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pets, support and mental health (Okay, a lot of people already know this stuff. They can move along and read something else.) Pets are an amazingly helpful asset to the human species. We now have a large body of evidence that having a pet can help people out of depression and can help reduce anxiety. Pets can rekindle an individual's will to live and can provide real companionship. Pets -- dogs, cats, ferrets, parrots, horses, pigs, parakeets, doves, etc. -- can be emotionally supportive confidants, willing to listen to a human's problems in complete confidence. An animal, excitedly responding to it's human's return home, can make that human feel all the wamth and caring that a child, lover or close friend can offer. Some animals require less care than others. Cats, for example, can be left alone in their home for several days as long as there is food and water and enough cat litter to provide for clean "relieving" for the duration of time. A dog requires more care -- needing walking twice a day usually. note: dogs are people, too In the 30's, a psychologist raised a few eyebrows by doing a bit of experimenting on a child, proving how easy it is to make a child very mentally ill. Since then, children have been considered off limits for experiments. Over the years it has been dogs that have been repeately chosen to stand in for children and other humans. Much, if not most, of what we know about anxiety and depression is based on studies done with dogs. We use dogs because dogs they are virtually identical, emotionally, to humans. Think about that the next time you see a dog in its kennel or tied up in a back yard alone -- in the heat or cold, in a blizzard or other storm. Ask yourself how that form of "care" would affect a child. You can ask yourself how "humane" that seems. Loneliness and relationship choices. Having a dog or cat at home can provide the emotional support that a human needs for optimal mental health. Humans are a social animal -- that is, we tend to want and need to be around others. The magic of pets is that they can provide the social wamth that a human needs without all the hassles that another human can cause. When a human feels lonely it is very possible that that human might begin to virtually hallucinate good relationship possibilities where there are none. It is generally a good idea not to go shopping when hungry because being hungry causes distortions in thinking that makes for poor choices when buying food. In the same way, it is a bad idea to look for a relationship when lonely. Having a pet can take the edge off loneliness sufficiently to make finding a mate much more likely because when a person is not lonely he or she is able to make better choices. Loneliness and depression and anxiety. Having a dog or cat, or whatever, can provide emotional support that can fend off depression and axiety and give a person a reason to get out of bed every day. It is remarkable how much companionship a pet can provide a lonely person and how valuable that is in fending off depression. With respect to anxiety, even a tiny cat can take the edge off that feeling of being on one's own. Further, when you have a pet, you never think that the various house noises mean burglar or ghost AND when you have a pet that responds to visitors and is territorial -- like a dog, especially, you never need to worry that someone might be breaking in or in the house because your pet would alert you. And, even further than that, most bad guys would think twice before breaking in to a home with even a small dog. You can help me provide articles and other supports to the visitors to this site. If you can, please support this site. other ways to support this site Exercise and depression and anxiety. And then, along with all the other benefits, pets that you can exercise with -- dogs, mostly -- can be a great treat and can help motivate and structure exercise. Having a dog that you know will benefit from a walk or run makes taking a walk a lot more likely -- and more fun. Frolic and pets and fun, oh my! And hey, having a happy animal -- an animal that is frolicking and happy you are with him/her or happy to be alive can make life seem so much more fun and delightful.

 

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