Oliver was an extremely dashing, handsome, charming and largely unstable male that I completely lost my heart to.
Oliver je bio izuzetno zanosan, zgodan, šarmantan i veoma nestabilan mužjak koji mi je potpuno ukrao srce.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
He was a Bernese mountain dog, and my ex-husband and I adopted him, and about six months in, we realized that he was a mess. He had such paralyzing separation anxiety that we couldn't leave him alone. Once, he jumped out of our third floor apartment. He ate fabric. He ate things, recyclables. He hunted flies that didn't exist. He suffered from hallucinations. He was diagnosed with a canine compulsive disorder and that's really just the tip of the iceberg.
On je bio burmanski planinski pas, koga smo moj bivši muž i ja usvojili i nekih šest meseci kasnije shvatili smo da je problematičan. Imao je takav parališući strah od odvajanja da nije smeo ostajati sam. Jednom je iskočio kroz prozor stana na trećem spratu. Jeo je tkaninu. Jeo je stvari, one za reciklažu. Lovio je nepostojeće muve. Patio je od halucinacija. Dijagnostikovan mu je pseći kompulsivni poremećaj, a to je zaista samo vrh ledenog brega.
But like with humans, sometimes it's six months in before you realize that the person that you love has some issues. (Laughter) And most of us do not take the person we're dating back to the bar where we met them or give them back to the friend that introduced us, or sign them back up on Match.com. (Laughter) We love them anyway, and we stick to it, and that is what I did with my dog. And I was a — I'd studied biology. I have a Ph.D. in history of science from MIT, and had you asked me 10 years ago if a dog I loved, or just dogs generally, had emotions, I would have said yes, but I'm not sure that I would have told you that they can also wind up with an anxiety disorder, a Prozac prescription and a therapist. But then, I fell in love, and I realized that they can, and actually trying to help my own dog overcome his panic and his anxiety, it just changed my life. It cracked open my world. And I spent the last seven years, actually, looking into this topic of mental illness in other animals. Can they be mentally ill like people, and if so, what does it mean about us? And what I discovered is that I do believe they can suffer from mental illness, and actually looking and trying to identify mental illness in them often helps us be better friends to them and also can help us better understand ourselves.
Ali kao i sa ljudima, ponekad je potrebno da prođe šest meseci pre nego što shvatite da osoba koju volite ima neke probleme. (Smeh) I većina nas ne vrati osobu s kojom se zabavlja nazad u bar gde smo je i upoznali, niti je vratimo prijatelju koji nas je upoznao, niti ih pretplatimo ponovo na sajt za upoznavanje. (Smeh) Volimo ih uprkos svemu i držimo se svog izbora, i baš to sam ja uradila s mojim psom. Studirala sam biologiju. Imam doktorat iz istorije nauke sa MIT-a, i da ste me pre deset godina pitali da li pas kojeg volim, ili da li uopšteno psi imaju osećanja, rekla bih da imaju, no nisam sigurna da bih vam rekla da mogu da završe s anksioznim poremećajem, receptom za prozak i terapeutom. No onda sam se zaljubila i shvatila da mogu i, zapravo, pokušavajući da pomognem svom psu da savlada paniku i anksioznost, to mi je prosto promenilo život. Proširilo je moj svet. I provela sam poslednjih sedam godina istražujući oblast mentalnih bolesti drugih životinja. Mogu li da budu bolesne kao ljudi i, ako da, šta to govori o nama? Otkrila sam da verujem da mogu da boluju od mentalnih bolesti i zapravo, traganje i nastojanje da identifikujemo njihove mentalne bolesti često nam pomaže da budemo bolji prema njima i takođe nam može pomoći da bolje razumemo nas same.
So let's talk about diagnosis for a minute. Many of us think that we can't know what another animal is thinking, and that is true, but any of you in relationships — at least this is my case — just because you ask someone that you're with or your parent or your child how they feel doesn't mean that they can tell you. They may not have words to explain what it is that they're feeling, and they may not know. It's actually a pretty recent phenomenon that we feel that we have to talk to someone to understand their emotional distress. Before the early 20th century, physicians often diagnosed emotional distress in their patients just by observation. It also turns out that thinking about mental illness in other animals isn't actually that much of a stretch. Most mental disorders in the United States are fear and anxiety disorders, and when you think about it, fear and anxiety are actually really extremely helpful animal emotions. Usually we feel fear and anxiety in situations that are dangerous, and once we feel them, we then are motivated to move away from whatever is dangerous. The problem is when we begin to feel fear and anxiety in situations that don't call for it. Mood disorders, too, may actually just be the unfortunate downside of being a feeling animal, and obsessive compulsive disorders also are often manifestations of a really healthy animal thing which is keeping yourself clean and groomed. This tips into the territory of mental illness when you do things like compulsively over-wash your hands or paws, or you develop a ritual that's so extreme that you can't sit down to a bowl of food unless you engage in that ritual.
Zato, hajde na kratko da govorimo o dijagnozi. Mnogi od nas misle da ne mogu da znaju o čemu razmišljaju druge životinje i to je istina, ali svi vi koji ste u vezi - bar je tako u mom slučaju - samo zato što ste pitali nekoga s kim ste svog roditelja ili svoje dete, kako se osećaju, ne znači da mogu da vam odgovore. Možda ne mogu rečima da objasne šta tačno osećaju, a možda čak ni ne znaju. To je zapravo skorašnji fenomen, osećaj da moramo da razgovaramo s nekim kako bismo razumeli njihove emotivne muke. Pre ranog XX veka, doktori su često dijagnostikovali emotivne poremećaje kod svojih pacijenata, pukim posmatranjem. I ispostavilo se da razmišljanje o poremećajima kod drugih životinja i nije naročit poduhvat. Većina mentalnih poremećaja u SAD-u su poremećaji vezani za strah i anksioznost, i kada razmišljate o tome, strah i anksioznost su zapravo izuzetno korisne emocije kod životinja. Obično osećamo strah i anksioznost u opasnim situacijama i čim ih osetimo, motivisani smo da se sklonimo od bilo čega što je opasno. Problem je kada počnemo da osećamo strah i anksioznost i kada nema potrebe za tim. Poremećaji raspoloženja, takođe mogu da budu nesrećna posledica toga što smo životinje sa osećanjima i opsesivno kompulsivni poremećaji takođe su često ispoljavanja uistinu zdrave životinjske navike, a to je održavanje higijene i timarenje. Ovo prelazi u prostor mentalnih bolesti kada radite stvari, poput pretranog kompulsivnog pranja ruku ili šapa, ili razvijete ritual do te krajnosti da ne možete sesti ispred činije s hranom sve dok ne završite s ritualom.
So for humans, we have the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual," which is basically an atlas of the currently agreed-upon mental disorders. In other animals, we have YouTube. (Laughter) This is just one search I did for "OCD dog" but I encourage all of you to look at "OCD cat." You will be shocked by what you see. I'm going to show you just a couple examples. This is an example of shadow-chasing. I know, and it's funny and in some ways it's cute. The issue, though, is that dogs can develop compulsions like this that they then engage in all day. So they won't go for a walk, they won't hang out with their friends, they won't eat. They'll develop fixations like chasing their tails compulsively.
Dakle, za ljude imamo "Dijagnostički i statistički priručnik", to je u suštini atlas trenutno priznatih mentalnih poremećaja. Za druge životinje imamo Jutjub. (Smeh) Ovo je samo jedna pretraga za psa sa OKP-om, ali sve vas ohrabrujem da potražite mačke sa OKP-om. Bićete zapanjeni onim što pronađete. Pokazaću vam samo nekoliko primera. Ovo je primer jurenja svoje senke. Znam, smešno je i na neki način je slatko. Problem je što psi mogu da razviju slična prinudna ponašanja kojima su zauzeti po celi dan. Stoga ne idu u šetnju, ne druže se s prijateljima, ne žele da jedu. Razvijaju opsesije, poput kompulsivnog jurenja sopstvenog repa.
Here's an example of a cat named Gizmo. He looks like he's on a stakeout but he does this for many, many, many hours a day. He just sits there and he will paw and paw and paw at the screen. This is another example of what's considered a stereotypic behavior. This is a sun bear at the Oakland Zoo named Ting Ting. And if you just sort of happened upon this scene, you might think that Ting Ting is just playing with a stick, but Ting Ting does this all day, and if you pay close attention and if I showed you guys the full half-hour of this clip, you'd see that he does the exact same thing in the exact same order, and he spins the stick in the exact same way every time. Other super common behaviors that you may see, particularly in captive animals, are pacing stereotypies or swaying stereotypies, and actually, humans do this too, and in us, we'll sway, we'll move from side to side. Many of us do this, and sometimes it's an effort to soothe ourselves, and I think in other animals that is often the case too.
Ovde imamo primer mačka, koji se zove Gizmo. Izgleda kao da je u zasedi, no on to radi mnogo, mnogo, mnogo sati dnevno. Samo sedi tu i grebe i grebe i grebe ispred ekrana. Ovo je još jedan primer nečega što se smatra stereotipskim ponašanjem. Ovo je sunčani medved Ting Ting, u zoo vrtu u Oklandu. Ukoliko zateknete ovaj prizor možete da pomislite da se Ting Ting igra sa štapom, ali Ting Ting ovo radi po celi dan i, ako budete pažljivo pratili, kad bih vam pokazala čitav polučasovni klip, videli biste da on radi istu stvar, istim redosledom, okreće štap na isti način, svaki put. Neka od zajedničkih ponašanja koja možete da vidite, naročito kod životinja u zatočeništvu, su stereotipni hod ili stereotipno njihanje i zapravo i ljudi to rade, čak se i mi njišemo. Pokrećemo se levo-desno. Mnogi od nas to rade, a ponekad to je pokušaj da ugodimo sebi, i mislim da je tako i kod drugih životinja.
But it's not just stereotypic behaviors that other animals engage in. This is Gigi. She's a gorilla that lives at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston. She actually has a Harvard psychiatrist, and she's been treated for a mood disorder among other things. Many animals develop mood disorders. Lots of creatures — this horse is just one example — develop self-destructive behaviors. They'll gnaw on things or do other things that may also soothe them, even if they're self-destructive, which could be considered similar to the ways that some humans cut themselves.
Ali nisu samo stereotipna ponašanja ona kojima se životinje prepuštaju. Ovo je Điđi. Ona je gorila koja živi u zoo vrtu Frenklin park, u Bostonu. Dodeljen joj je psihijatar sa Harvarda da je leči od poremećaja rasploženja, između ostalog. Kod mnogih životinja se razviju poremećaji raspoloženja. Mnoga stvorenja - ovaj konj je samo jedan primer - razviju autodestruktivna ponašanja. Glodaće stvari ili će da rade nešto drugo da ugode sebi čak i ako je to štetno po njih, što se može uporediti s ljudima koji režu sami sebe.
Plucking. Turns out, if you have fur or feathers or skin, you can pluck yourself compulsively, and some parrots actually have been studied to better understand trichotillomania, or compulsive plucking in humans, something that affects 20 million Americans right now. Lab rats pluck themselves too. In them, it's called barbering. Canine veterans of conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan are coming back with what's considered canine PTSD, and they're having a hard time reentering civilian life when they come back from deployments. They can be too scared to approach men with beards or to hop into cars.
Čerupanje. Izgleda da, ako imate krzno ili perje ili kožu, možete da se kompulsivno čupkate, i neki papagaji su zapravo izučavani da bi se bolje razumela trihotilomanija, kompulsivno čerupanje kod ljudi, nešto što pogađa 20 miliona Amerikanaca u ovom trenutku. Laboratorijski miševi se takođe čerupaju. Kod njih se to zove berberinstvo. Psi veterani iz iračkih i avganistanskih sukoba se vraćaju sa onim što se smatra psećim Posttraumatskim stresom i teško im je da se vrate civilnom životu, kada se vrate s razvrstavanja. Mogu da budu preplašeni od muškaraca s bradama ili od uskakanja u automobile.
I want to be careful and be clear, though. I do not think that canine PTSD is the same as human PTSD. But I also do not think that my PTSD is like your PTSD, or that my anxiety or that my sadness is like yours. We are all different. We also all have very different susceptibilities. So two dogs, raised in the same household, exposed to the very same things, one may develop, say, a debilitating fear of motorcycles, or a phobia of the beep of the microwave, and another one is going to be just fine.
Ipak, želim da budem oprezna i jasna. Ne mislim da je pseći PTSP isto što i ljudski PTSP. Ali takođe ne mislim da je moj PTSP, poput vašeg PTSP-a ili da je moja anksioznost ili da je moja tuga poput vaše. Svi smo mi različiti. Svi smo mi osetljivi na različite stvari. Dva psa, odgajana u istom domaćinstvu, izložena istim stvarima, jedan može da razvije, recimo, parališući strah od motora ili fobiju od zvuka mikrotalasne, a drugi može da bude u redu.
So one thing that people ask me pretty frequently: Is this just an instance of humans driving other animals crazy? Or, is animal mental illness just a result of mistreatment or abuse? And it turns out we're actually so much more complicated than that.
Nešto što me ljudi često pitaju je: da li ovde imamo slučaj da ljudi izluđuju druge životinje? Ili su životinjske mentalne bolesti samo rezultat loše nege ili zlostavljanja? I izgleda da smo zapravo mnogo složenji od toga.
So one great thing that has happened to me is recently I published a book on this, and every day now that I open my email or when I go to a reading or even when I go to a cocktail party, people tell me their stories of the animals that they have met. And recently, I did a reading in California, and a woman raised her hand after the talk and she said, "Dr. Braitman, I think my cat has PTSD."
Nešto izuzetno mi se desilo, nedavno sam objavila knjigu o ovome, i sada, svaki dan kada otvorim moj imejl ili kad predstavljam knjigu, pa čak i kad odem na koktel, ljudi mi pričaju svoje priče o životinjama koje su upoznali. Nedavno sam predstavljala knjigu u Kaliforniji i žena je podigla ruku, nakon govora, i rekla: "Dr Brejtman, mislim da moja mačka ima PTSP."
And I said, "Well, why? Tell me a little bit about it."
A ja sam rekla: "Zašto? Ispričajte mi malo više o tome."
So, Ping is her cat. She was a rescue, and she used to live with an elderly man, and one day the man was vacuuming and he suffered a heart attack, and he died. A week later, Ping was discovered in the apartment alongside the body of her owner, and the vacuum had been running the entire time. For many months, up to I think two years after that incident, she was so scared she couldn't be in the house when anyone was cleaning. She was quite literally a scaredy cat. She would hide in the closet. She was un-self-confident and shaky, but with the loving support of her family, a lot of a time, and their patience, now, three years later, she's actually a happy, confident cat.
Ping je njena mačka. Uzeta je iz azila, a nekada je živela sa starijim čovekom. Jednoga dana čovek je usisavao kada je doživeo infarkt i umro. Nedelju dana kasnije, Ping je pronađena u stanu pored tela svog vlasnika, a usisivač je radio sve vreme. Mnogo meseci, čini mi se skoro dve godine nakon incidenta, bila je toliko uplašena da nije mogla biti u kući kad neko čisti. Bukvalno je bila plašljivica cica. Sakrila bi se u orman, izgubila bi samopouzdanje i drhtala, ali uz ljubav i podršku njene porodice, uz mnogo vremena i njihovog strpljenja, sada, tri godine kasnije, ona je zapravo srećna, samopouzdana mačka.
Another story of trauma and recovery that I came across was actually a few years ago. I was in Thailand to do some research. I met a monkey named Boonlua, and when Boonlua was a baby, he was attacked by a pack of dogs, and they ripped off both of his legs and one arm, and Boonlua dragged himself to a monastery, where the monks took him in. They called in a veterinarian, who treated his wounds. Eventually, Boonlua wound up at an elephant facility, and the keepers really decided to take him under their wing, and they figured out what he liked, which, it turned out, was mint Mentos and Rhinoceros beetles and eggs. But they worried, because he was social, that he was lonely, and they didn't want to put him in with another monkey, because they thought with just one arm, he wouldn't be able to defend himself or even play. And so they gave him a rabbit, and Boonlua was immediately a different monkey. He was extremely happy to be with this rabbit. They groomed each other, they become close friends, and then the rabbit had bunnies, and Boonlua was even happier than he was before, and it had in a way given him a reason to wake up in the morning, and in fact it gave him such a reason to wake up that he decided not to sleep. He became extremely protective of these bunnies, and he stopped sleeping, and he would sort of nod off while trying to take care of them. In fact, he was so protective and so affectionate with these babies that the sanctuary eventually had to take them away from him because he was so protective, he was worried that their mother might hurt them. So after they were taken away, the sanctuary staff worried that he would fall into a depression, and so to avoid that, they gave him another rabbit friend. (Laughter) My official opinion is that he does not look depressed. (Laughter)
Još jedna priča o traumi i izlečenju, na koju sam naletela, desila se pre nekoliko godina. Bila sam na Tajlandu, radila neko istraživanje. Upoznala sam majmuna, pod imenom Bunlua, a kada je Bunlua bio mladunče, napao ga je čopor pasa, koji su mu istrgli obe noge i ruku. Bunlua se odvukao do manastira, gde su ga sveštenici prihvatili. Pozvali su veterinara, koji mu je tretirao rane. Na kraju je Bunlua završio u skloništu za slonove, a čuvari su odlučili da ga uzmu pod svoje okrilje. Otkrili su šta voli, ispostavilo se da su to bombone od mentola, nosorog bube i jaja. Ali su se brinuli, jer je bio druželjubiv, da je usamljen, a nisu ga želeli smestiti s majmunom jer s jednom rukom ne bi mogao da se brani, niti igra. Zato su mu dali zeca i Bunlua je istog časa postao drugi majmun. Bio je izuzetno srećan sa svojim zecom. Timarili su jedno drugo, postali bliski prijatelji, a onda je zec dobio zečiće. Bunlua je bio čak i srećniji nego ranije, to mu je, na neki način, dalo razlog da se budi ujutru, i zapravo, toliko mu je to značilo da je odlučio da ne spava. Toliko je postao zaštitnički nastrojen prema zečićima da je prestao da spava, samo bi otkunjao, pokušavajući da se brine o njima. Zapravo, toliko je štitio i voleo ovu mladunčad, da su iz skloništa na kraju morali da mu ih oduzmu. Bio je toliko zaštitnički nastrojen da je brinuo da bi ih majka mogla povrediti. Kada su mu ih oduzeli, ljudi u sklonštu su brinuli da ne upadne u depresiju i, kako bi to izbegli, dali su mu novog zeca za prijatelja. (Smeh) Moj zvanični stav je da ne izgleda depresivno. (Smeh)
So one thing that I would really like people to feel is that you really should feel empowered to make some assumptions about the creatures that you know well. So when it comes to your dog or your cat or maybe your one-armed monkey that you happen to know, if you think that they are traumatized or depressed, you're probably right. This is extremely anthropomorphic, or the assignation of human characteristics onto non-human animals or things. I don't think, though, that that's a problem. I don't think that we can not anthropomorphize. It's not as if you can take your human brain out of your head and put it in a jar and then use it to think about another animal thinking. We will always be one animal wondering about the emotional experience of another animal.
Nešto što bih želela da ljudi osete jeste da biste trebali da se osetite ohrabrenim da donosite pretpostavke o bićima koja poznajete dobro. Zato, kada je u pitanju vaš pas ili mačka ili možda vaš jednoruki majmun koga poznajete, ako mislite da su istraumirani ili depresivni, verovatno ste u pravu. Ovo je krajnja personifikacija, iliti pripisivanje ljudskih osobina neljudskim bićima ili stvarima. Smatram da to nije problem. Mislim da mi ne možemo da ne personifikujemo. Ne možete da izvadite svoj ljudski mozak iz glave, da ga stavite u teglu i da ga onda koristite da razmišljate kako razmišljaju druge životinje. Uvek ćemo da budemo životinja koju interesuju emotivna iskustva drugih životinja.
So then the choice becomes, how do you anthropomorphize well? Or do you anthropomorphize poorly? And anthropomorphizing poorly is all too common. (Laughter) It may include dressing your corgis up and throwing them a wedding, or getting too close to exotic wildlife because you believe that you had a spiritual connection. There's all manner of things. Anthropomorphizing well, however, I believe is based on accepting our animal similarities with other species and using them to make assumptions that are informed about other animals' minds and experiences, and there's actually an entire industry that is in some ways based on anthropomorphizing well, and that is the psychopharmaceutical industry.
Onda se izbor svodi na to kako da dobro personifikujete? Ili da li vi loše personifikujete? A loša personifikacija je prečesta. (Smeh) To može da bude svečano oblačenje vašeg korgija za svadbu ili prevelika bliskost sa egzotičnom divljinom zbog ubeđenja da ste duhovno povezani. Ima tu dosta toga. Dobra personifikacija, verujem da se zasniva na prihvatanju naših životinjskih sličnosti s drugim vrstama i njihovo korišćenje za pravljenje pretpostavki koje nas informišu o umovima i iskustvima drugih životinja, i zapravo, postoji čitava industrija koja je na neki način, zasnovana na dobroj personifikaciji, a to je industrija psihofarmaceutika.
One in five Americans is currently taking a psychopharmaceutical drug, from the antidepressants and antianxiety medications to the antipsychotics. It turns out that we owe this entire psychopharmaceutical arsenal to other animals. These drugs were tested in non-human animals first, and not just for toxicity but for behavioral effects. The very popular antipsychotic Thorazine first relaxed rats before it relaxed people. The antianxiety medication Librium was given to cats selected for their meanness in the 1950s and made them into peaceable felines. And even antidepressants were first tested in rabbits.
Jedan od pet Amerikanaca trenutno uzima psihofarmaceutski lek, od antidepresiva, preko lekova za anksioznost do antipsihotika. Izgleda da dugujemo čitav ovaj arsenal psihofarmaceutika drugim životinjama. Ovi lekovi su prvo testirani na neljudskim životinjama, ne samo zbog otrovnosti, već i zbog uticaja na ponašanje. Veoma popularni antipsihotik, torazin, prvo je opuštao miševe, pre nego što je opuštao ljude. Lek protiv anksioznosti, librijum, dat je 1950. mačkama, izabranim zbog svoje zlobe i napravio je od njih miroljubive mace. Čak su i antidepresivi prvo testirani na zečevima.
Today, however, we are not just giving these drugs to other animals as test subjects, but they're giving them these drugs as patients, both in ethical and much less ethical ways. SeaWorld gives mother orcas antianxiety medications when their calves are taken away. Many zoo gorillas have been given antipsychotics and antianxiety medications. But dogs like my own Oliver are given antidepressants and some antianxiety medications to keep them from jumping out of buildings or jumping into traffic. Just recently, actually, a study came out in "Science" that showed that even crawdads responded to antianxiety medication. It made them braver, less skittish, and more likely to explore their environment.
Danas, pak, ne dajemo ove lekove drugim životinjama kao zamorcima, već im dajemo ove lekove kao pacijentima, kako iz etičkih, tako i iz manje etičkih razloga. Sivorld daje majkama orkama lekove za anksioznost kada ih odvoje od mladih. Mnoge gorile iz zoo vrtova dobijaju antipsihotike i lekove protiv anksioznosti. Ali psi, poput mog Olivera, dobijaju antidepresive i neke lekove za anksioznost kako ne bi skakali sa zgrada ili pod automobile. Nedavno je u "Sajensu" objavljeno istraživanje koje pokazuje da čak i slatkovodni rakovi reaguju na lekove protiv anksioznosti. Od njih su postajali hrabriji, manje plašljivi i raspoloženiji za istraživanje okoline.
It's hard to know how many animals are on these drugs, but I can tell you that the animal pharmaceutical industry is immense and growing, from seven billion dollars in 2011 to a projected 9.25 billion by the year 2015.
Teško je znati koliko je životinja na ovim lekovima, ali mogu da vam kažem da je industrija farmaceutika za životinje ogromna i da je u porastu, od sedam milijardi dolara u 2011. do projektovanih 9.25 milijardi do 2015. godine.
Some animals are on these drugs indefinitely. Others, like one bonobo who lives in Milwaukee at the zoo there was on them until he started to save his Paxil prescription and then distribute it among the other bonobos. (Laughter) (Applause)
Neke životinje su na ovim lekovima do daljnjeg. Druge, poput jednog bonoboa koji živi u Milvokiju, u zoo vrtu, bio je na njima dok nije počeo da štedi svoj propisani paksil kako bi ga kasnije delio drugim bonoboima. (Smeh) (Aplauz)
More than psychopharmaceuticals, though, there are many, many, many other therapeutic interventions that help other creatures. And here is a place where I think actually that veterinary medicine can teach something to human medicine, which is, if you take your dog, who is, say, compulsively chasing his tail, into the veterinary behaviorist, their first action isn't to reach for the prescription pad; it's to ask you about your dog's life. They want to know how often your dog gets outside. They want to know how much exercise your dog is getting. They want to know how much social time with other dogs and other humans. They want to talk to you about what sorts of therapies, largely behavior therapies, you've tried with that animal. Those are the things that often tend to help the most, especially when combined with psychopharmaceuticals.
Korisnije od farmaceutika su mnoge, mnoge, mnoge druge terapeutske intervencije, koje mogu pomoći drugim bićima. A tu, mislim da zapravo veterinarska medicina može podučiti nečemu ljudsku medicinu. A to je, ako povedete psa koji, recimo, kompulsivno juri svoj rep, kod biheviorističkog veterinara, njegova prva reakcija neće biti posezanje za blokom za recepte, već će vas pitati za život vašeg psa. Želeće da zna koliko često vaš pas izlazi napolje. Želeće da zna koliko je vaš pas fizički aktivan. Želeće da zna koliko se druži s drugim psima i drugim ljudima. Želeće da razgovara sa vama o tipovima terapija, uglavnom biheviorističkih terapija, koje ste isprobali s tom životinjom. Ove stvari često najviše pomažu, naročito kada se kombinuju sa psihofarmaceuticima.
The thing, though, I believe, that helps the most, particularly with social animals, is time with other social animals. In many ways, I feel like I became a service animal to my own dog, and I have seen parrots do it for people and people do it for parrots and dogs do it for elephants and elephants do it for other elephants. I don't know about you; I get a lot of Internet forwards of unlikely animal friendships. I also think it's a huge part of Facebook, the monkey that adopts the cat or the great dane who adopted the orphaned fawn, or the cow that makes friends with the pig, and had you asked me eight, nine years ago, about these, I would have told you that they were hopelessly sentimental and maybe too anthropomorphic in the wrong way and maybe even staged, and what I can tell you now is that there is actually something to this. This is legit. In fact, some interesting studies have pointed to oxytocin levels, which are a kind of bonding hormone that we release when we're having sex or nursing or around someone that we care for extremely, oxytocin levels raising in both humans and dogs who care about each other or who enjoy each other's company, and beyond that, other studies show that oxytocin raised even in other pairs of animals, so, say, in goats and dogs who were friends and played with each other, their levels spiked afterwards.
Ono što, pak, mislim da najviše pomaže, naročito kod društvenih životinja, je druženje sa drugim društvenim životinjama. Na razne načine, osećam da sam postala uslužna životinja svom psu, a videla sam da to papagaji rade za ljude i ljudi za papagaje, psi to rade za slonove, slonovi za druge slonove. Ne znam za vas, meni na internetu prosleđuju mnogo primera neverovatnih životinjskih prijateljstava. Mislim da to sačinjava veliki deo Fejsbuka, majmun koji je usvojio mačku ili danska doga koja je usvojila siroče lane ili krava koja se sprijateljila s prasetom, i da ste me o ovome pitali pre osam, devet godina, rekla bih vam da je sve to beznadežna sentimentalnost, a možda i suviše naopaka personifikacija, možda je to sve čak i izrežirano, danas vam mogu reći da tu ima istine. Ovo je stvarno. Zapravo, neka zanimljiva istraživanja su ukazala na nivo oksitocina, što je neka vrsta hormona za zbližavanje, koji se oslobađa prilikom seksa ili dojenja ili kada smo pored nekoga do koga nam je izuzetno stalo, nivo oksitocina je u porastu, i kod ljudi i kod pasa koji brinu jedni za druge ili koji uživaju kad su zajedno, a i druga istraživanja pokazuju da je oksitocin u porastu i kod drugih parova životinja, recimo, kod koza i pasa, koji su se družili i igrali zajedno, nivo oksitocina je posle naglo skakao.
I have a friend who really showed me that mental health is in fact a two-way street. His name is Lonnie Hodge, and he's a veteran of Vietnam. When he returned, he started working with survivors of genocide and a lot of people who had gone through war trauma. And he had PTSD and also a fear of heights, because in Vietnam, he had been rappelling backwards out of helicopters over the skids, and he was givena service dog named Gander, a labradoodle, to help him with PTSD and his fear of heights. This is them actually on the first day that they met, which is amazing, and since then, they've spent a lot of time together visiting with other veterans suffering from similar issues. But what's so interesting to me about Lonnie and Gander's relationship is about a few months in, Gander actually developed a fear of heights, probably because he was watching Lonnie so closely. What's pretty great about this, though, is that he's still a fantastic service dog, because now, when they're both at a great height, Lonnie is so concerned with Gander's well-being that he forgets to be scared of the heights himself.
Imam prijatelja koji mi je pokazao da je mentalno zdravlje zapravo dvosmerna ulica. Njegovo ime je Loni Hodž i on je veteran iz Vijetnama. Kada se vratio, počeo je da radi sa ljudima koji su preživeli genocid i mnogim drugim koji su preživeli ratne traume. On je imao PTSP, kao i strah od visine jer je u Vijetnamu iskakao unatraške iz helikoptera klizeći niz užad. Dodeljen mu je uslužni pas, po imenu Gander, labradudla, kako bi mu pomogao sa PTSP-om i strahom od visine. Ovo su oni prvog dana kada su se upoznali, neverovatno je, i od tad su proveli mnogo vremena zajedno, posećujući druge veterane koji pate od sličnih problema. Ali ono što je meni zanimljivo u Lonijevom i Genderovom odnosu je da se pre nekih par meseci, kod Gendera razvio strah od visine, verovatno zato što je tako pomno pazio Lonija. Ono što je divno u svemu tome je da je on i dalje odličan uslužni pas, jer sad, kada se obojica nalaze na velikoj visini, Loni je toliko zabrinut za Gendera da zaboravlja da se i sam plaši visine.
Since I've spent so much time with these stories, digging into archives, I literally spent years doing this research, and it's changed me. I no longer look at animals at the species level. I look at them as individuals, and I think about them as creatures with their own individual weather systems guiding their behavior and informing how they respond to the world. And I really believe that this has made me a more curious and a more empathetic person, both to the animals that share my bed and occasionally wind up on my plate, but also to the people that I know who are suffering from anxiety and from phobias and all manner of other things, and I really do believe that even though you can't know exactly what's going on in the mind of a pig or your pug or your partner, that that shouldn't stop you from empathizing with them. The best thing that we could do for our loved ones is, perhaps, to anthropomorphize them.
Kako sam provela mnogo vremena s ovim pričama, kopajući po arhivima, bukvalno sam provela godine radeći na ovom istraživanju, i ono me je promenilo. Više ne gledam na životinje iz ugla vrste kojoj pripadaju. Posmatram ih kao pojedince, i mislim o njima kao bićima sa sopstvenim ličnim meteorološkim sistemima koji upravljaju njihovim ponašanjem i informišu ih kako da reaguju na svet. Zaista verujem da sam zahvaljujući tome postala znatiželjnija i saosećajnija osoba, kako prema životinjama s kojim delim postelju i onima koje ponekad završe u mom tanjiru, tako i prema ljudima koje poznajem, a koji boluju od anksioznosti i od fobija i raznih drugih stvari. I zaista verujem da, iako ne možete sa sigurnošću da znate šta se dešava u umu svinje ili vašeg štenca ili vašeg partnera, da vas to ne bi trebalo da spreči da saosećate s njima. Najbolje što možemo da učinimo za one koje volimo je, možda, da ih personifikujemo.
Charles Darwin's father once told him that everybody could lose their mind at some point. Thankfully, we can often find them again, but only with each other's help.
Čarlsu Darvinu je otac jednom rekao da svako u jednom momentu može da izgubi razum. Na sreću, često možemo ponovo da ga pronađemo, ali samo uz međusobnu pomoć.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)