Are you in need of a service dog?

It is well known that people with physical disabilities benefit from service dogs, but emotional support dogs have yet to be scientifically proven to help those with post-traumatic stress disorder. Service dogs are trained to carry out specific tasks like guiding people with vision difficulties across the street, or picking up dropped items. Emotional support dogs provide companionship for those with mental health conditions. They are pets and not trained to do the tasks that service dogs are trained to do.

After previous studies were suspended, due to inadequately trained dogs, this past April the Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI) granted funds to Purdue University to measure the outcomes of utilizing service dogs for post 9/11 war veterans suffering from PTSD. Researchers will be working with K9’s for Warriors, a non-profit that follows a “Gold Standard” when training rescue animals to be service dogs. The study will assess for changes in stress level, medication, and relationships among veterans.

Though some private organizations provide service-dog training for individuals with mental health conditions such as PTSD, the Veterans Administration currently does not; they offer information on how to contact places that provide service animals. But they do offer veterinarian services. If the Purdue research proves that service dogs can help those with PTSD, the VA will also provide veterinarian care to those dogs.

The study will take several years to complete, but, who knows, maybe it will lead to more studies, ones involving service dogs for those with PTSD in the civilian community. Though such dogs are not to be relied on as a panacea for PTSD, if they are recognized as a legitimate adjunct to traditional treatments, thousands of people may benefit. In the United States alone, more than 24 million people are estimated to have PTSD at any given time.

Are you among the 24 million?

My EMDR treatments for PTSD  included Cognitive Feedback Therapy, which focuses on the individual’s thought processes and how they affect behavior and beliefs. For example, it did not take much for my mind to swirl with negative thoughts when my husband traveled out of town for music gigs. I imagined him sprawled on the side of the road after being hit by a car. At night, I would wake and watch my husband’s chest for movement. In the dark, it was difficult to see if it was rising and falling, so I’d gently lay my hand on his chest, feeling for life. Or I’d snuggle close to him, waiting for him to exhale. These negative thoughts would lead to other negative thoughts or images: sometimes I’d see myself in a hospital bed struggling to breathe, with doctors hovering over me, sticking needles into my arms.

Like any successful project, cognitive therapy involves homework. My therapist instructed me to keep a log of events that triggered negative thoughts, sensations, and emotions. One day, I felt weak and feverish, as if I had the flu. Even though I did not have a fever, I thought something was wrong: I should go to the hospital, because I might have an infection. What if I need antibiotics? What if I don’t go to the hospital? I might die. As a nurse, it was easy for me to scoot down this irrational path. And since my spleen – an organ that destroys bacteria and is part of the immune system – had ruptured in the farmers’ Market accident, I couldn’t help but be anxious about dying from an overwhelming infection. But an uncountable number of people live productive and healthy lives without a spleen. By categorizing my thoughts into what my therapist labeled “faulty thinking patterns,” such as drawing conclusions or exaggerating the meaning of an event, then forming positive ways of thinking, I learned to halt the unraveling of irrational thoughts. I no longer keep a log, though I’m not completely free of negative thoughts and images. Instead, when they intrude on my sleep, or my daytime routine, I envision a huge stop sign. Sometimes I hold my hand up and say, “Stop!” And just like that, I’m unburdened by blackness, screams, and blood.

How exactly does EMDR work? Francis Shapiro, who discovered the treatment, explains it through the theory of the “Adaptive Information Processing Model.” The theory sounds metaphysical, but it’s not. The assumption is that all individuals have an information processing system, which takes our experiences and stores them in a section of our memories that is easily accessible. These experiences are connected to particular images, emotions, sensations, and beliefs.

Think of a computer. If you’re like me, you might have several folders filled with documents dotting your desktop, because you need the information to be readily available – at the click of the mouse. One of those folders might hold information that reminds you of something that evokes negative feelings. For instance, a folder has photos of your deceased parents. Every time you turn on the computer, you see the folder, and images of your parents fighting in front of you when you were a child return. You hear them screaming at one another, one of them saying, “I wish I never had children.” Each time you drag the folder into another one, so you won’t see it, the folder bounces back onto the desktop. Your computer is malfunctioning, so you need to take it to a computer geek.

Of course, we are not computers; we are human beings. Yet, our brains are very much like computers. In PTSD, the trauma – the negative images, emotions, and thoughts – are stuck in the easily accessible part of the brain. The processing system in our brains is working ineffectively, so each time something triggers memories of the trauma, like a car backfiring, you exhibit PTSD symptoms, such as panic. EMDR helps transfer the trauma and related images from your brain’s desktop into the part of the brain, or folder, that effectively processes the event.

When I speak to others about EMDR, they shirk from me, as if suspicious – maybe I’m looking to recruit them into a cult. But EMDR is not a cult at all, I promise.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, or EMDR, was first discovered in 1987 by Psychologist Francis Shapiro.  One day, she felt anxious by negative thoughts, so went for a walk in the woods. Sure, you might say, sounds like a great way to shed some stress – walk it off. But as she moved her eyes from right to left, taking in nature’s greens, yellows, and browns, she noticed that her level of anxiety decreased. She tried a similar eye movement process with her clients, and it worked. They, too, experienced a reduction in anxiety. That’s how EMDR was born. Initially used to treat individuals with PTSD and other anxiety disorders, it is now used to treat other conditions like depression, schizophrenia and eating disorders.

When you cut your finger, cells race to the site and clump together to stop the bleeding. Your body’s nutrients then heal the wound. If it continues to get irritated, it will become inflamed and may open up again. Once the source of irritation is removed, the wound can finally heal. PTSD symptoms are like festering wounds; the goal of EMDR is to remove what is blocking those wounds from healing.

Here’s how EMDR works: The client recalls a vivid image from the trauma experienced, such as a lying on the pavement after being hit by a car while thinking about a negative belief about the self, such as “I’m going to die.” The client notes the visceral sensations and emotions she is experiencing like a tight chest, shortness of breath and increased fear. She then thinks of a positive image like taking a warm bath, then a thought: “I’m safe.” Following this, the client conjures the negative thoughts and images while undergoing 15-20 seconds of bilateral stimulation: lateral eye movements, where the client follows the back and forth movement of the therapist’s fingers. Even though lateral eye movements are the most common form of stimulation, other stimuli may be just as effective, such as tapping or tones. The therapist who treated me used walkie-talkie like devices that vibrated beneath the backs of my thighs.

The same bilateral stimulation is then used while the client focuses on the positive images and thoughts. Over time, these will become embedded in the client’s memory, blocking the negative images and thoughts – the wounds. Eventually, PTSD symptoms will lessen when exposed to sounds, smells, or sights reminiscent of a trauma or threat.

EMDR is different from exposure therapy, which involves prolonged exposure to a stimulus that triggers thoughts, emotions, and sensations about the traumatic event. Some therapists believe that prolonged exposure is necessary to produce effective treatment outcomes. But others believe that this type of therapy will cause fearful memories to outweigh the joyful ones in people who have experienced extreme trauma, then encounter a particularly stressful situation in the future.

http://www.emdr.com