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Health & Fitness Mental Health Pets

Why An Emotional Support Animal Is Good For Your Mental Health?

A study found that people with pets face stressful situations better than the ones without them. So someone always on the borderline of hypertension or high blood pressure should adopt dogs from a shelter and see how in a few months the health issues decline significantly. Let me explain how.

When someone plays with dogs, the serotonin and dopamine levels increase, the chemicals responsible for calming down. Moreover, people staying alone should keep a pet to get unconditional love and enjoy the valuable companionship. The emotional support animal can learn about your emotional state after looking into eyes just like a human friend. They’re quite good at interpreting your voice tone, body language, and responses to various activities.

Apart from snuggling with this furry friend and the immediate joy that these pets get, they have several physical and mental health benefits that we’re completely unaware of. Let’s explore some of them.

Produce Neurotransmitters

With love and bond, there is an increase in neurochemicals associated with pleasure. The boost in serotonin and dopamine levels relaxes and also increases the humans’ capacity to care for others. This makes them feel safe and less depressed. Besides this, they can bond with humans well when they are confident.

Moreover, neurochemicals help in reducing stress-induced pain as the ESA keeps the patient distracted. They give them proper care and attention to ward off the symptoms by providing an enormous amount of emotional support.

Helps in Anxiety

The number of people being diagnosed with anxiety issues is increasing in the U.S. from the past few years. An ESA can help you to deal with such excruciating situations. Be it a funeral, flight, going out to buy flowers, or medical treatment, they act as perfect support. Even the presence of an ESA makes a lot of difference to help people travel without being anxious.

Although doctors provide medicines to control the fear of people, they have many side effects. While the ESA cares for you, it can add years to life by boosting your immunity and happiness. Even touching the wagging tail or purring cat can calm you down. They walk you through troubles and help in handling depression symptoms. Interestingly emotional support animals use a lot of new tricks, to stimulate your curiosity and move your focus towards something positive. They act as a source of relaxation in every situation, where before going you had to pop some pills.

You’ll notice a change in your interactions after staying with an emotional support animal. There’ll not only be an improvement in the human interactions but with time, you’ll also develop a bond with other pets.

Mental Illness

ESA is quite helpful for people with any health issues and supports them to deal with mental health conditions without being overwhelmed. When patients are focused on them, they don’t have any self-doubt.

They provide them the love and appreciation required after a big loss. The quality of life improves when people have an ESA by their side. They are called a miracle cure for providing the comfort to live a happy and healthy life. However, if you’re not an animal person, they won’t be able to improve your life in any way. And, people who adore animals will get unconditional love from emotional support animals that will help them to deal with mental health issues.

They acknowledge your emotions and warm the heart of the toughest person. After receiving love daily, the good feelings  will improve your efficiency. Such therapies are being suggested by the psychologist to treat severe mental disabilities. They bring much-needed comfort to the people in need. There has been awareness about the emotional support of rabbits, horses, and dogs in the last decade for their cheering presence. Due to this, there was a growth in the ESA to help people with mental disabilities. The vast improvements in their overall health led to more people taking aid from the emotional support animal.

Closing

If you’ve identified the symptoms and prescription medicines are not helping, then consider getting an ESA. The unconditional love you receive from them dramatically improves mental health. And, they encourage you to re-engage in various activities and with people to live a meaningful life. They are not the treatment themselves but help you in dealing with emotional high and low. It’s a good method to stabilize your living situation and improve mood. Their constant presence helps you regardless of the day or time.

Always, take your counselor’s advice to get an appropriate emotional support animal for your disability. The counsel may guide you on how to get a letter to live with an emotional support animal in the home. And, add some general information about how the ESA helps in alleviating the symptoms of the disability. This documentation will allow your ESA to accompany you to various places.

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Health & Fitness Mental Health Pets

Use Positive Reinforcement To Train Your Pet

There is a long term discussion that has been going on between two different schools of thought that exist between dog owners. One that believes in punishment and the other is positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement refers to instead of punishing your dog; you ignore the behavior you do not like and reward the ones you appreciate. Rewards can be any form of treats, life rewards(walks, games, etc.) or walks. The idea is to eliminate the violence and instead focus on the right behavior.

Clicker training is another effective way of teaching positive reinforcement, but if you don’t want to use the clicker, you can still use treats for your pet.

The punishment is often not very useful in disciplining as it can make your dog aggressive — a very unbecoming quality for an emotional support animal.

Below we have outlined some essential points that can help you discipline your dog via positive reinforcement.

Involve Everyone

Positive reinforcement is a collective effort. This means every member of the family has to contribute towards the training. Considering you don’t need to speak in a firm tone, use force, or be in the danger of hurting your pet, getting the family involved shouldn’t be too tough.

If its other methods of training like leash correction, your child might not be able to control the situation, but with positive reinforcement, all you need to do is give your child a couple of treats and teach them the commands that you are following and voila! You have an assistant.

 

Keep Your Communication Clear

For positive reinforcement to work, you need to communicate clearly. You have the decision making power and are telling the dog what you want him to do. If they do it, they get rewarded otherwise not.

When they get rewarded, it is clear to them what it is that they are doing right. Punishing, on the other hand, is slightly complicated.

The message of the scolding is never clear, and all you could end up doing is teach your dog that they should avoid the accident when they are with you. This is why if you have a defecating dog, it is very tough to catch them in the act.

Due to this, a lapse in communication punishment is a highly ineffective way to train a dog.

 

Teach Multiple Behaviors

Training methods like leash correction and punishment are a very messy way to teach your dog anything. In the case of behavioral issues, it can worsen the situation even further.

Aggressive dogs can get even more aggressive, and shy dogs might never come out of their shell.

Dogs also have anxiety issues, and living in the constant fear of not knowing when your next punishment is going to be dealt is no way to live.

 

This is also where clickers have proven to be the most effective, according to multiple studies. For fearful as well as aggressive dogs, clickers bring about a sense of peace.

 

Encourages Mental Stimulation

A bored dog is the worst; all of us know that. It is often because of boredom that animals develop other behavioral issues like inflicting considerable scale damage on the house.

 

Training keeps that boredom contained and offers a good outlet for energy.

 

Once you have decided to give your training through positive reinforcement, you might be surprised at the amount of energy that they manage to burn off just by learning how to follow commands.

 

Keep It Light

Training sessions aren’t supposed to be a drag. They are short, upbeat, and positive. These sessions don’t have to be dragged out. Once the dog starts to associate the session with good things in their life, they too will begin to enjoy it.

 

You dog is bound to become eager to learn, even if it is just for the prize at the end.

 

Foster a Stronger Bond

Dogs are more than pets for most people. They are an integral part of the family. Positive reinforcement strengthens the bond both of you have. Other methods to train your emotional support animal might be useful for correcting behavior (barely ). Positive reinforcement goes a step ahead.

 

It corrects behavior while ensuring that the dog has a certain amount of trust in the actions you take for it.

emotional support animal

Think of it in your case. Would you like to be beaten up every time you did something wrong, or would you like to be talked through an issue?

In a supportive environment, it is much easier to thrive and create a bond.

 

Other training methods might not make your dog love you less, but for sure, they will never be able to showcase their personality.

 

Dealing With Issues

Positive reinforcement works through a steady chain of consistency and patience. It might be a slow method as your dog might jeep doing the wrong thing over and over again. You might get frustrated and want to snap; it is only human nature. But remember it is not worth it.

 

They might not get the words, but they get the vibes. So, try and be positive, and your dog will pick up on it.

 

Fear might be a stronger teacher, but it isn’t a way to live. When was the last time someone was happy under a dictator? The answer is never.

 

You get a dog into your house in the hope they will become a part of the family, but if you can’t take out the time or find the patience within you to treat them well, you may as well not get one.