How Service Dog Helps Man With Schizophrenia During Hallucinations

A man with schizophrenia has shared footage of the moment a service dog came to his aid after he began experiencing "visual hallucinations."

Schizophrenia—a mental health condition that manifests itself through hearing voices, seeing things that are not real, or having unusual beliefs and confused thinking—affects an estimated one percent of Americans, Johns Hopkins Medicine reported.

Kody Green from Wisconsin is part of that one percent. "I started having symptoms of schizophrenia at 18 years old and was diagnosed at 21," Green told Newsweek.

"My struggles with mental illness led to struggles with addiction and incarceration. After finding success with treatment and medication, I wanted to share what my life is like living with schizophrenia and some of the coping mechanisms I use to help manage my daily life," he added.

Green, a speaker and mental health advocate, has over 1.5 million followers on social media, where he regularly posts under the handle @schizophrenichippie.

One of Green's most recent videos focused on the important role his dog, Luna, plays in his day-to-day life. Luna is a psychiatric service dog who came to Green as a puppy.

"We adopted Luna from a family friend that had an accidental litter," he said. "We got her at 8 weeks old, and she is now almost 4 years old."

Luna, Green said, is not like most other dogs. "Luna was trained to help me with several tasks, including helping me identify visual hallucinations, grounding me and preventing self-harm during auditory hallucinations," he said.

"These were the only major tasks she was trained to do, and she is trained to help me with these tasks at home. Service dogs can be very expensive, and insurance doesn't usually cover it, but dog trainers can teach many of these tasks as well," he added.

In the video, Green demonstrated Luna's training after he started having a visual hallucination, in which he began "seeing another person" in his house. In the clip, Green can be heard instructing Luna to greet the person, but she stays quiet and instead sits down. This response told Green everything he needed to know.

"Luna is trained to greet people on command," Green explained. "If she greets them, I know that they are really there. If she sits down and looks up at me, I know that it's a hallucination."

He added: "By her not greeting the person I was talking to, I was able to realize I was having active schizophrenia symptoms."

Green said he shared the video to highlight the way Luna has helped make his daily life "more manageable." He said: "I just wanted to use this video as a way to help people better understand schizophrenia and possible coping mechanisms."

Green said he can't stress enough the role his service dog has played in changing his life for the better.

"Luna helps me feel more comfortable in my own home," he said. "Unfortunately, I most commonly have hallucinations at home and in the evenings, so it is so helpful for me to be able to recognize these symptoms and be able to acknowledge that I am having hallucinations."

The mental health advocate also said that having Luna with him has helped eliminate many of the worries he once had about his schizophrenia.

"I used to always question myself and whether or not I was having hallucinations," Green said, "and Luna eliminates the fear, confusion and frustration that has taken up so much of my life."