#sdsdwhatif

[scoobydooservicedog]

Return to Zombie Island

Fred sees the Mystery Machine everywhere. He thinks about it all the time. My theory is that Fred has PTSD. The van was both a trigger and a coping mechanism to deal with his traumas.

[scoobydooservicedog]

Maybe Shaggy has seizures. Maybe Scooby fell asleep on top of Shaggy after Shaggy had a seizure. Maybe Scooby is Shaggys service dog and was on top of shaggy to hold him still to keep him safe while he was having a seizure.

[scoobydooservicedog]

Return to Zombie Island

The thought that some mysteries will forever remain unsolved makes Velma “a little crazy.” Velma has a hyperfixation? Or she has OCD? Thoughts?

[scoobydooservicedog]

Scooby Doo Service Dog Scrappy Doo Service Dog in Training

Ghoul School

Both Shaggy and Scooby faint, and Scrappy Doo picks them up (well, drags them) saying, “Wow! Shaggy and my uncle Scooby must have been overcome with your warm welcome!”

To me, this shows that Scrappy Doo is a service dog in training. A puppy/young dog will often be brought out and about with a trained service dog. The pup learns by watching the older dog and getting to practice doing tasks. So, Shaggy and Scooby pretended to faint, so that Scrappy Doo was able to learn/practice how to respond to syncope.

[scoobydooservicedog]

Scooby Doo Service Dog

The New Scooby Doo Movies

The Haunted Carnival

Shaggy describes the difference between shaking “like this” when he’s cold from ice cream versus shaking from fear. When you have a chronic illness, like me, you have to learn to be in tune with your body. Example: nausea from heart palpitations is different from nausea caused by motion sickness or because of the flu.

A little while after Shag’s demonstration, he and Scooby hide from a ghost. The guest star, Dick Van Dyke, compliments them on their hiding place. Shaggy states that they’re good at it because they’ve had lots of practice. What gets me is that Shag and Scoob found an out of the way place to sit down. It truly is a skill that poties develop, finding good places to sit in the ground before they faint. So, what if Shaggy has POTS...

[scoobydooservicedog]

Legend of the Phatasour is my favorite Scooby Doo movie, for several reasons.

But that’s not the purpose of this post.

In the movie, Velma recounts a typical evening that ended up making Shaggy’s extreme fear response cause him to scream for three hours straight without taking a breath. The recap of the mystery that caused Shaggy’s breakdown ended with Shaggy locking himself in a wardrobe, screaming. Throughout the rest of the movie, when Shaggy started to get scared, he’d freeze with a strange expression on his face, quiver, whimper, and hide.

This clearly demonstrates that Shaggy has PTSD. On a “typical evening” he was suddenly triggered and could not break free from a deep sense of absolute terror. Shaggy’s hiding in the wardrobe could be reflective of the behavior that saved him during his trauma experience - hiding from the life threatening entity. Then, after a major flashback, many other triggers caused Shaggy to dissociate and revert back to the coping mechanism that made him feel safe.

[scoobydooservicedog]

So Let’s Say Shaggy is Schizophrenic

One of my theories for Shaggy’s disability is that he’s Schizophrenic and that the show is based on his perspective. He sees ghosts, he’s paranoid, he’s anxious. 

His friends are so great. 

They tell him at the beginning of every episode that what he’s seeing is his brain telling him lies. But as the show goes on, he gets lost in his delusions. Instead of getting freaked out and excluding him, they keep him with them. Shaggy then lives in a delusion that his friends are solving mysteries and crimes and are just as scared as he is. But at the end of the show, his delusions calm down and he feels safe again and the gang continues on their marry way. 

Now, Fred is kind of the ass here. He’s always saying, “let’s split up.” And Shaggy is always alone to deal with his delusions. But. This could simply be the point that Shaggy is so far gone into his head that he doesn’t know his friends are with him. It could also be Fred looking out for the mental health of the others, separating them and giving them a break when they’re feeling too stressed by Shaggy’s delusions. 

But all in all, Scooby and Shaggy are together. Scooby doesn’t leave his side. Scooby comforts Shaggy and supports him and goes through the struggle right along with him. Scooby keeps Shaggy safe as he works through his problems and is there to spend the happy, good times with him, too. Scooby guides Shaggy back to the group once Shaggy’s delusions have calmed down a little. These are all tasks service dogs can be trained to do for their humans. 

Scooby Doo is a service dog.