Kerin Murphy and her dog Dougie both live with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Their bond helps them deal with their trauma together.
Ms Murphy was the victim of a carjacking with an axe in Lake Macquarie.
Dougie, a kelpie cross, spent his early life confined to a room in a hoarder house, which had about a dozen dogs. His rescuers didn't know he had golden hair, as he was covered in filth.
"Until the day he was rescued, he had never seen outside," Ms Murphy said.
Her traumatic experience occurred when she parked on a shoulder in Wakefield Road, Ryhope in January 2019.
Three drug-affected offenders came out of nowhere, threatened her and stole her Mitsubishi Pajero.
The Herald previously reported that the ring leader - who threatened Ms Murphy with an axe - was jailed for a maximum of seven years.
The other two offenders received three-year sentences.
Ms Murphy was working at the time as a sales rep for a beverage company.
"I was driving along that road to do a couple more jobs before going home. I pulled over to the side of the road and picked a relatively new shoulder that had just been built."
She had stopped to use her iPad and phone.
"I was sitting there for a couple of minutes and the passenger door opened."
She initially thought the person had broken down and needed help.
"Then I noticed he had an axe in his hand. He started to climb in the door and kept telling me to get the f*** out of the car.
"I kind of froze with shock."
... He had an axe in his hand. He started to climb in the door and kept telling me to get the f*** out of the car ...
The offender moved closer towards her with "the axe above his head".
"I fumbled around for the door latch, opened the door and fell out backwards. I had a big Pajero and hit the ground pretty hard."
The vehicle started rolling, as it was still in drive.
"I had my foot on the brake, as I was just stopping for a minute," she said.
She had to move quickly to prevent being run over.
The offenders sped away and became involved in a police chase, before crashing at high speed at Warnervale on the Central Coast.
The ordeal left Ms Murphy severely traumatised. She spoke about her condition to raise awareness about mental health.
"I was a hermit for five or six months. I wouldn't leave the house and I couldn't get into cars," she said.
Support from friends and family helped start her recovery, including her parents and brother.
"They helped me learn to be in society again. My brother would take me out to see the sunset and on adventures. He'd take me on hikes to get back into nature.
"He talked to me and always listened. He'd sit up for hours talking with me and never judged me."
She said talking is "a massive thing" to help her know "what happened doesn't define me".
She didn't see a doctor until two weeks after the incident.
"It took a really long time to get help," she said.
"Because of the PTSD, I ended up with depression and anxiety," she said.
"I started doing weird things like constantly locking doors. I had hypervigilance."
People walking past her house would trigger fears of being harmed. She was referred to a psychiatrist and put on medication.
"The medication did help initially, but it made me lose my hair. I lost weight as I wouldn't eat much," she said.
"We trialled a lot of different medications until we got the right one. I'm not medicated anymore, but I still do counselling to keep on top of the PTSD."
She does feel like "a completely different person now".
"I can't seem to get back to the person I was before. I don't like it, but I can't help it. It's not like you can just flick a switch and go back to normal."
She gets angry and tearful easily.
"I have a bit of a struggle dealing with emotions now."
Psychologists and her own research taught her that the chemical structure of the brain can change in people with PTSD.
"That's not something that can be easily fixed. I might be like this forever or I might not. There's no way of knowing," she said.
She has improved, though, and is back driving and working.
She has learnt "not to sweat the small stuff".
"I have a full-time job as manager of a restaurant. I did go back to selling soft drink, but couldn't cope. I was only with them for another year before I quit. I'd been a sales rep all my life, but I'm never going back to that ever again."
Part of her brain thinks a similar incident could happen again, even though "I have more chance of winning the lotto".
"The brain does really weird things to people."
As for Dougie, he helps her feel better and gives her "unconditional love".
"He needs me and we kind of get each other. I think he helps in ways that medication or counselling can't.
She lost her dog Ziva, a boxer, five months after the carjacking. So she decided to foster dogs as a volunteer member of Dog Rescue Newcastle. She fostered three dogs, who went on to find good homes. Then she took on Dougie.
"They said he's a really bad case and asked how I'd go with him. I said, no worries. I never intended to keep him, but I got to know him and saw him come out of his shell."
She felt she was the best person to manage his neurotic ways.
"To me he's a perfect dog, even with all his flaws. I would hope people think I'm still a good person, even with all my flaws."
She gives Dougie patience.
"I know how people deal with me as a human being. If people aren't patient with me, it hurts."
Like his owner, Dougie is making progress.
"Every day he gets a little bit better," she said.
"I'll never know what's going on inside his little brain. I just try to make his life better. He eats good food and gets to sleep in a bed every night. There's no more sleeping in dog crap on the floor with a dozen other dogs.
"He has a great life. He's a happy boy. I'm lucky to be here and so is Dougie."
The pair have now been together for about 16 months. She's not sure of his age because of his troubled past, but he's thought to be three to five.
"He would get scared really easily. He was in this state of perpetual terror. I gave him four to six months to decompress, with walks here and there in quiet streets.
"He still has moments where he's maybe reliving something that went on. He'll get really funny and go off by himself. But his confidence is a lot better. When I first got him, he would hide under furniture and wouldn't come out. It took a really long time to warm up to people."
Ms Murphy loves looking after Dougie.
"He's my best mate and my little boy."
As a friend told her, there is "no therapist in the world like a doggie licking your face".
- Lifeline: 13 11 14
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