What is Panic Disorder?
Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder where you regularly have sudden attacks of panic or fear. Everyone experiences feelings of anxiety and panic at certain times. It’s a natural response to stressful or dangerous situations.
But someone with panic disorder has feelings of anxiety, stress and panic regularly and at any time, often for no apparent reason.
The two components of panic disorder are anxiety, initially, which can quickly turn into a full panic attack or anxiety attack.
Anxiety is a feeling of unease. It can range from mild to severe, and can include feelings of worry and fear. Panic is the most severe form of anxiety. During a panic attack you get a rush of intense mental and physical symptoms. It can come on very quickly and for no apparent reason.
Symptoms Can Include:
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Racing Heartbeat
- Sweating
- Chest Pain
- Tingling in face, fingers and toes
Common Treatments and Coping Mechanisms for Panic Disorder
The most common, traditional treatments for people with panic disorder are a combination of prescription medications – like antianxiety and antidepressant medications – and some type of psychotherapy.
Two common forms of psychotherapy for panic disorder include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy (PFPP). The Very Well Mind site has more information to round out the topics at hand.
As more and more people seek holistic alternatives when developing their treatment plans, the use of assistance animals such as psychiatric service dogs is becoming more commonplace.
To evolve with these times, CertaPet has made the process for this revolutionary service completely digital, not to mention easy to navigate. We provide a free, confidential screening test which takes less than 5 minutes to determine your candidacy. From there, you will be matched with a licensed mental health professional in your state and contacted to set up your telehealth appointment. The final step is our therapist’s recommendation, which includes a treatment plan with your particular service dog, and an official ESA letter if you qualify.
And that’s all you will need to obtain either a psychiatric service dog or an emotional support animal, based on your situation. Whether you receive a therapy dog, emotional support animal, or any other type of service animal, you’ll be taking the safer, more beneficial route that only modern holistic alternatives can provide.
How Can Service Dogs Help with Panic Disorder
The human-animal bond can impact people and service dogs in positive ways. Research shows therapy dogs can reduce stress, anxiety, and other symptoms associated with a panic or anxiety attack physiologically (cortisol levels) and increase attachment responses that trigger oxytocin – a hormone that increases trust in humans.
Service dogs also react positively to animal-assisted activities. In response to the human-animal bond, dogs produce oxytocin and decrease their cortisol levels when connecting with their owner. Often dogs feel the same when engaging in animal assisted activities as if they were at home, depending on the environmental context.
The Conversation has a lot more to say here.
Mental Health Benefits
The range of benefits a service animal can provide is wide and ecompasses both the physical and mental manifestations of anxiety. A piece from thebark.com gives further insight into what a service animal can do for stress ridden people.
Psychiatric symptoms can include fear, isolation, panic, anxiety, and feelings of having no meaning or purpose to life. Service animals can instinctively provide comfort and support for most any mental health response to a stress reaction.
The methods used by emotional support animals are supported by their keen senses and extensive training. Thereby building a relationship based on tackling anxiety driven symptoms and eliminating them quickly, and safely. This is to create a less overloaded mental space so the owner can not only focus better on the daily tasks at hand but accomplish them as well.
Physical Health Benefits
Studies show that having a canine companion is linked to lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol, and decreased triglyceride levels, which contribute to better overall cardiovascular health and fewer heart attacks. What’s more, dog owners who do have heart attacks have better survival rates following the events.
Service dogs, as with all dogs, need to regularly be outdoors – and active. Both psychiatric service dogs and emotional support animals are able to help you bridge those gaps, by just being themselves and mitigate the physical effects of panic disorder and other mental health conditions.
By going out in the world with your service dog, you will, without realizing it, be keeping active, fit, losing weight and, best of all, more regularly producing those positive neurochemicals and hormones. And all of these small improvements will greatly reduce stress and its associated effects.
Find out more from The Huffington Post, here.
Specific Tasks They Can Perform to Support Their Owner
As we discussed above, an anxiety or panic attack can negatively impact people physically and mentally. Panic disorders carry with them many similarities but also some distinct differences in how they arise and affect the afflicted handler.
We have several articles on our website’s blog page to help gain greater understanding about the lengths service dogs can go towards improving your well being. Here’s a particularly good one.
Some of the best stress relieving examples provided by psychiatric service dogs are:
- Tactile Stimulation, Deep Pressure Therapy, Pressure and Warmth Stimulation
- Grounding, Guiding, Interrupting, and Interacting
- Threat Assessment and Barrier implementation
- Many other supportive, assistive actions.
How to Get a Service Dog for Panic Disorder
In order to obtain a service animal, or therapy dog, for panic or anxiety disorder you must receive a recommendation from a licensed mental health professional or a doctor. This ‘prescription’ takes the form of a letter, which will be written on your health professional’s letterhead and include their license number.
There are no limitations to the breed of dog you can use as your psychiatric service dog or therapy dog. Your anxiety service dog can therefore either be a dog you already own, a dog you adopt from a shelter or rescue group, or a dog you receive from a service dog organization. Keep in mind, however, that the dog must be specially trained to perform certain tasks in order to be recognized as a service dog under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
CertaPet wants you to get a service animal as quickly as possible. And we know our services can do just that through our certified telemedicine evaluation and rapidly submitted recommendation letters. If you have additional questions, read these Healthline and Top Dog Tips articles.
How to Train a Service Dog for Panic Disorder
In the sections above, we touched on the different training methods for an emotional support assistance dog. Here are some more details, along with a supporting blog post, regarding the typical training of support, therapy, or service dogs.
There are two components of an effective training regimen for all service dogs. First, the General Public Access Test is performed to instill good manners in service animals, ensuring that they behave appropriately in public settings. The second step, the specialized task/work training is done, which satisfies the requirement of all PSDs to be able to perform a specific action that’s directly related to their handler’s disability.
No matter the underlying causes of your panic disorder, or how an anxiety attack affects certain aspects of your life, this two step training process can not only create a service dog out of any dog but tailor their abilities to combat each and every symptom the handler may encounter.
The Best Service Dog Breeds for Panic Disorder
Any breed of dog could be transformed into an emotional support dog or psychiatric service animal. It could be a dog you have owned for years or one you just picked up from a shelter or adoption agency. But, like with most things, there are a handful of dog breeds that are superiorly adept than the rest.
According to blog posts from K9 of Mine and an article from Medical News Today, the top 10 are as follows:
- Golden Retriever
- Labrador Retriever
- Poodle
- German Shepherd
- Boxer
- Great Dane
- Border Collie
- Pomeranian
- Bernese Mountain Dog
- Pitbull
The first mentioned post describes the distinct abilities and necessary details about each dog on the list and how well they will perform as psychiatric service dogs.
Conclusion
Are you interested in getting a psychiatric service dog?
Here at CertaPet, we can help. CertaPet is an online tele-health platform that improves access to mental health care in the U.S. with a focus on providing services to individuals who are seeking animal assisted interventions as part of their treatment plan.
We are currently coordinating with emotional support dog trainers who specialize in the service animal space and who will soon work in tandem with our network of licensed mental health professionals to make the process of getting and training a psychiatric service dog affordable, convenient, and hassle-free.
We’ll have more information available soon about our Psychiatric Service Dog Training options. In the meantime, you can take our FREE pre-screening below to see if you qualify for a PSD!
FAQS
Can you have a service animal for panic disorder?
Absolutely, yes. Service dogs, therapy dogs, and emotional support animals are trained to assist in the activities of daily living for those who have one or more mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression.
How do you qualify for a psychiatric service dog?
We have a fast, easy, and stress free way to determine just that. We start with a free screening, move on to a telemedicine evaluation from a licensed professional, and finish with a personalized plan and ESA letter of qualification.
What can psychiatric service dogs do?
Under the ADA, a service animal is defined as a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability.
Can I use any breed of dog as an emotional support animal or psychiatric service animal?
Any breed of dog can take to the psychiatric service training well and you can even use one you already own. However, there are particular breeds that excel in these kinds of emotional, stressful, and difficult situations.
How are support dogs trained?
Service dogs can be trained by you, the handler, or by you with the assistance of a certified trainer. A third option is to adopt a service animal from an accredited training organization for service dogs.
