Mental Illness Is A Broad Category

Over forty million Americans suffer from a mental health condition; and, unfortunately, fifty six percent do not receive any treatment at all. “Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion and behavior”(Psychiatry.org). People live with their conditions even though their quality of life and personal relationships may be negatively affected. When one lives in a state of denial about having a mental illness, they are cheating themselves out of living life to their fullest potential and will achieve true freedom only when they face the illness head on and seek recovery.

Animal Assisted Therapy also known as animal-assisted therapy has been formally introduced to the world in the last ten years or so. Although animals have always been a place of comfort for a lot of people, scientists just began to realize the impact animals have on society. The world has begun to experiment with what animals can do to benefit human health. The most common type of animal-assisted therapy is equine-assisted therapy. Equines are horses. Equine-assisted therapy 's impact on minors who have mental health issues have led to a successful new type of therapy that includes multiple benefits. Equine-assisted therapy has worked well in is treating adolescents and children how to communicate and connect with others. Two big issues that animal-assisted therapy has been known to help is Autism and kids with attachment and social problems.

Pets have long been known to have beneficial health effects on people, both physically and mentally. However, for someone with severe mental illnesses like major depression and anxiety, a psychiatric service dog can be a life-saver. With time, these dogs become more attuned to the needs of their handler/human, and can often recognize signs that even other people cannot. These non-judgmental, loyal, and trained animals can provide the right kind of care to mental health patients and set them on the path to

Mental illness refers to many disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behaviour. There are many different types of mental illnesses with different severities such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviour. Having a mental illness is so common in Canada, 1 in 5 people encounter some degree of it. Many of your friends and family may be suffering from some form of mental illness without you knowing it. This can be because it is at a very early and week stage, they are on their medication, or they are doing a good job at hiding it from you. People often hide their illness to prevent being judged and treated differently from their loved ones. This can be a problem as their illness could worsen and cause long term irreversible damages. Some of our society doesn’t respect people with mental illnesses as before, people with this illness were called crazy and they were told they had a disease. This may be a reason people still don’t feel comfortable telling people close to them.

This mental health issue not only affects the person but also he families. The person dealing with this will deny that they are ill, and to interpret the family’s efforts to get help as unnecessary interference because in the patient’s mind they are ok. Unless the person gains some insight into his/her condition, these symptoms can contribute to not taking their needed medication that can end up leading them into losing everything such as homes, families and job. This event can lead them also to drugs, becoming homeless and their problem getting worse to the point of death or jail.

Animal assisted therapy is used in hospitals and colleges throughout the United States and all around the world . Dogs, cats, fish, birds and many other types of animals are used to help calm people and bring them a sense of companionship. The animals also provide unconditional love for people who feel depressed and alone. Some doctors may oppose this type of therapy because they do not believe that it “actually” helps patients, but studies throughout the years have shown that this can be the best option for students in college and patients that are terminally ill. Statistics have shown that animal assisted therapy is one of the best options of therapy for people who struggle with depression, anxiety, stress, and many other mental illnesses. This type of therapy can also help with physical ailments. Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) has been proven to be beneficial to a multitude of people in many different situations.

Mental health illnesses have been around since interrelated relationships have been present in society. The treatment of this illness has evolved immensely throughout history. Early on, those who were mentally ill were demonized and thought to be an all mighty evil, which had the ability to be passed on to others. Due to this ideology, many people shunned, and banished those who were thought to be mentally handicapped. In order to protect society from these “beasts” many people imprisoned mentally ill individuals and were stripped of the ability to live their lives. Fortunately, as society progressed and different ways of treating the mentally ill were established through scientific advancements. Along with these advances, treatment for

Animals have been used to help in treatment of mental health as far back as 1972 (Trivedi & Perl, 1995). Horses have been shown to be able to calm people and allow them to open up in therapy sessions. There are many people who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and exhibit mistrust, easy to react with anger and hyper-aware of their surroundings, characteristics that can be seen in horses. Horses are prey animals and therefor they are very aware of their surroundings and watch body language to see a possible threat, people must be the leader with out being at all aggressive as to scare the horse in to a flight response (MacLean, 2011). For many with PTSD it may be easier to form a trusting, positive relationship with horses that understand them then it can be with people even people they have know for a long time. The horses seem to understand people, reading their body language and mirroring, showing these behaviors more than any other animal and this is what makes them great for therapy,allowing people to open up, relax, be in control, while trusting. The Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EGALA, 2014) has 600 equine assisted therapies programs, but more studies are needed to have evidence of the effectiveness of these programs.

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is a fairly old practice, but it has just recently drawn a lot of attention and interest. The Delta Society (as cited by Nebbe, n.d.) defines animal-assisted therapy as the use of an animal in a goal oriented intervention. AAT is provided and documented by professionals. Furthermore, it is designed to promote advancements in social, emotional, physical, and/or cognitive operation (Nebbe, n.d.). It is also important to note that animal-assisted therapy should always be an adjunctive intervention and not in isolation of other services (Fitchett, Granger, Helmer, Kogan, & Young, 1999). Almost any animal can be used in AAT as long as it is a pleasant, sociable animal. However, before animal-assisted therapy

Animal-assisted therapy has many benefits like helping depression and people with PTSD, but the animals have to be trained and meet certain requirements to do so. Many assume the animals just have to be nice to take part in animal-assisted therapy, but they have to be trained in certain aspects like obedience and tolerance but they must be trained by someone experienced. Only after being trained the animals can be used and will start to help many with their different problems. The animals used in animal-assisted therapy have to meet certain requirements.

Berget, Bente, Øivind Ekeberg, and Bjarne O. Braastad. "Animal-assisted therapy with farm animals for persons with psychiatric disorders: effects on self-efficacy, coping ability and quality of life, a randomized controlled trial." Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health 4.1 (2008): 9.

There are many positive effects of owning a pet. Animals can increase the health and well-being of individuals and can be a useful tool in the counseling arena. Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) has been in use since the early 18th century. England hospitals used animals as a method of socialization and to boost morale (“History of animal assisted therapy,” 2014). Since it’s early roots, AAT has evolved as a method of therapy that helps individuals and group members overcome obstacles and achieve goals.

To understand what mental illness is you have to know what it means. Mental health is the state of our well-being. Mental health has to do with the mind. According to thefreedictionary.com mental health is “a state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life”. Mental illness are behavioral, psychological, and emotional disorders that effect the mind. Mental illness is not something that should be avoided. There many different types of mental illnesses. There are also mental healthcare services that can help people with their mental illnesses.

Animals have been used for animal therapy from early as the 18th century (Chu et al., 2009). Animals have been shown to aid in lowering stress, feelings of isolation and depression. Studies have shown that different types of animal therapy can be helpful with a range of mental illnesses, from schizophrenia to anxiety to dementia. There are many ways that animals can be implemented into different forms of therapy. There are uses for animals in psychological and physical therapy. Each of these present paths to help different types of mental illnesses in separate ways. For my research, I conducted a survey to determine a general idea of what people know about therapy animals and their contributions to human health.

Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion or behavior or a combination of all three (What is Mental Illness). Mental illnesses are associated with distress or problems functioning in social, work or family activities. Mental illnesses take many forms, some are fairly mild and only interfere in limited ways with daily life, such as certain phobias and other mental health conditions are so severe that a person may need care in a hospital. Mental illnesses can affect anyone, regardless of your age, gender, income, social status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, background or other aspect of cultural identity (What is Mental Illness).