Anxiety Disorders: Pet Therapy

I talked to both my psychologist, Doctor Samantha Jordan, and my psychiatrist, Doctor Sandra Kovachi, and they both believe having a service dog would be helpful for my needs.

There are 3 different types of service dogs people can have: Emotional Support Animals, Therapy Animals, and Service Animals. Emotional Support Animals have one task and that is to provide comfort and support, emotionally, to someone who needs it and has a documented health condition. Therapy Animals are registered through an agency and their purpose is to provide therapeutic value to those who need it. Service animals are trained to perform tasks the owner simply cannot do on their own, guiding blind people, detecting seizures, helping people who have lost legs or arms.

In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.

How can cats and dogs help people who are suffering from anxiety? People with anxiety tend to be more introverted, which means they stay away from the public eye more than some or most people. Things like therapy, group meet-ups with other people who have anxiety, and/or prescriptions may have been tried. Though sometimes these things don't work and the person is still suffering from the affects of anxiety. Cats and dogs could help though. They provide company, support, and love, which people with anxiety tend to get less of if they push others away. Cats and dogs will be there for them every step of the way. Although they do show their affection for their owner, which provides a nice sense of comfort, appreciation, and love for themselves

Emotional support animals can take on a multitude of jobs that “may include reminding the handler to take medicine, providing safety checks or room searches, or turning on lights for persons with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, interrupting self-mutilation by persons with dissociative identity disorders, and keeping disoriented individuals from danger,” (Brennan). These animals are often considered pets but are actually so much more than that, emotional support animals have a very important role in protecting the mental health of their owners and keep them safe. Not only do these animals protect people’s mental health but they also give people a purpose. Taking care of one of these dogs or other animals gives people something to take care of and focus on. Knowing that there is another living thing that relies on them can be very grounding and keep people connected to something outside of themselves.

Service and Therapy Dogs According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, “A service dog is any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal, individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability,” (Levingson). This means that a service dog can help people with a variety of disabilities once trained. There are two main classifications for a therapy dog: service dogs, who help those with physical disabilities, and psychdogs, who help those with mental disabilities.

These dogs learn many tasks so they are specialized for their certain patient. Therapy dogs learn special tasks to decrease the anxiety in a patient during certain situations, so “Stanek trains his dogs to perform 10 or so PTSD-specific tasks. Some of them are designed to ease concerns about blind spots, not unlike the way a military unit designates someone to watch troops' backs or to scout ahead. Stanek's 2-year-old Catahoula mix, Sarge, for example, has been trained to check around the corner to see what's in the next aisle at a store.”(Thompson 3). When therapy dogs are in public areas, they tend to use tasks like checking around the corners at stores. Those with PTSD sometimes believe there are attackers around the corner. This helps relieve stress of the war veteran by assuring that when the veteran turns the corner they will not get hurt. Not only do the dogs go through training to become perfect for their patients, but they also have to become trained in “normal” tasks, whether their patients use it or not. A therapy dogs may be complicated or not but either way “To qualify as a service animal, dogs must be trained to do work or perform tasks like providing safety checks and room searches for a person with PTSD.”(Thompson 3) . When dogs successfully pass the tests to become a therapy dog, people know therapy dogs are effective at reducing symptoms due to all the standards they must meet. People can usually tell when it is a therapy dog or a pleasure dog just by how they act. Therapy dogs tend to be much calmer and are very good at calming people down. The special training dogs go through make them not only able to but also extremely talented at decreasing a PTSD patient’s

There are lots of people who can benefit from pet therapy. People who can benefit from pet therapy are people having denture problems, receiving cancer treatment, people in long term facilities, people hospitalized with chronic heart failure, and veterans with PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder.) Not just people who are dealing with the struggling events can benefit from pet therapy. The person's family can also benefit from pet therapy because they know the person will not be alone anymore. The person's friends can benefit from

Pet therapy is a way of comforting a patient. Although dogs are primarily used, they are not the only

A therapy dog is skilled to care and offer comfort to patients in hospitals, retirement homes, schools, catastrophe area, and people with learning complications. From a different perspective, a service dog is an assistance dog trained specifically to help persons with disabilities including autism, hearing and visual difficulties. The dogs aid cognitive therapy enabling the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) victims to expose themselves gradually to feelings and thoughts reminding them of the past. The dogs offer comfort, affection, and companion that enable the victims to relax triggering the sense of flashback within them. Flashback is critical in the treatment process of PTSD.

Dogs , a man’s best friend are now used for medical issues. They are really helpful and can even save our life. A service dog helps in many different ways. For example, dog are great at encouraging communication on adults and kids, helping blind people, and people with anxiety. They are very helpful and needed a lot.

A service animal is one that is pre trained to help people accomplish tasks that they cannot execute on their own. These services include a wide variety of people that need help each and every single day. (“About Service Animals,” 2016). PAWS trains many service dogs to assist people who have Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Rheumatoid Degeneration, ALS, Cerebral Palsy, spinal cord injuries, and many other conditions affecting a person’s mobility or strength. Not only do they perform tasks related to a physical disability, PAWS dogs can also be trained to help with tasks having to do with a seizure disorder or hearing loss (“Paws with a Cause,” 2013). Service dogs help out physically, with cognitive and intellectual skills, sensory motions, and the mental and emotional state behind every person. The service animals’ jobs can range from helping someone get around all the way to keeping them alive day to day. The relationship and trust associated with their dog is crazy (“About Service Animals,” 2016).

In a recent study conducted by Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D., RN, of the University of Missouri-Columbia Center for the Study of Animal Wellness showed that when humans pet a dog, within minutes there is a huge amount of beneficial hormones known to be associated with health and feelings of well-being.(Becker par. 2) These hormones are called beta endorphin, prolactin, dopamine, oxytocin, and beta phenylethylamine (Becker par. 2). The hormones that are released from the interaction between the animal and the human allow the patients to feel more blissful and trusting. Along with being emotionally benefited from working with animals in assisted therapy; people can benefit physically. For example, people who have physical

Your forum this week was very organized and informative. I agree that pet therapy can help during stressful times. The facility I work for will allow pets to visit patients under certain circumstances, and it has been a very effective therapeutic technique to patients. I have a cat, Nimbus, who waits by the door for me to get home, and cries at the door whenever I leave. I leave work tired and stressed, and then I see him waiting for me, I feel so appreciated. Stress reduction techniques can be individualized to meet anyone's situation. I find meditation comforting, and encourage my patients to try it whenever they are agitated and stressed. Music therapy also helps my intubated patients relax. Sometimes nurses have to teach and encourage

We have two dogs at my house, and all I really need is a cat. I need a cat because I have an anxiety disorder. Cats cause the effects of anxiety to decrease because they are calming and relaxing. Cats are there as an emotional support to help me through my life. When I pet a cat, they cause a surge of joy to fill my body. That joy suppresses my anxiety attacks, and allows me to be in a tranquil state. For example, when I go to someone’s home and they have a cat, I immediately get a spark of pure euphoria. My heart melts when I feel the cat's soft fur run between my fingers. When a cat looks up at me with their serene gaze my problems and worries dissipate. The emotional and physical energy that cats radiate comforts me and relaxes my body and