Emotional Support Animals

 Hello everyone!

Welcome back <3

Don't we all love animals?
Well this post is another reason for the same :)

I recently watched a tv show called 'The Healing Powers of Dude' on Netflix which led to the inspiration of writing this post.

We've all heard of a term called 'support animals', perhaps even come across it in real life; but do we completely understand the concept behind it?

In today's post I'll be breaking down the basics of this term and the benefits it provided its users with. 

To start off,

What are 'Emotional Support Animals'?

An Emotional Support Animal is an animal that provides therapeutic benefit to a person suffering from a serious mental health condition. They are used in clinical settings to bring comfort by their presence and other possessed qualities to individuals in need. Their presence alone is what is thought to provide their owner with solace and therapeutic benefit.

How are they different from pets?

In most cases dogs are the most common species to be considered as a support animal, however, other creatures can have the designation too, such as cats, rabbits, birds, pigs and more.

Pets are those which we keep as a companionship for fun without a medical reasoning in our house. One could also call them members of their family. They are not an absolute necessity unlike the case of Support Animals. 

Also, keep in mind 'Emotional Support Animals' are different from 'Service Dogs' which are basically dogs trained to perform quantifiable tasks that directly ease the challenges associated with their owner’s physical, psychiatric, sensory, or developmental disability.

How do they help?

Animals are just like humans- they can feel love and give it too. They provide unconditional love to people who struggle from a mental health decline. With the immense amount of love and comfort provided by these animals, a person will feel loved and get back on their feet after a difficult emotional turmoil. 

Animals can act as a buffer in social situations that might feel uncomfortable for people with social anxiety, and they encourage daily interaction and growth of social networks, which can protect against low mood. Caring for emotional support animals can build self-efficacy, or the belief that a person can control a given outcome, which can improve one's mental condition.

Having  a pet at home fills the gap of being alone and brings joy to anyone.  It is without a doubt that animals may make you happy regardless of the fact that you call it an emotional support animal or your best friend. 

That was it for today's post! Hope y'all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it :)

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Signing off,

Kuhu :)