Jodie Vanderslot | Staff Writer
Featured image: Therapy pets can play an important role in helping you take care of your mental health. | Courtesy of Martie Swart (Flickr)
Mental illnesses cannot be perfectly encapsulated in words. Every breath is a cliffhanger. Not knowing what is causing these emotions is like being lost without a map. The ground is like sand, shifting under each step, ready to give way. You’re taking shots in the dark, looking for solutions anywhere—through anything. But treatment is tentative and you just want the feeling to stop. The feeling that it is always all or nothing. It is physically and mentally draining and it gets easier to sink and shatter under the weight that is holding you down, pulling you down.
There are some illnesses you cannot see, and often with mental illness, there is no clear visible ailment. Due to this lack of perception of immediate and physical harm, there is a stark contrast that exists between the care, treatment and understanding that is applied to mental as opposed to physical illness. There are a number of reasons why individuals may suffer with their mental health and a number of treatments available to those seeking relief. However, mental illness and mental distress extends over a wide variety of people.
As the number of those suffering from mental health problems continues to grow, the introduction of therapy animals, or animal-assisted therapy, progressively integrates itself into the field of mental health.
Therapy animals are used in a number of settings, from hospitals to schools and even in the home.
In a therapeutic context, animals may help provide and induce comfort and companionship for people who may feel scared, overwhelmed, lonely, depressed, experiencing PTSD, anxiety or are in pain, with few to no side effects.
Petting an animal can release hormones and endorphins in your body, such as oxytocin and serotonin, which have a calming effect, helping to lower blood pressure and stress levels. People want to connect with other living things, and human-animal interaction is a form of nonjudgmental social support.
This form of treatment alone could be enough for some people experiencing new symptoms of a mental health problem that they wish to combat, or it can reduce the amount of medications an individual coping with mental illness may need.
Although therapy pets are most commonly dogs, almost any animal can be considered an emotional support animal and registered. Whether through pet ownership or registration of a certified service animal, these relationships may offer an antidote to the plethora of symptoms that present themselves. From rabbit to guinea pig, hedgehog to cat or horse to parrot, this form of therapy is an inclusive approach that fosters connections and serves to benefit individuals both physically and emotionally.
Animal companionship is often viewed as an informal source of comfort and relief, however, it is time to credit this relationship for all that it is worth. Animal-assisted therapy is an undervalued form of treatment because of its informal nature and simplicity. While the list of benefits for this alternative treatment is ever-growing, the list of side effects that are common in pharmaceutical drugs continue to persist. If there is a potential for hope and less invasive and threatening treatment options, let it exist.
