THE PET EFFECT — PART 2
Very often do pet owners or people intending to own pets hear the phrase, “Pets are believed to help alleviate stress, fear, anxiety, depression, and feeling of loneliness and social isolation.” If I am to combine all these attributes that pets are believed to have, I’d say pets have a role in mental health management. How does this come about? And again, is there anything we can do as pet owners to help these sweet companions channel their positive energy to counteract our anxiety, depression, loneliness and even feeling neglected and isolated?
How do pets alleviate our stress, depression, fear, and anxiety? Interacting with pets, hugging them and playing with them, reduces stress-related hormones for anxiety and depression sufferers. Playing with our pets raises our levels of serotonin and dopamine to calm the nervous system and release happiness hormones. Stroking or commonly known petting animals can calm hyperactive or aggressive children reducing child stress and anxiety. Get this, for your pet to help manage your mental health, his mental health and enrichment must be in check. Stroking your dog is interpreted as an action out of love and bond with the owner. Therefore, your dog gets calm and reacts with wagging his tail, giving you that big face lick and undivided attention. In this process, our bodies raise our happiness hormones to calm our nervous system.
Back to the pet owner, how do you ensure your pet is fit, both mentally and physically? Owning a pet can be loads of work, that’s why pet facilities like ours and delighted in sharing your burden for this great cause. It is important to involve your pets as early as possible so they can learn how to socialize and interact with other pets and people and eliminate some of the negative behaviors they may acquire along the way. Programs in our facility, like playgroups and daycare for dogs are a contributing factor to your dog’s behavior and temperament. You get to bond with your dog, learn how your dog guards his space and shares his toys. They also get to burn fat and exercise to keep them physically fit. No to forget they are under the care of trained dog handlers.
Given growing evidence for social isolation, depression, anxiety, trauma whether experienced or witnessed as a risk factor for mental health, pets may be an important factor in developing healthy neighborhoods. Indeed, pet ownership may be the unrecognized channel of mental health management for individuals and the community as a whole. Adopt a pet at a nearby shelter and with the help of pet facilities like us, Pets Paradise we can aid in ensuring our pets get mental and physical nourishment so we, in turn, can get the benefits that come with it, better mental health management. Visit our website: https://www.petsparadise.co.ke/ and on our social media pages and your Pet will never be the same again.
