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Animals
help to alleviate loneliness and anxiety in people. The simple
act of petting an animal causes a person’s blood pressure to
drop. Studies have shown that when you pet a dog, not just your
heart rate slows down and blood pressure drops, but so does the
animal's. This indicates a true, mutual human-animal bond.
Animals provide excellent company for people who are lonely and
animals are very good listeners. This makes a person feel loved
and wanted which in turn improves their general well being.
Animal-assisted therapy is used to treat
adults with psychiatric disorders like Schizophrenia, Bipolar
disorders etc. People with mental illnesses tend to have an
inward focus. Therapy animals help them refocus themselves on
their environment; rather than thinking and talking about
themselves and their problems, they watch and talk to and about
the animals.
For people with emotional problems, animals
help them to reach outside themselves and to put aside fears of
an uncertain future. Animals live in the here and now, and
interacting with them makes one keenly aware of the present with
all its joys and idiosyncrasies.
These animals don't care how a person looks
or what they say and this makes the clients feel fully accepted
without the fear of rejection. |