Video of Service Dog Helping Owner Cope With Asperger's-Related Meltdown Goes Viral

In a brave attempt to let people know "what having aspergers is like," a woman has shared footage of herself being comforted by her service dog during a depressive episode. The video has gone viral with more than 2.2 million views and over 1,000 comments on YouTube.

The heartbreaking video, uploaded by Danielle Jacobs on YouTube, shows her crying and hitting herself continuously. Her pet dog Samson can be seen using his paws to calm her down and stop her hurting herself.

Ms Jacobs can eventually be seen dropping to the floor next to Samson, who continues to lick his owner to help her cope during the meltdown.

Ms Jacobs has posted several videos of her training Samson to act during episodes such as this and has said that this incident actually happened. "It's not easy to open myself and share what it's like on a daily basis," she wrote in the descriptor of the video on YouTube.

She also wrote, "Yes Samson is alerting. I trained him to alert to depressive episodes and self harm not both but he alerted," adding "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."

Advertisement

Ms Jacobs' attempt to create awareness about Asperger's Syndrome, a disorder that makes it difficult to communicate and interact socially, has been praised by several people.

(Viewer discretion advised)

Advertisement

  .