This is hard to watch, but it’s an amazing example of how dogs can help people who suffer from Asperger’s syndrome calm down after an emotional outburst. Danielle Jacons bravely posted this video of her and her dog, Samson, on Youtube. Here’s what she had to say about the specific episode:
This is what having aspergers is like. Please no negative comments this really happened and it’s not easy to open myself and share what it’s like on a daily basis. This is what’s considered a meltdown. Yes Samson is alerting. I trained him to alert to depressive episodes and self harm not both but he alerted. It appears the response is late but it’s actually supposed to be as I’m coming out of the meltdown as I tend to have a panic attack after.
You can see how hard Samson works to distract Danielle from herself to focus on him, and once she begins petting him, the emotional outburst de-escalates. Powerful stuff.
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