 If you or someone you know struggles with PTSD or CPTSD, you're definitely, definitely going to want to watch this video. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. So if you're into that kind of stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And I have a very, very special guest today. Her name is Kalayla from the channel Post Traumatic Victory. Her channel is all about PTSD and recovery. It is so, so, so good and I've been waiting months for this collab. But anyways, before I jump into the video I did with Kalayla in a second, I want to give you all a very exciting announcement. So everybody who is over on Patreon, I just put up the sample that Kay from the channel Bipolar Pugs sent me. Those of you who haven't seen it yet, me and her just did an episode. She's getting back into music. I'm like, you okay? How about you write me a new intro song for my channel? And she's like, okay. And she did it. And here's a little sneak peek, but the entire thing's up over on Patreon. So it's longer than that. So if you want to listen to the whole full thing, head over to Patreon. Everybody who signed up, you'll be able to hear the full thing. But I'm very excited and hopefully I'll be able to implement that soon in the intro. So yeah. Kayla is someone I met. She's another mental health YouTuber. I met her when my channel was much smaller and I was first getting started. And I love her so much. She's so awesome and funny and amazing. And she's very knowledgeable and compassionate. And I'm like, I just, I just can't. I cannot even. So anyways, Kayla has a service dog. And I was like, girl, you need to come over and talk about how your service dog helps with your PTSD, CPTSD. And she finally did that. So anyways, this, this video is extremely informational. I learned so much stuff. But anyways, I'm going to shut my mouth and hand it over to Kalayla. Hello, rewired soldiers. I'm Kalayla. And I'm so excited to be finally doing this collaboration with Chris. Here I am. And I want to talk to you about the benefits of a psychiatric service dog for PTSD or complex PTSD. I have a condition called complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which is basically post-traumatic stress disorder, but from repeated and prolonged trauma, usually during childhood. I'm currently owner training a service dog for this condition. She's specifically going to be a psychiatric service dog for my psychiatric disability. Fun fact, PTSD is legally considered a disability here in Canada. At least I believe it is in the States too. And a lot of people ask me what a service dog can do for a psychiatric disability because it's not life-threatening, right? Wrong. It can absolutely be life-threatening, given the fact that so many people with PTSD and complex PTSD will attempt suicide at least once in their life. A not so fun fact is that in Canada, one in ten people will be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives. There's a lot of people who have PTSD and we just don't really hear about it because society in general is so focused on one specific type of trauma and that is war. So if I tell people, oh, my service dog in training is for my complex PTSD, they nine times out of ten will ask me, oh, were you in the military? Usually I feel a little bit annoyed, but I try to take that opportunity to educate that, no, there are many different types of trauma. I have a lot of respect for people who serve in the military because I think that's just such a selfless thing to do and I'm glad that program dogs often go to veterans with PTSD, but I'm only talking from my experience today. So I'm gonna kind of list off some of the things that a psychiatric service dog can do to help you if you have PTSD or complex PTSD or autism or just any number of psychiatric disabilities. Dogs are amazing. A common misconception about psychiatric service dogs is that they're actually just comfort animals like emotional support animals, which ESAs are real and very important and I think it's amazing that somebody came up with the concept of emotional support animals because if an animal can give you a reason to get out of bed in the morning, that's amazing and beautiful. But there's a difference between emotional support animals and service animals. A service animal performs tasks to help mitigate a disability whereas an emotional support animal just provides comfort and companionship. So there is a difference, but that's not to say that a service dog doesn't also provide emotional support. I mean, my service dog, it's my best friend. Is that sad? You're also my best friend. I have two dogs and they are both moving my camera right now. Hi puppies, let the mama make a video. Hi, yes, I'm talking about you, did you know? The tasks that a psychiatric service dog can perform to help mitigate your disability or mine specifically are, um, deep pressure therapy is can you not move my tripod puppies? Deep pressure therapy is a big one. So basically the dog can put pressure on your legs and your chest and mine kind of leans on my... My service dog in training leans on my chest and puts pressure on my shoulders just because that's what works for me. When we're out in public and I'm sitting down, she will go across my legs and basically what that does is it works like a tight hug or a weighted blanket to tell your nervous system that it can stop making you panic. You can calm down eventually because your body is telling your brain to tell your body that everything's fine. It's a very physical reaction as I'm sure you know if anybody here has ever had a panic attack or dissociative episode it is mental but it's hugely physical so telling your body to calm down will eventually calm your mind and that is deep pressure therapy I guess in a nutshell. I'm not a medical professional so I'm sorry for the lack of medical terms here. My particular service dog in training is learning to do a guide task almost she keeps me with whoever I'm out and about with so if I'm by myself this doesn't really apply but if I'm with my boyfriend or a friend or just a group of people yes Marco I see you you're a very good boy I tell her follow and then she stays with that person and if I start to wander off she'll kind of like pull me in that direction unless I tell her no it's okay we're not following I want to go to Sephora while he goes to EB Games that sounds very stereotypical but it's literally what happens when we go to the mall that is immensely helpful because it kind of takes the pressure off of like the fear of having a dissociative episode or having a panic attack and just wandering around and getting lost it just kind of keeps me safe in the moment this task is also useful for getting me to safety I will ask her where's the door or where's the car and then she will kind of guide me there another big thing that psychiatric service dogs can be trained to do is behavior interruption so I have this habit it's actually called tricotillomania but I haven't been diagnosed with it so I don't want to claim that but I pull out my hair when I'm stressed and I most of the time don't even realize that I'm doing it so something that I've started training Sadie to do is to paw at me when I start pulling out my eyebrows I don't know if you can tell but these are like for sure drawn on thank you makeup but when I start picking out my eyebrows she will eventually we only started training this the other day but she'll paw at me and I have what's it called? I think it's called Restless Leg Syndrome like when I'm about to start getting it manifests in my legs I guess I bounce my leg rapidly as so many people do so when I do that she jumps on my legs to physically stop me from doing it or she'll just paw at me and alert me if I'm not sitting down and I start bouncing my leg when I'm standing there another thing that a psychiatric service dog can be trained to do this is really good for anxiety and PTSD is you can train block and cover and one is where the dog stands behind you and one is where the dog stands in front of you and it's just kind of like a crowd control thing nobody can sneak up on you because the dog's there and if somebody starts walking up behind me she'll often rub against me and let me know hey someone's coming which is huge for me I don't like being snuck up on just PTSD things and she can also stand between me and other people so that if anybody's getting in my face they can't because there's a dog on the ground there and they would have to step on the dog and come on what kind of monster steps on a dog it really helps to alleviate most of the anxiety when we go out and about because I know she's got my back and sometimes quite literally and I've got her a swear team what else? oh psychiatric service dogs can also be trained to detect the stress hormone in your breath and your sweat so the way to train this that I have found online I think I want to make a video about this on my channel eventually subscribe because it's so hard to find information about it but from my understanding with the limited information I could find is you can take a cotton ball and when you haven't eaten or drank anything in a while and you start to feel the anxiety rising you can put it in your mouth the idea of having a cotton ball in your mouth real appealing right? you can collect the saliva that way and the stress hormone ideally will be in that sample or something that I have chosen to do instead of putting it in my mouth is put it under my armpit and just kind of hold it there while I'm panicking and then you can take the cotton ball samples put it in a container or a bag in the fridge and then use that to train kind of reward them when they detect that scent and then eventually they'll be able to tell you hey I smell the thing you're gonna panic should we go sit down somewhere grab some lunch I'm sure there is a whole lot more than psychiatric service dogs can do but because I'm trying to think of it right now and it's for somebody else's channel my thoughts have all escaped me but I hope this was at least a little bit helpful for some of you I'm a huge huge fan of psychiatric service dogs and service dogs in general I think dogs are so good and another thing to point out a lot of people think oh my gosh you get sad sometimes so you make your dog work for you that's not a real thing if my dog doesn't feel like working that day she doesn't have to work that's a common misconception about service dogs in general is that they're slaves and we make them do this they will be retired early if they just decide nope, you know what I don't want to work anymore so that makes me feel even more in love with my little pup because she actively wants to work for me and that's good because I need her she's my little lifeline I don't know how to end this because it's not my channel but I think Chris is coming back so I'm gonna just show you a clip of my service dog in her vest and I'll be on my way bye look at that Kaleila is like a psychic she knew I was coming back but anyways anyways like I learned so so so much like I had no idea I had no idea and I was just saying this in the video I did about Dr. Mike and Gabby Hannah like I admit and I don't know everything and I had no idea service dogs could do that much and so much of it made sense too especially the way that Kaleila was explaining it like especially the mindfulness of when you're doing certain behaviors like when she was talking about pulling her hair but also that safety and the comfort and she was also talking about how the dog will like lay on her chest and it's kind of like a weighted blanket like that is so so awesome but anyways I would love to get some information together about how to go about getting a service dog or training a service dog in the United States as well as other areas so if you have any of that information go ahead and post it down in the comments I'll try to update the description so everybody can see it and potentially go get yourself a service dog but it's super cool and you guys please please please like I have so many of you so many of you who struggle with PTSD or CPTSD and you're always asking me to make videos about it Kaleila's entire channel is about that so please go over to her channel go subscribe go check out her videos like she is so awesome she's actually in our discord server now by the way I'm talking to you why aren't you in our discord server yet we have over 300 people in there people just supporting one another having conversations laughing great time up in there so come join our discord we also have a subreddit so all that information is down in the description below alright but anyways I want to hear comments from all of you down below what is your experience with service dogs or do you think you can do with your PTSD or CPTSD or even your anxiety or depression let me know down in the comments below alright but anyways that's all I got for this video if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon don't forget that brand new intro song from K is over on the patreon so go check it out and if you would like to subscribe to Kaleila boom click her top right there alright so thank you so so much for watching