Major Mental Health Benefits of an Emotional Support Dog

There’s scientific evidence that pets provide unconditional love, thus helping their owners handle their mental health issues effectively and naturally. As a result, more therapists are prescribing animal-assisted therapy to patients suffering from various mental illnesses. In fact, in the United States, you can legally live with your emotional support dog under the Fair Housing Act.

Mental Health Benefits of an Emotional Support Dog

It Reduces Stress Levels

Playing with an emotional support dog can help you relieve all your tensions and worries. You can feel the difference just by spending 10 minutes with a dog.

Science says that being with an animal increases levels of oxytocin and reduces levels of cortisol—the stress hormone. Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that reduces stress.

Moreover, pet owners have lower blood pressure levels than non-owners and are less likely to experience depression.

It Boosts Self-Esteem

Another benefit of living with pets is that they help boost self-confidence, allowing people to reduce their worries. Studies show that individuals with low self-esteem may require emotional support to deal with their condition. Pets have the ultimate power to improve mood and overall mental well-being.

Moreover, studies published in the American Psychological Association report that owning a pet can help with various benefits, such as reduced social anxiety, improved physical fitness, and boost self-confidence.

It Builds Social Connections

Pet ownership can help you improve your social connections, thus fighting loneliness, which is linked to anxiety, depression, etc.

According to a recent survey, animals can provide ultimate social support and also act as catalysts for making friends. Researchers surveyed about 2700 men and women in San Diego, Perth, Portland, and Nashville. They found that participants who owned pets were 60 percent more likely to know people in their neighborhood than non-owners.

Having more friends mean strong social support to deal with your stressful situations.

It Increases Activity Levels

Having an emotional support dog can help you build some healthy habits. For instance, you need to get up early in the morning to feed and exercise your canine friend. This automatically increases your physical activity.

Science says that when you exercise, the body releases endorphins, which interact with the brain receptors to promote happiness and pleasure. Also, pet owners are more likely to meet their daily exercising requirements.

In other words, living with an ESA provides a positive impact on your overall health since you are able to stick to a routine and finish things on time.

Covering it up, pets provide lots of mental health benefits. They give ultimate emotional support, thus helping patients with anxiety, depression, etc. to ease their symptoms effectively. Studies have found that pet therapy increases levels of certain neurotransmitters that are associated with happiness positive feelings.

Additionally, having an emotional support dog at home comes with the responsibility of caring for your animal such as exercising, feeding, etc. Pet owners meet their daily exercise requirements have lower blood pressure and stress levels than individuals who don’t own pets.

Want to register your dog as an emotional support dog? Do it in just 10 minutes at My ESA Doctor. Simply fill a form online and see one of our therapists via video call. You will get your emotional support dog letter in pdf via email. Check our site to learn more.