Mental Health Benefits of Having Pets

Most pet owners can tell you about the joy that their pets bring them. From having a pup’s wagging tail there for you after a hard day at work, to a soft cuddly kitten curled up on your lap, pets bring people joy. But did you know that it has been scientifically proven that pets can provide benefits for your physical and mental health?

According to Brooks and colleagues (2018),

Pets have been found to help alleviate worry, provide comfort,
and mitigate feelings of isolation and loneliness.

Several accounts from a paper by Brooks et al., address the way that companion animals will approach their human and comfort them when they are feeling sad. Other accounts describe the benefits of talking to your companion animal as cathartic and comforting because the animals will listen without judgment or trying to solve the problem. Lastly, the unconditional love that animals, dogs in particular, give to their owners is helpful when you are feeling down or depressed about yourself. Your dog does not care that you missed the work deadline or got an F on your test, it is just happy you are there and wants to show you love and affection (Brooks et al., 2018).

Pets can also help with physical activity.

When you are depressed, you may feel like you cannot get out of bed or feel like it is not worth it–but your dog is patiently waiting for you to feed them and take them outside to go potty, so you get up and do it. Often when you are depressed you can have low self-worth but hold others’ needs above yours. Some folks find it easier to complete a task for someone else or something else rather than themselves. Taking care of your dog can be the one thing that get out out of bed that day, and that is better than not getting up at all (Brooks et al., 2018). 

Pets can also help with symptom distraction.

When you are having a panic attack, experiencing paranoia, or having suicidal thoughts, animals are there to help with grounding you. Whether it is them licking away your tears, sitting in your lap, rubbing against your leg, or pawing at you to stop you from harming yourself, animals can often sense your pain and will place themselves by you to help comfort you (Brooks et al., 2018).

Pets can help with “social interaction and emotional nourishment.”

(Brooks et al., 2018). I can speak to this aspect of pet ownership from personal experience. Throughout the winter I can often feel isolated and due to COVID-19 I was not able to see many of my friends or loved ones. But the one thing that would help me at the end of the day was taking my dog out to the dog run area behind my apartment and talking with my neighbors. I was able to get out and make small talk with folks and see the excitement of the dogs as they played together. Even if I was having a terrible day, going out and watching the dogs play while chatting with neighbors never ceased to make me feel better. In the long, cold winter of the Midwest, it is easy to fall into a rut and feel isolated, but when you have a pet you have opportunities to socialize with others connected to pet ownership. 

Lastly, but certainly not least,

Pets can offer a sense of identity, self-worth, and meaning to people’s lives.

(Brooks et al., 2018). As I talked about before in the physical activity section, animals provide many folks with the push that they need to get out of bed or take care of home, so that the animal has a positive environment. Seeing the physical outcomes of successfully training their companion animal can give folks a feeling of positive self-worth, success, and identity (Brooks et al., 2018). 

While I cannot speak for all pet owners, I know that having my dog, Casey, has greatly improved my life and mental health in so many ways. I think that this quote from the paper I have used to create this article sums it up the best, “When he comes and sits up beside you on a night, it’s different, you know, it’s just, like, he needs me as much as I need him, sort of thing” (Brooks et al., 2018).

Source:

Brooks, H.L., Rushton, K., Lovell, K. et al. The power of support from companion animals for people living with mental health problems: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the evidence. BMC Psychiatry 18, 31 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1613-2