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How An Emotional Support Animal Can Make Life Simpler

Therapists recommend emotional support animals to help improve the overall quality of the mental health of people. Here are some ways an ESA can help you.
A boy with a dog as an emotional support animal
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Your pet can provide you and your family with emotional and social support. Many psychiatrists and therapists recommend emotional support animals to help improve the overall quality of the mental health of people. You can choose just any animal as your ESA. Here are some of the ways an emotional support animal can help make your life better. ~ Ed.

Emotional support animals are animals that offer comfort and emotional help for their owners, often recommended for people who have certain disabilities and psychiatric disorders.

There is a bit of confusion between psychiatric service and ESA animals. Psychiatric service animals have gone into specialized training to identify certain ailments and predicaments their owners may be going through.

ESA differs as it can be used both by people with and without disabilities; they can provide comfort without any special training, allowing the owner to derive their own means of support from them.

Any family can benefit greatly from emotional support animals to not just ail anxiety, but also allow them to have joyful companionship.

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Animal Variety

Unlike psychiatric service animals, where only dogs are trained, almost any animal can be prescribed an emotional support animal to help with psychological disabilities.

Besides wild animals that you can’t domesticate, people use spiders, and even snakes as ESA. This variety is a great advantage as your family would get to choose almost any species to be their ESA.

You’re free to choose any of the common emotional support pets include dogs, cats and even rabbits if you’d like. Dogs and cats are the most common, but if your family feels like they’d like a parrot as their ESA, they’re more than welcome.

It’s important not to just choose your ESA based upon ease-of-care. Dogs may require some attention but they’re great providers of comfort and fun, especially to children. Fluffy dogs like the Maltese and Yorkshire Terrier are great as ESA since they are small and manageable, unlike the big ones. Purrs of cats have been found to be great soothers for those with anxiety disorders and have physical effects on their owners, making them a great ESA and pet.

6 Ways an Emotional Support Animal Can Help Make Family Life Much Simpler

Emotional Support Animal (ESA) can help overcome anxiety, loneliness, regulation of emotions, and much more. Your ESA can benefit you and your family in more than one way. Here are some of them:

Unconditional Love

Not only ESA is great when it comes to battling psychological disorders, but it also provides unconditional love that can allow your family to grow properly.

Young children with certain diagnoses would be able to find unconditional love through their ESA that would be quite hard to find without them as they are constantly around. With the right letter, it’s possible for your family to take the ESA almost anywhere with little restriction.

It’s believed that their effect on people who feel alone to feel constant love and company. Not only does it improve the overall quality of mental health, but it also helps fight the symptoms of many psychological ailments.

Anxiety

There is a very good reason that many psychiatrists prescribe animals to be emotional support animals for their owners. Similar to physical disabilities that require service dogs, ESA is used to also help their owners overcome their psychological disabilities. It’s quite common for therapists to recommend ESA to help those who suffer from anxiety, especially those whose loneliness contributes greatly to their anxiety.

Having a small family means that you’re responsible for providing psychological aid to help them during any distress. Young children are quite susceptible to psychological ailments, making ESA a very important element in their life.

Sync Well

An ESA on its own can do much, but when it is in sync with other forms of treatment, its effect is exponential. Many therapists recommend integrating ESA in conjunction with many other treatments to amplify their effects.

ESA can be used in mindfulness treatments to help ground them in the present. The Trauma Resiliency Model where ESA is used as something to help you come down from emotional peaks whether they’re high or low.

Emotion Regulation

Managing the day to day activities are quite important, especially for those with a diagnosis. ESAs are popular to help people regulate their feelings and keeping them grounded. The presence of an animal in your family would greatly aid them psychologically and physiologically.

The on-demand attention and care that ESA provides can help individuals get through the day with steady emotional regulations. They can be allowed on airplanes and different establishments, making their presence constant at most times.

Social Support

Many families consider their ESA a family member, allowing pets to help improve their social health. When you treat them as another person, they can closely simulate the psychological response of being close to a person, which is why they’re perfect for children who feel a bit lonely.

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According to research, social support can translate into cardiovascular and immune function improvements.

Help with PTSD

Emotional support animals have been linked to a drastic decrease in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. PTSD is a resilient disorder that is caused by heavy traumatic experiences, especially those inflicted in childhood or the war.

It’s reported that one week with emotional support animals proved to decrease the symptoms of PTSD by 82%, found in one study. The flood of oxytocin, a positive mood-enhancing hormone, is considered quite helpful in not just battling PTSD, but also help people feel less disengaged in life.

Rich History

If you dig back in history on the effect of animals, you’ll find many famous psychologists and therapists who used them to help their patients.

Dr. Freud brought his right-hand dog, Jofi, into his patients’ sessions as he believed that it had a calming and serene effect on the patients. In the 1950s, Boris Levinson discovered a technique, by accident, that helped with the treatment of autistic children when he saw his patient interacting with the dog in ways that could not be replicable by humans, helping evolve the method into a natural way to help those with mental disabilities.

Wrapping Up

Your family stands to gain a lot from the emotional support animals. There is nothing that can provide the level of comfort that a pet can give.

Whether you pick a dog, a cat, or even a goldfish, make sure that you’ll be able to take care of them as they’ll be taking care of your family.

Over to you

Do you have an emotional support animal? How does it help you and your family? Do share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

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Disclaimer: We're not offering any medical advice here. These ideas are for educational and entertainment purposes only. Always seek a professional medical opinion from a physician of your choosing before making any medical decision. The information provided here is not intended to be a substitute to the advice given by your physician or another healthcare professional.

Disclaimer: Though the views expressed are of the author’s own, this article has been checked for its authenticity of information and resource links provided for a better and deeper understanding of the subject matter. However, you're suggested to make your diligent research and consult subject experts to decide what is best for you. If you spot any factual errors, spelling, or grammatical mistakes in the article, please report at [email protected]. Thanks.

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  1. Yes, pets do wonders. They’re angels on earth. When I was personally going through the roughest of times during the last of my 20s, petting the neighbor’s cat helped ease that heavy feeling in my chest. Not totally but it helped and my views on animals changed ever since.

  2. Hello Emily,

    Owners of dogs often speak about the benefits their pets offer in reducing stress and anxiety, helping them to complete daily tasks much easier.

    Completely agree with your points – Emotional Support Animals provide therapeutic benefits to specific people with psychological issues like anxiety, phobias or stress disorder.

    Dog is a animal which is considered as to provide comfort and support to people with emotionally as well as mentally. Thanks for your wonderful experience.

    With best wishes,

    Amar Kumar

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