Service Dog for Bianka

"Life changing" is a term used often when we have children. The body goes through so many changes on multiple levels. My second pregnancy did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. It put enormous amounts of stress on my body to the point where my body is nolonger chemically stable. My name is Bianka Guthrie, I'm 32 years old. I have two beautiful sons (3yr and 10yrs) and a devoted husband. Since the arrival of my second son I noticed a change in my body and began struggling emotionally and physically. It started with panic attacks, full body seizures and strangely symptoms akin to morning sickness. With the support from my workplace, I was able to reduce my hours, begin counseling and even took 6 months off to focus on my health. Unfortunately things progressed to the point where I am now classified as unfit to work.  In reality the anxiety can be so bad that some days I'm unable to leave my bedroom. Before my first diagnosis of Anxiety disorder in Oct 2016 I had a successfully career in banking built over 10 years. I used to considered myself as a strong indipendant woman and was the main source of income for our family while my husband completed his university degree. Now that has completely changed. My husband has now taken on the role as my full time carer.  After working with a great medical and specialist team I have been given the diagnoses of depression, bipolar, anxiety and localised agoraphobia, where I am unable to leave my 'safe space' within my bedroom on some days. All of these greatly impacts the amount of time I can spend with my family.  I have been married to my amazing husband for 4 years, he has become my primary carer and support, however as my condition worsens I am finding myself needing extra support which is where Mind Dogs Australia comes in. This amazing organisation helps train psychology assistance dogs to help people with disorders like mine who give sufferers the ability to do every day things that I am now unable to achieve. Through their training and guidance my service dog will become my new "safety place" my portable comfort zone. My dog will also be  trained to alert people when I have seizures, provide a distractions to redirect anxious behaviour and be my focus point when going out in public. Currently seditives such as diazapam are used to manage my symptoms, however they can make me sleepy, limit my activity and still stop me from going out in public. Our hope is that my service dog will reduce the amount of this medication I need to take on a daily bases and give me more freedom for myself and family throughout my life.