7 Ways Pets Help with Mental Health Issues

7 Ways Pets Help with Mental Health Issues

Over the last few years, we have witnessed a significant increase in mental health issues. Mental problems range from day to day anxiety to extreme and life-threatening conditions.

Mental health is an emerging concern. How can we battle this issue?

Different people have different ways of coping with the symptoms. Some resort to prescription medication; others seek therapy.

There has been an inclination towards using animals to mitigate the symptoms of mental health issues. Is the use of pets the best strategy?

In this article, we shall look into the viability of this strategy. We shall look into the seven ways that pets can alleviate the symptoms of poor mental health.

1. Pets can Improve the Quality of Your Sleep

Mental Health Issue: Sleeping Disorders

A sleeping disorder is a condition that drastically changes your sleeping habits. Healthy sleeping patterns are crucial to sound mental health.

Below are the leading causes of sleep disorders:

Medical Issues: Chronic medical conditions can alter your sleeping habits. Conditions like migraines, arthritis, and lupus syndrome can affect your sleeping patterns.

Psychiatric Disorders: These disorders include anxiety and depression.

Environmental Issues: Includes the things that surround your sleeping environment. For example, a snoring spouse, noisy neighbor, etc.

Symptoms of Sleeping Disorders

Finding difficulty in falling asleep

Day time fatigue

Irritability and anxiety

The urge to take day naps

Treatment for Sleep Disorders

1. a) Emotional Support Animals (ESA)

An emotional support animal is a pet that provides comfort to help you quiet down the symptoms of mental health issues. Here are some steps on how you can cure sleeping disorders using ESAs.

Step 1: Identify and measure your sleeping disorder. Are you sleeping less than four hours a day? Is there anything interrupting your sleep? If so, you have a sleep disorder.

Step 2: Schedule an appointment with a doctor. Let the doctor carry out a full examination and diagnose your illness.

Step 3: Do some research about emotional support animals. Ask around about ESA therapy and its benefits.

Step 4: Seek an ESA letter from a credible source. This document will allow you to live and travel with your pet.

Step 5: Buy your emotional support animal. Whether it’s a dog, cat, or hamster, you are free to get the animal of your liking.

Step 6: Play with your animal. Make some time, interact with your pet. Buy a frisbee, throw a couple of rounds. Pet your cat.

Step 7: Make a habit of sleeping alongside your pet.

Step 8: By taking part in activities with your pet, you are likely to experience an increase in oxytocin levels. Oxytocin is your love hormone.

Step 9: Increased levels of oxytocin will improve the quality of your sleep. You will take a shorter time before you fall asleep. Oxytocin release has a link to quality sleep and healthy sleeping patterns.

Step 10: Recover from your sleeping disorder. You will notice a change as your sleeping hours increase from three to six. You will also experience better sleep and fewer interruptions.

At EzCare Clinic, we help patients find their emotional support animals. We accomplish this mission by issuing credible ESA letters. Our licensed therapists will assist you through your battle against sleep disorders.

1. b) Pharmaceutical Solutions

A wide range of medications is available for the treatment of sleeping disorders. Like other pharmaceutical medication, these drugs come with side effects. You need to consult a doctor before administering these drugs. We shall discuss some of the drugs that are effective against sleeping disorders.

Below are treatment options for sleeping disorders:

Anti-Parkinsonian Drugs

Benzodiazepines

Non-Benzodiazepine Hypnotics

Anticonvulsants

Anti-Narcoleptics

Antidepressants

1. c) Lifestyle Changes

Sometimes the solution is not in medicine. Sometimes the cure is simple, as simple as a lifestyle change. A change in lifestyle or behavior can help you regain healthy sleeping habits.

Below are healthy lifestyles that can be useful.

Consume more vegetable

Drink plenty of water

Reduce your sugar intake

Limit your caffeine intake

Consume low carbohydrate nighttime meals

Formulate a sleeping routine and follow it.

1. d) Regular Excercise

Physical training has a positive effect on mental health as it does on physical health. Working out is a natural way to improve the quality of your sleep. How working our improves your sleep cycle is still a mystery, but exercise is quite useful. Could it have something to do with the stimulation of specific hormones during a workout? Your guess is as good as mine.

Establishing the best time for your work out has everything to do with the treatment process. Physical activity in the late hours may interfere with the regulation of your sleep.

2. Pets Can Help You Conquer Your Fear of Flight

The Topic of Concern: Aerophobia

Aerophobia is the fear of flying. There are many causes of aerophobia.

Below are the leading causes:

A Traumatic Flight Experience: A bad flying experience can instill fear. Having lived through a “close call” during a trip can cause trauma.

News About Plane Crushes: You don’t need to live through a plane crash to suffer from aerophobia. Heavy media coverage on crashes often induces fear in some people.

Anxiety Disorders: Anxiety fears may cause aerophobia.

The symptoms of aerophobia include:

Persistent anxiety during flights

Chronic fear of crashing

Panic attacks and vomiting during flights

Treating Aerophobia

1. a) Emotional Support Animal

Below are some helpful tips that will help you overcome aerophobia using ESAs.

Step 1: Consult with your doctor. Your doctor can give you a detailed insight into your phobia and its management.

Step 2: Enquire about the criteria for receiving an ESA letter. Enquire about eligibility and evaluate yourself. An ESA letter gives allows you to live and travel with your support animal.

Step 3: Aquire your ESA letter from a legitimate source. With the letter you can travel with your pet, free from additional charges.

Step 4: Research on the kind of animals that they allow on planes. Adopt a pet that meets these conditions.

Step 5: Ensure that you carry your pet the next time you travel. Make sure that you always have the appropriate documentation for such trips.

Step 6: Sit close to your pet. Ensure that you always have access to the animal.

Step 7: During the flight, make eye contact with your pet.

Step 8: Smile at your pet to calm the animal. Pet the animal from time to time. Engage the animal as much as possible.

Step 9: Arrived safely? Engaging your pet will help you have an anxiety-free flight. Thanks to the ESA, you can get to your destination without any panic attacks.

Some people navigate around their fear of flying by finding alternative means. This option could mean wasting a lot of time on a trip that could have been faster by flight. In this sense, an emotional support animal can help you save time.

1. b) Relaxation Techniques and Therapies

Below is a relaxation technique that can help you keep calm during flights.

Lengthen your breaths by two to three seconds. In this exercise, inhale deeply and hold your breath for about three seconds. Exhale slowly through your nose.

Alternate your breaths between your nostrils. Block one nostril and allow air to flow in through the other. Repeat this exercise, blocking the other nostril.

The 4-7-8 technique could be useful. In this method, breathe through your nose for four seconds, hold your breath until the seventh second, then breathe out on the eighth second.

You can also try the muscle tense technique. This method involves tensing every muscle of your body. Starting from your face muscles to your toes. While flexing your muscles, breathe in for three to four seconds. Finish by exhaling through your mouth on the fifth or sixth second.

1. c) The Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is a method of treating phobias and anxiety disorders. The treatment involves exposing the patient to visual stimuli through virtual reality images.

Exposure therapy is useful in the treatment of different phobias. A large number of patients have reported encouraging results. These include the reduction of fear and avoidance.