Depressed dogs, cats with OCD -- what animal madness means for us humans | Laurel Braitman

263,053 views

2014-08-21 ・ TED


New videos

Depressed dogs, cats with OCD -- what animal madness means for us humans | Laurel Braitman

263,053 views ・ 2014-08-21

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:13
Oliver was an extremely dashing,
0
13089
4064
00:17
handsome, charming and largely unstable male
1
17153
4821
00:21
that I completely lost my heart to.
2
21974
3185
00:25
(Laughter)
3
25159
2921
00:28
He was a Bernese mountain dog,
4
28080
1666
00:29
and my ex-husband and I adopted him,
5
29746
3183
00:32
and about six months in,
6
32929
1689
00:34
we realized that he was a mess.
7
34618
2564
00:37
He had such paralyzing separation anxiety
8
37182
2780
00:39
that we couldn't leave him alone.
9
39962
1536
00:41
Once, he jumped out of our third floor apartment.
10
41498
3128
00:44
He ate fabric. He ate things, recyclables.
11
44626
4421
00:49
He hunted flies that didn't exist.
12
49047
1905
00:50
He suffered from hallucinations.
13
50952
1729
00:52
He was diagnosed with a canine compulsive disorder
14
52681
3304
00:55
and that's really just the tip of the iceberg.
15
55985
3346
00:59
But like with humans,
16
59331
4101
01:03
sometimes it's six months in
17
63432
3111
01:06
before you realize that
18
66543
2037
01:08
the person that you love has some issues.
19
68580
2947
01:11
(Laughter)
20
71527
1411
01:12
And most of us do not take the person we're dating
21
72938
3934
01:16
back to the bar where we met them
22
76872
2136
01:19
or give them back to the friend that introduced us,
23
79008
4336
01:23
or sign them back up on Match.com.
24
83344
2754
01:26
(Laughter)
25
86098
2830
01:28
We love them anyway,
26
88928
1799
01:30
and we stick to it,
27
90727
1996
01:32
and that is what I did with my dog.
28
92723
4232
01:36
And I was a — I'd studied biology.
29
96955
3802
01:40
I have a Ph.D. in history of science
30
100757
2620
01:43
from MIT,
31
103377
1505
01:44
and had you asked me 10 years ago
32
104882
1698
01:46
if a dog I loved, or just dogs generally,
33
106580
2409
01:48
had emotions, I would have said yes,
34
108989
1836
01:50
but I'm not sure that I would have told you
35
110825
1464
01:52
that they can also wind up with an anxiety disorder,
36
112289
2298
01:54
a Prozac prescription and a therapist.
37
114587
4091
01:58
But then, I fell in love, and I realized that they can,
38
118678
3946
02:02
and actually trying to help my own dog
39
122624
2626
02:05
overcome his panic and his anxiety,
40
125250
2614
02:07
it just changed my life.
41
127864
2363
02:10
It cracked open my world.
42
130227
2537
02:12
And I spent the last seven years, actually,
43
132764
2367
02:15
looking into this topic of mental illness in other animals.
44
135131
2599
02:17
Can they be mentally ill like people,
45
137730
1345
02:19
and if so, what does it mean about us?
46
139075
3005
02:22
And what I discovered is that I do believe
47
142080
2799
02:24
they can suffer from mental illness,
48
144879
1940
02:26
and actually looking and trying to identify mental illness in them
49
146819
4476
02:31
often helps us be better friends to them
50
151295
2082
02:33
and also can help us better understand ourselves.
51
153377
4054
02:37
So let's talk about diagnosis for a minute.
52
157431
3446
02:40
Many of us think that we can't know
53
160877
2681
02:43
what another animal is thinking,
54
163558
2463
02:46
and that is true,
55
166021
1278
02:47
but any of you in relationships —
56
167299
2592
02:49
at least this is my case —
57
169891
1856
02:51
just because you ask someone that you're with
58
171747
1800
02:53
or your parent or your child how they feel
59
173547
2194
02:55
doesn't mean that they can tell you.
60
175741
1810
02:57
They may not have words to explain
61
177551
2318
02:59
what it is that they're feeling,
62
179869
1063
03:00
and they may not know.
63
180932
1843
03:02
It's actually a pretty recent phenomenon
64
182775
1865
03:04
that we feel that we have to talk to someone
65
184640
1746
03:06
to understand their emotional distress.
66
186386
2404
03:08
Before the early 20th century,
67
188790
2427
03:11
physicians often diagnosed emotional distress
68
191217
2520
03:13
in their patients just by observation.
69
193737
3498
03:17
It also turns out that thinking about
70
197235
1683
03:18
mental illness in other animals
71
198918
1595
03:20
isn't actually that much of a stretch.
72
200513
2193
03:22
Most mental disorders in the United States
73
202706
1913
03:24
are fear and anxiety disorders,
74
204619
2720
03:27
and when you think about it, fear and anxiety
75
207339
1969
03:29
are actually really extremely helpful animal emotions.
76
209308
4192
03:33
Usually we feel fear and anxiety in situations that are dangerous,
77
213500
3100
03:36
and once we feel them,
78
216600
1297
03:37
we then are motivated to move away
79
217897
1629
03:39
from whatever is dangerous.
80
219526
1831
03:41
The problem is when we begin to feel fear and anxiety in situations that don't call for it.
81
221357
4969
03:46
Mood disorders, too, may actually just be
82
226326
3210
03:49
the unfortunate downside of being a feeling animal,
83
229536
3506
03:53
and obsessive compulsive disorders also
84
233042
3165
03:56
are often manifestations of a really healthy animal thing
85
236207
3409
03:59
which is keeping yourself clean and groomed.
86
239616
2780
04:02
This tips into the territory of mental illness
87
242396
2148
04:04
when you do things like
88
244544
1146
04:05
compulsively over-wash your hands or paws,
89
245690
2603
04:08
or you develop a ritual that's so extreme
90
248293
2066
04:10
that you can't sit down to a bowl of food
91
250359
2092
04:12
unless you engage in that ritual.
92
252451
2992
04:15
So for humans, we have the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,"
93
255443
4331
04:19
which is basically an atlas
94
259774
2127
04:21
of the currently agreed-upon mental disorders.
95
261901
2733
04:24
In other animals, we have YouTube.
96
264634
3251
04:27
(Laughter)
97
267885
1606
04:29
This is just one search I did for "OCD dog"
98
269491
2647
04:32
but I encourage all of you
99
272138
1788
04:33
to look at "OCD cat."
100
273926
2951
04:36
You will be shocked by what you see.
101
276877
3394
04:40
I'm going to show you just a couple examples.
102
280271
4499
04:44
This is an example of shadow-chasing.
103
284770
2722
04:47
I know, and it's funny and in some ways it's cute.
104
287492
3076
04:50
The issue, though, is that dogs can develop compulsions like this
105
290568
3495
04:54
that they then engage in all day.
106
294063
2902
04:56
So they won't go for a walk,
107
296965
1272
04:58
they won't hang out with their friends,
108
298237
1654
04:59
they won't eat.
109
299891
1586
05:01
They'll develop fixations
110
301477
1533
05:03
like chasing their tails compulsively.
111
303010
3117
05:06
Here's an example of a cat named Gizmo.
112
306127
3401
05:09
He looks like he's on a stakeout
113
309528
3212
05:12
but he does this for many, many, many hours a day.
114
312740
3314
05:16
He just sits there and he will paw and paw and paw
115
316054
3504
05:19
at the screen.
116
319558
1534
05:21
This is another example of what's considered
117
321092
2477
05:23
a stereotypic behavior.
118
323569
1784
05:25
This is a sun bear at the Oakland Zoo named Ting Ting.
119
325353
2707
05:28
And if you just sort of happened upon this scene,
120
328060
1765
05:29
you might think that Ting Ting
121
329825
951
05:30
is just playing with a stick,
122
330776
1714
05:32
but Ting Ting does this all day,
123
332490
2046
05:34
and if you pay close attention
124
334536
1596
05:36
and if I showed you guys the full half-hour of this clip,
125
336132
3671
05:39
you'd see that he does the exact same thing
126
339803
2026
05:41
in the exact same order, and he spins the stick
127
341829
2149
05:43
in the exact same way every time.
128
343978
2350
05:46
Other super common behaviors that you may see,
129
346328
2492
05:48
particularly in captive animals,
130
348820
1824
05:50
are pacing stereotypies or swaying stereotypies,
131
350644
4560
05:55
and actually, humans do this too,
132
355204
1676
05:56
and in us, we'll sway,
133
356880
1744
05:58
we'll move from side to side.
134
358624
1587
06:00
Many of us do this, and sometimes
135
360211
2271
06:02
it's an effort to soothe ourselves,
136
362482
1546
06:04
and I think in other animals that is often the case too.
137
364028
2650
06:06
But it's not just stereotypic behaviors
138
366678
1686
06:08
that other animals engage in.
139
368364
1766
06:10
This is Gigi. She's a gorilla that lives
140
370130
2128
06:12
at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.
141
372258
1661
06:13
She actually has a Harvard psychiatrist,
142
373919
2208
06:16
and she's been treated for a mood disorder
143
376127
1722
06:17
among other things.
144
377849
1583
06:19
Many animals develop mood disorders.
145
379432
2995
06:22
Lots of creatures —
146
382427
1428
06:23
this horse is just one example —
147
383855
1535
06:25
develop self-destructive behaviors.
148
385390
1682
06:27
They'll gnaw on things
149
387072
1285
06:28
or do other things that may also soothe them,
150
388357
2146
06:30
even if they're self-destructive,
151
390503
1698
06:32
which could be considered similar
152
392201
1307
06:33
to the ways that some humans cut themselves.
153
393508
3741
06:37
Plucking.
154
397249
1313
06:38
Turns out, if you have fur or feathers or skin,
155
398562
3757
06:42
you can pluck yourself compulsively,
156
402319
1975
06:44
and some parrots actually have been studied
157
404294
2322
06:46
to better understand trichotillomania, or compulsive plucking in humans,
158
406616
3098
06:49
something that affects
159
409714
1447
06:51
20 million Americans right now.
160
411161
2280
06:53
Lab rats pluck themselves too.
161
413441
2068
06:55
In them, it's called barbering.
162
415509
2233
06:57
Canine veterans of conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan
163
417742
3077
07:00
are coming back with what's considered canine PTSD,
164
420819
2981
07:03
and they're having a hard time reentering civilian life
165
423800
2712
07:06
when they come back from deployments.
166
426512
1285
07:07
They can be too scared to approach men with beards
167
427797
2606
07:10
or to hop into cars.
168
430403
2713
07:13
I want to be careful and be clear, though.
169
433116
2766
07:15
I do not think that canine PTSD
170
435882
2677
07:18
is the same as human PTSD.
171
438559
2801
07:21
But I also do not think that my PTSD
172
441360
2475
07:23
is like your PTSD,
173
443835
1095
07:24
or that my anxiety or that my sadness is like yours.
174
444930
3702
07:28
We are all different.
175
448632
1705
07:30
We also all have very different susceptibilities.
176
450337
2835
07:33
So two dogs, raised in the same household,
177
453172
3741
07:36
exposed to the very same things,
178
456913
2347
07:39
one may develop, say, a debilitating fear of motorcycles,
179
459260
3899
07:43
or a phobia of the beep of the microwave,
180
463159
2748
07:45
and another one is going to be just fine.
181
465907
1855
07:47
So one thing that people ask me pretty frequently:
182
467762
2833
07:50
Is this just an instance of humans
183
470595
1943
07:52
driving other animals crazy?
184
472538
1629
07:54
Or, is animal mental illness just a result of mistreatment or abuse?
185
474167
3923
07:58
And it turns out we're actually
186
478090
1529
07:59
so much more complicated than that.
187
479619
3555
08:03
So one great thing that has happened to me
188
483174
2987
08:06
is recently I published a book on this,
189
486161
3249
08:09
and every day now that I open my email
190
489410
3945
08:13
or when I go to a reading
191
493355
1454
08:14
or even when I go to a cocktail party,
192
494809
2112
08:16
people tell me their stories
193
496921
1901
08:18
of the animals that they have met.
194
498822
1754
08:20
And recently, I did a reading in California,
195
500576
2444
08:23
and a woman raised her hand after the talk and she said,
196
503020
2430
08:25
"Dr. Braitman, I think my cat has PTSD."
197
505450
3676
08:29
And I said, "Well, why? Tell me a little bit about it."
198
509126
3364
08:32
So, Ping is her cat. She was a rescue,
199
512490
3419
08:35
and she used to live with an elderly man,
200
515909
2722
08:38
and one day the man was vacuuming
201
518631
2271
08:40
and he suffered a heart attack, and he died.
202
520902
2825
08:43
A week later, Ping was discovered in the apartment
203
523727
2934
08:46
alongside the body of her owner,
204
526661
1994
08:48
and the vacuum had been running the entire time.
205
528655
3387
08:52
For many months, up to I think two years after that incident,
206
532042
5308
08:57
she was so scared she couldn't be in the house when anyone was cleaning.
207
537350
2610
08:59
She was quite literally a scaredy cat.
208
539960
1790
09:01
She would hide in the closet.
209
541750
2440
09:04
She was un-self-confident and shaky,
210
544190
1802
09:05
but with the loving support of her family,
211
545992
2338
09:08
a lot of a time, and their patience,
212
548330
2396
09:10
now, three years later,
213
550726
1254
09:11
she's actually a happy, confident cat.
214
551980
3245
09:15
Another story of trauma and recovery that I came across
215
555225
2955
09:18
was actually a few years ago.
216
558180
1496
09:19
I was in Thailand to do some research.
217
559676
2240
09:21
I met a monkey named Boonlua,
218
561916
3094
09:25
and when Boonlua was a baby,
219
565010
2272
09:27
he was attacked by a pack of dogs,
220
567282
2014
09:29
and they ripped off both of his legs and one arm,
221
569296
4844
09:34
and Boonlua dragged himself to a monastery,
222
574140
3143
09:37
where the monks took him in.
223
577283
1551
09:38
They called in a veterinarian, who treated his wounds.
224
578834
2611
09:41
Eventually, Boonlua wound up
225
581445
2215
09:43
at an elephant facility,
226
583660
1793
09:45
and the keepers really decided to take him under their wing,
227
585453
2969
09:48
and they figured out what he liked,
228
588422
1363
09:49
which, it turned out, was mint Mentos
229
589785
2019
09:51
and Rhinoceros beetles and eggs.
230
591804
3477
09:55
But they worried, because he was social, that he was lonely,
231
595281
3172
09:58
and they didn't want to put him in with another monkey,
232
598453
1767
10:00
because they thought with just one arm,
233
600220
1203
10:01
he wouldn't be able to defend himself or even play.
234
601423
2795
10:04
And so they gave him a rabbit,
235
604218
2486
10:06
and Boonlua was immediately a different monkey.
236
606704
2813
10:09
He was extremely happy to be with this rabbit.
237
609517
1982
10:11
They groomed each other, they become close friends,
238
611499
2280
10:13
and then the rabbit had bunnies,
239
613779
2703
10:16
and Boonlua was even happier than he was before,
240
616482
2857
10:19
and it had in a way given him
241
619339
2250
10:21
a reason to wake up in the morning,
242
621589
1845
10:23
and in fact it gave him such a reason to wake up
243
623434
1754
10:25
that he decided not to sleep.
244
625188
2003
10:27
He became extremely protective of these bunnies,
245
627191
3619
10:30
and he stopped sleeping,
246
630810
1248
10:32
and he would sort of nod off
247
632058
1441
10:33
while trying to take care of them.
248
633499
1891
10:35
In fact, he was so protective and so affectionate
249
635390
2443
10:37
with these babies that the sanctuary
250
637833
1755
10:39
eventually had to take them away from him
251
639588
2362
10:41
because he was so protective, he was worried
252
641950
1935
10:43
that their mother might hurt them.
253
643885
1879
10:45
So after they were taken away, the sanctuary staff
254
645764
1844
10:47
worried that he would fall into a depression,
255
647608
1609
10:49
and so to avoid that,
256
649217
1232
10:50
they gave him another rabbit friend.
257
650449
2998
10:53
(Laughter)
258
653447
3357
10:56
My official opinion is that he does not look depressed.
259
656804
2705
10:59
(Laughter)
260
659509
1950
11:01
So one thing that I would really like people to feel
261
661459
4362
11:05
is that you really should feel empowered
262
665821
3079
11:08
to make some assumptions
263
668900
2473
11:11
about the creatures that you know well.
264
671373
1823
11:13
So when it comes to your dog
265
673196
1800
11:14
or your cat or maybe your one-armed monkey
266
674996
2318
11:17
that you happen to know,
267
677314
1428
11:18
if you think that they are traumatized or depressed,
268
678742
3795
11:22
you're probably right.
269
682537
2126
11:24
This is extremely anthropomorphic,
270
684663
2808
11:27
or the assignation of human characteristics
271
687471
2993
11:30
onto non-human animals or things.
272
690464
3652
11:34
I don't think, though, that that's a problem.
273
694116
2141
11:36
I don't think that we can not anthropomorphize.
274
696257
2092
11:38
It's not as if you can take your human brain out of your head
275
698349
2902
11:41
and put it in a jar and then use it
276
701251
2104
11:43
to think about another animal thinking.
277
703355
2205
11:45
We will always be one animal wondering
278
705560
2598
11:48
about the emotional experience of another animal.
279
708158
2520
11:50
So then the choice becomes, how do you anthropomorphize well?
280
710678
2993
11:53
Or do you anthropomorphize poorly?
281
713671
2260
11:55
And anthropomorphizing poorly
282
715931
2284
11:58
is all too common.
283
718215
2165
12:00
(Laughter)
284
720380
1632
12:02
It may include dressing your corgis up and throwing them a wedding,
285
722012
2604
12:04
or getting too close to exotic wildlife because
286
724616
2656
12:07
you believe that you had a spiritual connection.
287
727272
1956
12:09
There's all manner of things.
288
729228
1978
12:11
Anthropomorphizing well, however, I believe is based
289
731206
3906
12:15
on accepting our animal similarities with other species
290
735112
2718
12:17
and using them to make assumptions
291
737830
2807
12:20
that are informed about other animals' minds and experiences,
292
740637
3639
12:24
and there's actually an entire industry
293
744276
2546
12:26
that is in some ways based on anthropomorphizing well,
294
746822
2970
12:29
and that is the psychopharmaceutical industry.
295
749792
3161
12:32
One in five Americans is currently taking a psychopharmaceutical drug,
296
752953
4520
12:37
from the antidepressants and antianxiety medications
297
757473
2655
12:40
to the antipsychotics.
298
760128
1822
12:41
It turns out that we owe this
299
761950
1834
12:43
entire psychopharmaceutical arsenal
300
763784
2373
12:46
to other animals.
301
766157
1732
12:47
These drugs were tested in non-human animals first,
302
767889
2510
12:50
and not just for toxicity but for behavioral effects.
303
770399
3936
12:54
The very popular antipsychotic Thorazine
304
774335
3184
12:57
first relaxed rats before it relaxed people.
305
777519
3746
13:01
The antianxiety medication Librium
306
781265
2161
13:03
was given to cats selected for their meanness in the 1950s
307
783426
3823
13:07
and made them into peaceable felines.
308
787249
2391
13:09
And even antidepressants were first tested in rabbits.
309
789640
4560
13:14
Today, however, we are not just giving these drugs
310
794200
2904
13:17
to other animals as test subjects,
311
797104
2351
13:19
but they're giving them these drugs as patients,
312
799455
2491
13:21
both in ethical and much less ethical ways.
313
801946
4483
13:26
SeaWorld gives mother orcas antianxiety medications
314
806429
3870
13:30
when their calves are taken away.
315
810299
2644
13:32
Many zoo gorillas have been given antipsychotics
316
812943
2283
13:35
and antianxiety medications.
317
815226
2066
13:37
But dogs like my own Oliver
318
817292
2873
13:40
are given antidepressants and some antianxiety medications
319
820165
3239
13:43
to keep them from jumping out of buildings
320
823404
1736
13:45
or jumping into traffic.
321
825140
2063
13:47
Just recently, actually, a study came out in "Science"
322
827203
3199
13:50
that showed that even crawdads
323
830402
1829
13:52
responded to antianxiety medication.
324
832231
2224
13:54
It made them braver, less skittish,
325
834455
2275
13:56
and more likely to explore their environment.
326
836730
5050
14:01
It's hard to know how many animals are on these drugs,
327
841780
2358
14:04
but I can tell you that the animal pharmaceutical industry
328
844138
3464
14:07
is immense and growing,
329
847602
1788
14:09
from seven billion dollars in 2011
330
849390
2723
14:12
to a projected 9.25 billion by the year 2015.
331
852113
5579
14:17
Some animals are on these drugs indefinitely.
332
857692
3847
14:21
Others, like one bonobo who lives in Milwaukee
333
861539
4235
14:25
at the zoo there was on them
334
865774
1586
14:27
until he started to save his Paxil prescription
335
867360
2151
14:29
and then distribute it among the other bonobos.
336
869511
2396
14:31
(Laughter) (Applause)
337
871907
5009
14:36
More than psychopharmaceuticals, though,
338
876916
2889
14:39
there are many, many, many other
339
879805
2515
14:42
therapeutic interventions that help other creatures.
340
882320
2648
14:44
And here is a place where I think actually
341
884968
2362
14:47
that veterinary medicine can teach something
342
887330
2442
14:49
to human medicine,
343
889772
1686
14:51
which is, if you take your dog, who is, say,
344
891458
1890
14:53
compulsively chasing his tail,
345
893348
1800
14:55
into the veterinary behaviorist,
346
895148
1778
14:56
their first action isn't to reach for the prescription pad;
347
896926
2804
14:59
it's to ask you about your dog's life.
348
899730
2956
15:02
They want to know how often your dog gets outside.
349
902686
2936
15:05
They want to know how much exercise your dog is getting.
350
905622
2654
15:08
They want to know how much social time
351
908276
1485
15:09
with other dogs and other humans.
352
909761
2419
15:12
They want to talk to you about what sorts of therapies,
353
912180
2210
15:14
largely behavior therapies,
354
914390
2515
15:16
you've tried with that animal.
355
916905
2260
15:19
Those are the things that often tend to help the most,
356
919165
2397
15:21
especially when combined with psychopharmaceuticals.
357
921562
3329
15:24
The thing, though, I believe, that helps the most,
358
924891
2453
15:27
particularly with social animals,
359
927344
1957
15:29
is time with other social animals.
360
929301
3138
15:32
In many ways, I feel like I became a service animal
361
932439
3908
15:36
to my own dog,
362
936347
2504
15:38
and I have seen parrots do it for people
363
938851
4027
15:42
and people do it for parrots
364
942878
1710
15:44
and dogs do it for elephants
365
944588
1538
15:46
and elephants do it for other elephants.
366
946126
3178
15:49
I don't know about you;
367
949304
1333
15:50
I get a lot of Internet forwards
368
950637
2580
15:53
of unlikely animal friendships.
369
953217
2216
15:55
I also think it's a huge part of Facebook,
370
955433
3287
15:58
the monkey that adopts the cat
371
958720
2877
16:01
or the great dane who adopted the orphaned fawn,
372
961597
4636
16:06
or the cow that makes friends with the pig,
373
966233
3004
16:09
and had you asked me eight, nine years ago, about these,
374
969237
3936
16:13
I would have told you that they were hopelessly sentimental
375
973173
2490
16:15
and maybe too anthropomorphic in the wrong way
376
975663
3123
16:18
and maybe even staged, and what I can tell you now
377
978786
2779
16:21
is that there is actually something to this.
378
981565
2952
16:24
This is legit. In fact, some interesting studies
379
984517
3595
16:28
have pointed to oxytocin levels,
380
988112
1926
16:30
which are a kind of bonding hormone
381
990038
2596
16:32
that we release when we're having sex or nursing
382
992634
2406
16:35
or around someone that we care for extremely,
383
995040
2589
16:37
oxytocin levels raising in both humans and dogs
384
997629
2492
16:40
who care about each other
385
1000121
1394
16:41
or who enjoy each other's company,
386
1001515
1660
16:43
and beyond that, other studies show that oxytocin
387
1003175
2309
16:45
raised even in other pairs of animals,
388
1005484
2136
16:47
so, say, in goats and dogs who were friends and played with each other,
389
1007620
3605
16:51
their levels spiked afterwards.
390
1011225
4459
16:55
I have a friend who really showed me that
391
1015684
2767
16:58
mental health is in fact a two-way street.
392
1018451
2424
17:00
His name is Lonnie Hodge, and he's a veteran of Vietnam.
393
1020875
3999
17:04
When he returned, he started working
394
1024874
2622
17:07
with survivors of genocide and a lot of people
395
1027496
2643
17:10
who had gone through war trauma.
396
1030139
1528
17:11
And he had PTSD and also a fear of heights,
397
1031667
2484
17:14
because in Vietnam, he had been
398
1034151
1899
17:16
rappelling backwards out of helicopters
399
1036050
2245
17:18
over the skids,
400
1038295
1435
17:19
and he was givena service dog named Gander, a labradoodle,
401
1039730
3069
17:22
to help him with PTSD and his fear of heights.
402
1042799
3451
17:26
This is them actually on the first day that they met,
403
1046250
2660
17:28
which is amazing, and since then,
404
1048910
2592
17:31
they've spent a lot of time together
405
1051502
1765
17:33
visiting with other veterans suffering from similar issues.
406
1053267
4250
17:37
But what's so interesting to me about Lonnie and Gander's relationship
407
1057517
3062
17:40
is about a few months in,
408
1060579
1778
17:42
Gander actually developed a fear of heights,
409
1062357
3327
17:45
probably because he was watching Lonnie so closely.
410
1065684
4297
17:49
What's pretty great about this, though, is that he's still a fantastic service dog,
411
1069981
3469
17:53
because now, when they're both at a great height,
412
1073450
2535
17:55
Lonnie is so concerned with Gander's well-being
413
1075985
3358
17:59
that he forgets to be scared of the heights himself.
414
1079343
5974
18:05
Since I've spent so much time with these stories,
415
1085317
3281
18:08
digging into archives,
416
1088598
1404
18:10
I literally spent years doing this research,
417
1090002
2454
18:12
and it's changed me.
418
1092456
2300
18:14
I no longer look at animals at the species level.
419
1094756
3936
18:18
I look at them as individuals,
420
1098692
2228
18:20
and I think about them as creatures
421
1100920
1572
18:22
with their own individual weather systems
422
1102492
2759
18:25
guiding their behavior and informing
423
1105251
1712
18:26
how they respond to the world.
424
1106963
2309
18:29
And I really believe that this has made me
425
1109272
2888
18:32
a more curious and a more empathetic person,
426
1112160
2364
18:34
both to the animals that share my bed
427
1114524
3443
18:37
and occasionally wind up on my plate,
428
1117967
2126
18:40
but also to the people that I know
429
1120093
2850
18:42
who are suffering from anxiety
430
1122943
2951
18:45
and from phobias and all manner of other things,
431
1125894
2627
18:48
and I really do believe that
432
1128521
1975
18:50
even though you can't know exactly
433
1130496
2248
18:52
what's going on in the mind of a pig
434
1132744
3387
18:56
or your pug or your partner,
435
1136131
2107
18:58
that that shouldn't stop you from empathizing with them.
436
1138248
3807
19:02
The best thing that we could do for our loved ones
437
1142055
2489
19:04
is, perhaps, to anthropomorphize them.
438
1144544
4296
19:08
Charles Darwin's father once told him
439
1148840
3501
19:12
that everybody could lose their mind at some point.
440
1152341
5219
19:17
Thankfully, we can often find them again,
441
1157560
2831
19:20
but only with each other's help.
442
1160391
2171
19:22
Thank you.
443
1162562
2056
19:24
(Applause)
444
1164618
3573
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7