Hi! My name is Teresa, and I have been living with mental health issues my whole life. While I consider myself a Mental Health Warrior and an advocate for ending the stigma behind mental illness, having mental health issues certainly have not made my life any easier.

I was first diagnosed with a mental illness when I turned 21 and had to be hospitalized. I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (later I would be diagnosed with Complex PTSD as well). I had mapped out all these goals, but my mental illness truly changed the course of my life. I've been through countless doctors, therapists, medications, hospitalizations and misdiagnoses. Even today, I can't hold a job without my symptoms making it impossible.

I've been very fortunate that I have the immense support of my friends and family, a loving husband, and two amazing children. However, I've known for a while that something important has been missing from my mental health treatments.

Recently, one of my best friends adopted a dog, Lucky, to train herself as a Service Dog for her young son who has survived childhood cancer. Lucky has been helping her son cope with PTSD from living with his cancer.

The other night, I had a life-changing experience of dog-sitting Lucky, a Bernedoodle, for a couple of hours. I was on Day 6 of my most current manic episode. I was very irritable, unsettled, and lacking focus on anything. Without any prompting, Lucky came up to me, sat on my lap with his face on my chest and just lay there until I felt more calm. The pressure and warmth of him on my chest and abdomen was inexplicable. It was a gift. I was in tears. That feeling of crawling out of my skin slowly went away. The rest of the night, he either sat right at my feet or cuddled with me.

After interacting with him, I am certain that the capacity of love, protection, and care that a trained dog like Lucky can provide is exactly what I’ve been needing. It’s not another pill, it's not another treatment. It’s a connection, one that I’ve been sorely missing.

My therapist agrees that adopting and training a Psychiatric Service Dog is just what I've been missing. I think now that the hole in my heart is dog-shaped.

How would a Psychiatric Service Dog help me specifically with my mental health issues? He would provide tactile/deep pressure therapy for calming, interrupt self-harm or dissociative behaviors, remind me to take medication, fetch the medication, and alert me to oncoming episodes. He would also redirect my attention during an episode and provide a safe social boundary. And, being a trained Psychiatric Service Dog, he would be able to accompany me everywhere- the grocery store, the movies, restaurants- you name it!

Money is the biggest problem in our journey unfortunately. We are looking at Goldendoodles and they are very expensive, especially the "mini Goldendoodle." Normally, I would want to adopt a shelter dog, but because I want the specific personality traits of a Goldendoodle (AND the fact that they are hypoallergenic and shed-free); I feel it would be a better choice to get a Goldendoodle and train him from the get-go.

Since nothing else is really helping me with my treatment resistant Bipolar 1, Anxiety, and C-PTSD, I truly believe that having a Psychiatric Service Dog by my side will help me to get the healing and medical psychiatric help that I've been missing. Mental health issues are as serious as other medical issues such as diabetes and heart disease. I would die without medical treatment. A Service Dog would be just as indispensable to me as my daily medications I have to take. It could make all the difference in the world to my recovery. Unfortunately, however, our insurance and FSA/HSA doesn't cover it.

If there is any amount of money that you could spare--even $5-- that would be huge. It is one step closer to my goal.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story, and thank you for any amount of money you can give to help me reach my goal!

I am forever grateful to you!