Can someone with adhd or bipolar have a service animal?

i am adhd and bipolar and i get angry Very why i don't know i see a therapist once a week 4 times a month

And do you know that an animal would help you calm down? Theoretically you could, but no one would place an animal with you if you have anger issues and you would take them out on an animal.

Emotional support animals are not service animals in the same way guide dogs are. They are not protected under the ADA as emotional support as they have not been accepted as providing a service. That is unlikely to change.

But in theory, yes.

Like other people with disabilities, people with disabling mental,emotional, and cognitive conditions can use service dogs if and only if those dogs have been individually trained to mitigate the effects of their disability. Liking to pet your animal or finding a pet calming does NOT legally make it a Service Animal, although it might qualify it as an Emotional Support Animal (which generally does not have public access, but does have greater access in housing than an ordinary pet).

If your ADHD or Bipolar substantially limits one or more major life activities, then you may be considered to be disabled for the purposes of the ADA. Assuming that you meet the disability criteria, the next question is, what individually trained tasks would you need your service animal to do for you to mitigate the effects of your disability? An animal only qualifies as a service animal if it is individually trained to perform tasks that mitigate its disabled handler's disabilities. It should also be capable of passing the ADI Public Access Test.

http://www.assistancedogsinternational.o...

If the animal does something to help you as a pwd, then yes, that's a service animal, and yes, you can have one.

I would suggest talking to a service animal trainer, see about the different training that may be good for a service animal for you. You may want a really friendly dog who will calm you down with licks and tail-wagging. You may want a strong dog who will stand between you and other people to keep you from blowing up on them until you are calm. You may want a small animal who will just be there and comfort you when you get upset.

I have a friend, Anne, whose cat is a service animal. The cat does two things for her. One, she is going deaf, and the cat lets her know when there is a sound she misses (for example, when I was trying to talk to her, and didn't know she was looking away, she said the cat put her paw on Anne's leg to tell her 'Hey! Look over here, she's talking!'. But the cat is also there for emotional support, as Anne has post-traumatic stress disorder and clinical depression. When she gets upset, the cat will start rubbing against her, mewing softly, waiting to be picked up, then she will lick Anne's face, rub against her, and purr the loudest I have everheard a cat purr ever!

I also have a cat, and I have borderline personality disorder. My cat is an emotional support animal. This means, she is not a service animal that is allowed to go everywhere with me (I can't yet, anyway, because she is very timid about loud noises), but at home, if I am in a bad mood, she will play with me and make me laugh, or if I'm crying, she will come and curl up against me and purr, and if I am bed-ridden from pain, she'll come and cuddle with me. She has been known to also massage my legs by kneading...I haven't trained her in this, so it's not something she does as a service, but I am working on training her in it...her kneading my muscles makes my legs feel so much better sometimes...

So you can see, animals make for great emotional support. If you will require that the animal be with you all the time, certify him/her as a service animal. If you're like me, though, and hide away in your apartment/room when you are in a bad mood or depressed, you don't need an animal that goes everywhere with you. My cat is an emotional support animal, and is treated under all the same laws as any pet, because she isn't really a service animal (yet...she may be in the future, but she likely will never go with me everywhere, because the services I'm training her for are at-home services).

Hope that helped!

It would be unfair for you to get a service dog. When blind people and epileptics need a dog more than you. Their is a long waiting list for service dogs also. With your situation, you can take steps to control your situation. With blind people, and epileptics. They cannot control their situation. Some epileptics fall on the floor in public. Dogs know how to calm the person nerves. To prevent the seizures.

I get mad easily also. My suggestion, is ask your dr to get you on Lexapro. It is used for bipolar and anxiety.

I do have ADHD and I don't see how having a service animal would really help anything.

I'm pretty suspicious of the whole "emotional support" animal thing. To me it just seems to be a crutch for people who lack self discipline or are mentally weak. The thing is, when it comes to people who otherwise have no visible disabilities there's no real way to prove if it works or not. Someone who just wants to carry their tea cup poodle around with them as a fashion accessory could easily just claim that he/she needed the dog with them at all time for moral support.

That's my opinion of the subject. Feel free to offer a counterpoint.

I've heard of people with service animals for depression, so why not adhd and bipolar? Animals are proven to have a calming affect on people, to lift spirits and to comfort. I have add and depression, and sometimes just sitting and petting my cat and chilling out for a moment helps. The cat is a living being but doesn't demand me to talk, understand anything, give anything but food and water. Better than a boyfriend if you ask me!

There are Awareness dogs for people with mental illness.
They can do thing like remind people to take medication
Calm the person down
turn on lights and search for interducers
Stop people doing COD's

But a person I know with a dog had been denied taking her dog on the bus even after showing the dogs id card to say it was a services dog.

just about anyone can have a service animal if they can justify whagt service the animal will preform

emotional support--
safety
physical assistance

i've seen people taking so called emotional support animals into wlamart and eventhr grocery store..

I've heard of apartments allowing emotioanl support animals when they normally forbid pets