Will a dog or a pet help your mental health? Hey everybody, I’m Dr. Drew Ramsey. I’m a board certified psychiatrist and nutritional psychiatrist. I’m here to really help you improve your mental fitness and you’re wondering, a dog improve your mental fitness? So let’s talk pros and cons.
My Bernadoodle Juno is my second dog that’s been really important for my mental health and mental fitness. My first dog, Gus, is very famous actually there is a Wall Street Journal article about him, Gus the Shih Tzu, check it out. I think that dogs and animals in general are great for mental health. I talk a lot with my patients about them. If they don’t have a pet, I get a little curious whether it would be helpful.
We can talk about this in a few minutes but let’s talk about why I like pets for your mental fitness. So first is there is hope we all have that we’re going to be accepted and loved in this world. That’s often true, but a lot of times it’s not. There is an unconditional affection that you get from a dog in particular. Every time I walk in. 100 out of 100 times. Juno is really excited to see me. She wants to check in with me and she wants some physical affection. As you can see, different types of breeds are different. The Bernadoodle is a really snuggly dog. It’s pretty clear she thinks we’re her pack and there’s something about that that I find really grounding.
What are the things that help with your mental health? It’s been shown in research trials actually. Contact and petting a dog lowers your blood pressure, lowers your stress. There’s something also for a lot of my patients about the structure. When you have a dog and you have depression, you still have to get up and go for a walk. You still have to care for something. So often when people are struggling with their mental health, one of the concerns or feelings, pieces maybe of guilt even is that there’s such a focus on the self because you’re not feeling well. So there’s something about having an animal and being able to, know, whether it’s brush her or take her on a walk and she is also good about getting me outside. I was talking about the big nature, but it’s really important to walk the talk, quite literally and an animal can help you. There’s a way you see them light up, just like you light up in the big forest. There’s so much the dog helps me appreciate. There’s so much going on, the smells, the sights so dogs really help encourage you to get outside more, get more walks in. We know that’s great for our mental health.
Now, some of the challenges, of course, there’s a cost to the dog. There’s a need to take the dog to the vet. Juno jumped up on the table and ate a chocolate bundt yesterday. Chocolate is horrible for dog kidneys. These are all challenges. And then the big one, animals are also here to help us with our mortality fears, because Juno is on this earth for a more limited time, hopefully than I am. And it’s one of the things I’ve actually prescribed in terms of some patients who’ve really been struggling with loss. There’s something that animals teach us about that and we have to enjoy them while they’re here and then let go of them. I find that can be really informative and helpful in dealing with death and grief.
I think the constant affection, the consistency, the unconditional love, the exploring the world together, these are all reasons that if you’re struggling with your mental health and you’re a dog or a cat person, having a pet, I guess we shouldn’t exclude some people have good relationships with other types of pets, reptiles. I’ve had a few patients who’ve had birds and birds live for really long time. So having a relationship with our animal friends, I think is wonderful for one’s mental health.
Obviously there are all the caveats and it’s a big responsibility. But my experience is the benefits are immense. I hope this helps you as you’re thinking about an animal in your life. Now there are officially emotional support animals. You can get animals trained. They are a different category than service animals. This video is here to help you think about whether an animal would help you with your mental health and sharing some of the ways that animals have helped me with my mental health. I guess this is mostly about my dog. I could talk to you more about my horse. We’ll save that for another video.
Everyone, keep getting your mental fitness tuned up. I hope this helps you with your mental health. Please share this with a video, with somebody who has a dilemma about whether to have an animal or not in their life for their mental health. And I’ll see you in the next video.
