Top 7 Ways Pets Boost Your Mental Well-Being

If you’re a pet lover (whether you have one or contemplate to get one) you probably know that they’re a furry bundle of cuteness, affection, joy, loveliness, energy, fun, and a bunch of other things. Pets become a family member soon after they enter your home. The bond between humans and their beloved animals is strong and long-lasting. This bond with our pet supports our mental well-being and has long-term psychological benefits.

No wonder that celebrities like Barbara Streisand and other billionaires cloned their late pets – in a controversial move as PETA and other animal rights groups asked celebrities (and people in general) to stop cloning animals and rather adopt animals from shelters instead.

Your fuzzy friend (as big or as small it is) comforts you, plays with you, supports you, gives you hope, and heals you. Your beloved pet doesn’t only bring you happiness, joy, and love, but health as well.

Most people know that dogs and cats, especially (and other animals, too) contribute to your mental well-being as well, a survey conducted by the Human Animal Bond Research (HABRI) revealed. Pet owners already know that their pets reduce stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, autism, other neurocognitive disorders, and improve their mental well-being. The survey also shows that 74% of pet owners reported mental health benefits from their furry friends.

Also, the more they know about the scientific data that proves the improved mental health resulted from bonding with animals, the more they are inclined to take better care of their beloved pet’s health in return or to recommend to their friends and family to get a pet to benefit from the so-called Pet Effect.

How Can a Pet Support Your Mental Health?

Let’s see the top 7 reasons why pets can boost our mental health.

1. Make You Get Up and Move

Many people nowadays have a sedentary lifestyle. They rarely to never exercise, walk outside in nature, or go out with friends. They live lonely lives in front of their computer or TV.

When a delightful pet like a dog or a cat comes into your home, your life is turned upside down (in the right way) and is changed forever for the better. A dog needs to go out and so, whether you like it or not, you have to take your furry friend out. And so, you walk, run, hike, and play with your ball of fur. This way, without even realizing, you’ll be exercising daily.

A cat is very playful, too. Yes, it’s different, it likes to have its own private time, and if it is allowed to go out whenever it wants, you’ll see it disappearing for hours to do cat-like stuff. So, you won’t be able to walk and run away with it outdoors. However, cats like to play, so they will come to ask you to play with them.

Physical activity is beneficial for your mental health, too. It stimulates precisely that area of the brain that is not functioning when you’re depressed. It also releases neurotransmitters in the brain like endorphins (the euphoric hormone), dopamine (the pleasure hormone), serotonin (the happy hormone), and oxytocin (the feel-good hormone) that play an essential role in keeping you in “good spirits,” in a pleasant, joyful, content mood.

They also improve your sleep and your appetite, including your desire for life, which we know it’s starting to fade away when you’re depressed.

2. Increase Your Self-Esteem

A triple study on the benefits of having a pet organized by Miami University and Saint Louis University revealed that people who have pets notice that they self-esteem increases due to their little (or big) furry friends. Teen dealt better with rejection and adapted better in the social environment.

Pets help their owners feel worthy, significant, needed, and useful, they also feel loved and loving, and they even find a new purpose in life, especially in people who are depressed and have lost their meaning in life.

3. Help You Socialize Easier, More, and Better

Depression can be even more socially disabling than other health problems like arthritis or back pain. But when you have a pet, this changes to the better. Walking your dog helps you get in contact with other dog owners, and inevitably, this turns into conversations about dogs and other things. People who used to be isolated, are now socializing with other dog owners and peoples in the parks, on the street, at the corner of the block, in the shops, and other places.

But that’s not all. Pets are great companions as they give people a sense of stability, security, and companionship. People are suddenly not alone, but with another living being with which they spend the entire day. People talk to their pets, hug them, stroke them, and even kiss them. It’s a bonding relationship that both parties value and share.

4. Teach You How To Live in the Present Moment

Pets, just like babies, live in the present moment. They don’t worry about the past or the future. They live in the moment and consume themselves into whatever they do. That is why pets help people become more mindful and enjoy the present moment to the fullest. Also, they distract their owners from their problems and reminds them how to be playful, carefree, and joyful again.

People suffering from anxiety learn to appreciate more the present and the feeling of living free of worries and fears.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted a study in 2015 and discovered that kids with pets were significantly less anxious than others who didn’t own a pet.

People diagnosed with various degrees of mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and PTSD participated in a study at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom in 2016. More than half of them reported that having a pet helped them live their life better. Pets gave them a sense of identity and took their minds away from suicidal thoughts, worries, and hearing voices.

Most doctors agree that pets should be apart of mentally ill people’s care plans.

Say goodbye to lethargy, apathy, and loss of motivation. Walking and playing with your pet turns away your thoughts from worries and upsetting thoughts to the present moment, to what you’re doing, uplifting your mood, making you smile and laugh, and giving you a sense of fulfillment, and meaning.

5. Give You a Zen Mind

They are not only playful and physical animals. They are also master of Zen, having a calming and relaxing effect on most people. Just by caressing or just sitting next to your beloved pet, you get a balanced, quiet, peaceful mind. You feel relaxed and completely at ease.

Cats are renowned for having this effect on people, especially when they purr in their lap.

6. Chase Stress Away

A recent study from Buffalo University in New York showed that pets are an excellent way to help people get rid of stress. People become immune to stress and recover from it faster when they have a pet.

Other studies tested the stress levels in a group of people and then again, six months later, after some of them got a pet. Interestingly enough, from the group study, people with pets were less stressed than the others.

Also, kids with pets have lower levels of cortisol (stress hormone) compared with kids with no pets. The same results, lower levels of cortisol, are found when kids play with their pet, compared with the moment when they don’t interact with their pet.

After an 11-week learning program for adolescents that included riding horses, the average daily cortisol levels dropped significantly in the teens who participated in the program, compared to those who didn’t.

7. Uplifts Your Mood

Happy Feet is not only an animated movie. It’s a mood. A pleasant feeling that companion animals trigger in people just by being in their presence, playing and interacting with them.

Also, the unconditional love and devotion that animals offer to their owners make them happy, more loving, and content with their life.

Interacting and playing with your pets is also a mood booster. They make you forget about worries and instead, make you laugh and love.

Playing and physically interacting with your pets stimulates the release of powerful and mood-boosting hormones in the brains like endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. Thus, people suffering from depression, stress, and other mental illnesses greatly benefit from having a pet.

Adopt a Pet Today – For Your Health!

See how lovely and great animals are to us? To learn more about how pets can help us have better lives, I wholeheartedly recommend these movies: A Street Car Named Bob, Hachiko, The Black Stallion, Spirit, and A Dog’s Purpose.