy to learn other things. If you already benefit from the comfort of a dog and they can be trained for more tasks and for in emergencies good behavior? This can be a compromise. I really hope this helps with the self assessment. Being told no sucks when we hope for better but it's vital to assess this part and maybe you are a good candidate. Some folks are. It is hard when you don't get the choice to not advertise being disabled on many levels. I use a wheelchair now for the physical side of things but it's very vulnerable when the answer is PTSD because people can be assholes about that especially if they're not aware civilians can have that too.
First of all, a dog needs to do a task to be considered a service dog, and emotional support doesn't count as a task. They need to have been trained to do a specific behavior that mitigates your disability. But the bigger issue is that your social anxiety, particularly since you mention it being worse when you feel people watching you, is likely to result in a service dog making your condition worse instead of better. Having a service dog is an invitation for the general public to stare, to talk about you, to approach you, to ask questions, etc. It's basically walking around with a blinking neon light that says I HAVE A DISABILITY, and it's going to draw all sorts of attention.
Yes, you can get a service dog for PTSD ***BUT*** what you described is ***NOT*** a service dog. A service animal is a dog that is trained to perform specific actions to mitigate a disability, these actions are also known as tasks. Just existing with you is not a specific action and thus would not be a task, but standing behind you to create space would be a task. Now it is my experience that having the dog stand between you and the general public means that people take it as an open invitation to invade your space to pet the dog, because clearly PTSD stands for "pet the service dog" or something which is especially true if you have a 'scary dog'. I personally use it because my knees are weak and having people accidentally bumping my legs with their carts can cause me to fall and hurt myself but I will be honest it is the point in our day where we are most struggling to deal with the general public. With that said there are a lot of reasons a service dog can be a bad idea, and something that you do need to be mindful of when asking in spaces like this one that there is going to be a very strong bias. Just be aware of the fact that people are in this sub because the pros outweighed the cons for us and we were likely successful in obtaining a service dog, both things that aren't actually a majority of experiences. That said there are individuals that are very open about many of the less ideal aspects of having a service dog, like the fact that your boundaries will almost certainly not be respected, posting about a service dog outside the community can result in a lot of hate including threatening messages, that it is a gamble where even if you stack the odds in your favor chances are still only about 40% that you spend the $20,000-$25,000 and actually get a service dog for your time, money and energy. I am only touching the surface, but as others have mentioned it is most likely the case that the attention and treatment you will experience from the public could make your hypervigilance worse or result in you isolating yourself more because the general public is not inherently safe around service dog handlers. I do actually have a [page](https://www.reddit.com/r/service_dogs/wiki/sdconsiderations/) that I recommend people read before they decide to get a service dog. Or even this [story](https://www.reddit.com/r/service_dogs/comments/nxy435/having_a_service_dog_is_not_glamorous/) from during the pandemic which having people actually kick my dog is not common thankfully, but the conflict with people that are convinced that you are faking is unfortunately not uncommon.
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We have removed your post/comment for violating Rule 2: Know and Obey Your Local Laws. Posts encouraging illegal behavior or "stretching" the rules will be removed. When giving advice, make sure to evaluate all the relevant laws for OP's location. For example, in New York, USA, SDiTs receive the same protections the ADA grants, as long as they are with a qualified trainer. This is not the same situation for someone in Michigan, USA. Citations aren't required, but highly encouraged. Citations are important so OP can read more and so you can reconfirm the information you give is entirely correct. If you have any questions, [Message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs). If you continue to give misinformation or encourage breaking the law, it could result in an immediate ban.
Your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 6: No Fake-spotting. This is not the place for fakespotting. Unless the person you are discussing has specifically told you that they are not disabled, and the dog is not trained in tasks, you have no way of knowing if a dog is 'fake'. We are not the service dog police and this behavior can lead to a lot of harm and anxiety for SD handlers as a community. This does not preclude discussing encounters with un-/undertrained dogs, but if the focus of your post is complaining about a "fake" SD, reconsider your phrasing and what point you're making. If you have any questions, please [Message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/service_dogs).
Can’t answer the dog thing, but I am being treated for severe General Anxiety Disorder. I take Buspar and it’s like night and day. You might ask your doctor about it; it’s not a benzo or SSRI, so no risk of dependency or any side effects. It takes a week or so to take full effect.
So emotional support animals and service animals are very different, as ESAs do not have public access rights , and service animals are trained to do specific tasks. That said, a service animal could be an option for you, as there are several tasks a SD can do to assist with PTSD. At home tasks can include nightmare interruption, grounding techniques, and deep pressure therapy. Public tasks can include grounding, heart rate alerts, deep pressure therapy, body blocking, dissociation interruption and guiding, etc. Now, having a service dog in public does mean people will genuinely stare at and interact with you more, not less, which could make things worse, but not necessarily. These aren’t tasks, but personal experience as someone with cPTSD from childhood SA and other abuse who also feels triggered by men staring in a sexualizing way, I find that people staring at me and my SD means I can convince myself (and it usually is true) that people are staring because I have a dog with me and not because I’m attractive which is actually comforting. People notice me less because the dog is more “out of place”. Having an SD also worked as a form of exposure therapy when it comes to being firm and setting boundaries with people. I had to learn to set and maintain boundaries for the sake of my service dog, and as a result I’ve become more comfortable in tense situations, and less of a people pleaser. A service dog is something that ultimately you should discuss with your care team as their advice is going to be more accurate to you and your situation than internet strangers.
I used to raise PTSD service dogs. You could have a full on service dog. You can get one trained yourself or go through an organization. If you're in the Cali bay area, lmk if you want the organizations contact info.
You could also get in touch with a group that trains service dogs and start learning the .methods they use. An old coworker (wheelchair bound) got a puppy for himself, and he did all his own training by working with a group that trains dogs professionally.
The short answer is yes, it is possible. PTSD is a disability covered under the ADA. Maybe the better question is why are you considering an SD over an ESA? My experience is that MY DOG gets the attention, not so much me, although people do ask questions, etc. some times. I don’t find it uncomfortable since the dog is the buffer and I have been known to say “sorry, we’re training” and walk away. I’ve only had one man approach me in the past four months. A trained task could be a touch to your leg when someone approaches, signaling you to walk away or give the excuse that the dog needs to toilet, etc. If you think a dog will help you navigate public spaces, I say try it. Find a team or trainer and ask if they’d be ok going out with you for you to see. Lastly, depending on what you need, think about what kind of dog you might want. I chose a Coton de Tulear originally for different reasons, but then my trauma event happened and three weeks later I got the call one was available. I took her not knowing I’d have PTSD. She’s super smart and very trainable. She’s little so doesn’t get much notice, but also stupid cute which does lol. https://preview.redd.it/85aewhpvv49d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b04df8e1c37dae557b77233890869bfff2e309ab
Now SOME districts(cities and counties- I can only think of two) in the us allow ESAs to work PA as long as they meet the exact level of training as SDs- king county, which includes Seattle comes to mind. They also allow cats as SAs. I believe this is legally held and not a misunderstanding of the law as far as I’ve understood and read the law. If you don’t live in these VERY specific areas, where you will still receive tons of PA issues, you’re out of luck. So if you had the money for the dog AND the move to Seattle and you never used the dog outside of king county I’d say it’s possible On another point, ESAs are an allowed work accommodation so if you put the training work in and made your case to your works HR AND it was an accommodation that was reasonable you could have your dog at work. This wouldn’t grant PA, but could help bring you some comfort in your day