Well, it is nearly time to leave and head back home. It has been nice to have hours to spend learning. Our local library limits me to a total of 3 hours over 3 afternoons, doled out in 30 and 15 minutes increment, depending on whether someone is signed up behind you, making them bump you off early.

Anyway.....
I wanted to say that I continue to take my dog (not always, but on occasion) to the library since she enjoys the walk and then plunges into her carrier and settles down happily once we are in the outer foyer. She sits at my feet in her mesh-sided back and enjoys the activities and sounds. VARIETY. It is why I let her spend long days on the apartment patio where she has a perch to look over the hedge and keep an eye on main street and all the foot and vehicle traffic, smell the fajitas cooking across the street.

Cats sleep most of their lives away once they are grown, but dogs, always a napper, need lots of things going on, not least of which is being a watch dog. A window perch is not enough - she needs all the smells and the sounds. She knows who belongs on the property and who doesn't and the only times she has ever barked was the time I had a prowler and when a visitor left abruptly from someone else's patio late in the evening.

I had included, but need to, that there WAS a transition time in my decreasing social anxiety when I would (when the weather and/or shade allowed it) leave her in the van when I would pop into the post office, pharmacy or for a short grocery pick up. JUST KNOWING SHE WAS OUT THERE, SO CLOSE was enough to keep the anxiety at bay. She was only steps away.

I am not suggesting that those needing a psych service dog ATTEMPT to get over needing them. Many of us won't. I hadn't even dreamed I would come to this time, be it forever or until my next time of tremendous emotional stress when I will bless the gods again for her coming into my life..... I mean it - each of us are individuals and our worth is not measured by "progress". Many of us will never get to the other side.

I am just saying that JUST as it is wrong for us to lie about being so bad off that we can't leave our homes unless tanked up on tranquilizers or in a constant state of stress that leaves us literally drained, needing a day or more of isolation from others to recharge our batteries...., it is similarly wrong for us to fail to acknowledge when there are times or surroundings when we don't need our service animal glued to our side, often because we feel guilty for not needing them or the animal is distressed by the situation or we maybe just enjoy the pleasure of their company.

I have personally known a man who did NOT need a psych service dog convince a psychiatrist that the huge dog he owned (but had never previously traveled with - who indeed was just fine out on his own) was suddenly a necessity for him to venture out. What he wanted was the privilege of riding the bus and going into public access buildings with his buddy...... This is like the many people who get their doctors to give them handicapped parking permits. People who abuse the system, any system (like getting housing and benefits while having their boyfriend or others living with them, paying unreported income that would diminish those benefits), make it more and more likely that those politicians and judges with a conservative bent might decide to place more restrictions, a higher standard of proof, less rights, maybe no rights, for psychiatric disabilties.

Mental illness is the SYMPTOMS of BRAIN DIFFERNCES, sometimes genetic, certainly all aggravated by the traumas of life, but NOT NEVER NO HOW "just in your head". Mental illnesses as REAL as diabetes, capable of being as INCAPACITATING as virtually any other brain/neurological illness dealt with on this Neurotalk forum. But while "acceptance" slowly grows, we are still fighting an uphill battle with the vast majority of societies everywhere who continue to see most mental illnesses as some sort of personal failing, someone we should deal with by "pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps", by "stop feeling sorry for yourself", and by "grow up and take responsibility for your own life", et al, ad nauseum.

I know all this from experience. My mother is still horrified and embarrassed (my sisters are far more mentally "deranged", but I am the only one who has never been in denial and sought answers, got a diagnosis, then set out to be as open about it as if I had any other non "emotional disorder" illness. My father still considers me lazy for not being able to get or retain employment - something I can only dream of ... and all my family continues to complain of my schizophrenic daughter's symptoms as tho she is in control of her beliefs and behavior, and is only doing, saying and acting as she does because she is Rude, Boorish, and is Inconsiderate of them. They just don't get it. They never will because they refuse to acknowledge facts and current medical understanding of mental illnesses.

Mental illness are BRAIN DISORDERS that manifest via emotions, behaviors and perceptions in such a manner as to interfere with our ability to live a normal life, at work or among family and friends. But so many in our society consider emotions to be more a matter for religion, prayer (if not exorcism) instead of REAL ILLNESSES & CONDITIONS.

It is not easy for us. Hopefully it will be a different world for our grandchildren and their children after them. In the meantime, it behooves us to handle our legal rights with the utmost respect and forthrightness and honesty. Let's not shoot ourselves in the foot for the bullets richocet and harm others.

Hugs to all who can understand and relate... or who are willing to understand and relate....

A wonderful new decade to all of you...
Theresa
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