 I know a lot of you out there are pet lovers and pet owners as well, but do emotional support animals actually work? What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. I try to offer tips and advice and things like that that might help you or just raise awareness or bring down the stigma, all that stuff. So if you're into that, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And as many of you loyal Rewired Soldiers know, I'm not here right now. I'm over there in Florida. So while I'm out of town, I love bringing over some of my friends who are smaller channels and I want to help bring awareness to their channels, right? On this platform, it is very, very difficult to grow. So I love having smaller creators come on my channel so I can kind of give them a platform so you know of more very good channels out there that you might not be missing because YouTube's not recommending them to you. So I actually have a friend of mine who is Dr. Alex Avery, even though he likes me to call him Alex, but you're a Dr. Alex, all right? And he is a veterinarian in New Zealand. And I told him that, you know, emotional support animals, like, are there any studies around this? Like, do these things actually work, you know, like, what is the benefit of having a pet around? Here is Dr. Alex discussing this topic. Thanks for that intro, Chris. And like he said, I'm Dr. Alex, the veterinarian behind our pets health. And Chris invited me back to talk to you about the benefits of having a pet for your mental health. Now, clearly I'm not a medical doctor, but I can give you a rundown of the role that pets can play in people's lives and give you a few vital things as well to think about from a veterinarian's point of view before you rush off out and buy yourself a new puppy or a new kitten. Now, if you've got a pet, then I'd also love to hear about them and how you find that they benefit your mental health in the comments down below. But I want to start off with talking about general health before then moving on to discuss mental health specifically. So it's a common thought that having a pet is actually beneficial for general body health. There is, though, a growing body of scientific research, which has found that pet owners, they're not healthier or they're not happier than people who don't live with animals. Now, reliable studies have actually generally failed to find any convincing proof that living with animals makes their owners healthier. Dog owners in some studies, they were definitely found more likely to get mild and moderate exercise, but this increased physical activity just did not translate into any measurable impact on their health. Some investigators on the flip side have reported that actually pet owners are not better off and they're actually worse and they can have more psychological and more health problems than non-owners and that includes developing conditions like migraines, insomnia, panic attacks, ulcers, high blood pressure, loneliness and depression. And then other studies again have just reported that living with pets has no effect at all on human health and well-being. There was one study that looked to older adults in a care situation, so older people in a nursing home, and they did find that actually there was some improvement in their well-being when there was a fish tank introduced to the communal area. So, you know, their conclusion was that there might be some benefit with relieving depression in community dwelling senior citizens. So that's something to think about. Overall, the body of evidence just isn't convincing. What's about then the effect of having a pet for those of us who do struggle with mental health issues? Well, there's been a relatively recent study that looked at the overall body of evidence as a whole and that found that actually there were benefits for having pets for people with mental health problems and that having a pet that offered people stability, continuity and a feeling of meaning in one's life by providing just unconditional love and support and without casting judgment. And this helped to ease feelings of worry, distress and loneliness and that having a dog actually may stave off anxiety and that overall the review found that pets did help these people to manage their emotions and actually offered a distraction from the symptoms of their mental health condition. And as well as this, you know, there were benefits at home with some owners saying that the pet forced them to stay connected with the outside world and actually engage in physical activity. And this is kind of dogs particularly and they were found to just encourage social interaction and strengthen community ties. So by having to take your dog out for a walk, you're getting out and about, you're engaging with the community and you're just feeling part of that community rather than being stuck indoors. So summary actually suggested that pet ownership has a highly valuable contribution to play regarding mental health and it should be incorporated into individual care plans of mental health patients. But how then could having a pet be detrimental to mental health? Costs of pet ownership are not insignificant. A cat can end up costing over $30,000 over its lifetime and a dog over $40,000. So those are serious expenses and that's not including serious health costs, you know, if they get injured or if they suffer from a serious disease. So if your financial situation can't accommodate this cost then owning a pet may make you more stressed or anxious just worrying about money and how you're going to look after them properly. You know having a pet it also might restrict where you can live. Not all landlords will accept pets and so that can cause additional worry as well. Sickness and injury is also something you know you need to think about so you can't guarantee their health. If your dog or your cat gets sick then this can again bring additional worry and even if they are healthy then you also need to know that they will die before you. So even if it's just from old age you really need to be prepared for this depending on what mental health problems you're suffering from that can be a challenge. Now you can prepare yourself for this and actually Chris did an excellent video over on my channel looking at how to look after yourself when dealing with a sick pet. So you know before you rush out and buy a dog or a cat or even a fish you need to sit down and really think about how you're going to accommodate them into your life and how you'll be able to provide for all their needs not just concentrate on the benefits that they will bring you to your life. You know having a pet means a commitment to a relationship that it could last for over 20 years and with this does come a lot of responsibility. So I hope this gives you something to think about if you're planning on getting a new dog or a cat. If you already have a pet then let me know how they've helped you in the comments down below and until next time take care. All right did you learn something? I sure did so make sure you go subscribe to Dr. Alex but anyways yeah um I think you touched on many great points and some fascinating studies about this. It was interesting because I never in a million years that I think there might be some drawbacks but it actually makes sense. But I would say like a lot of you know that I talk about one of the biggest causes of depression or reasons that we stay in depression is our lack of connection to other people and just having like a dog that you know forces you to go outside like there's a lot of benefits to just going outside of your house but also like it gives you an excuse to interact with people at like a dog park and things like that. If you're a cat owner like myself and my beautiful girlfriend Tristan there's not really a cat park but hey for many new people say I got a cat do you have a cat? Little icebreaker if you will but I can see how it sparks up conversation and helps you be connected to other people. I would imagine this is just my you know my hypothesis if you will like you know putting something like a fish tank in a communal space like a home for the elderly it unites people and brings them together. I'm actually going to do some videos about that like bringing a community together. I would imagine maybe that's what benefits people but anyways I'm glad that you touched on you know our own mental health and recognizing our own selfishness when it comes to buying pets like you know I also have a son and something that you know I talk about even though it's like unpopular opinion like I don't believe people should have children to help with their own mental health issues like loneliness depression anxiety whatever it is right like oh this child will fix me but it's the same thing with pets and animals like there's a reason why I tell you all like don't date until you are mentally well right like or at least working on your mental health and actively working on your mental health because it can be very selfish to get a pet that you cannot care for you know what I'm saying this isn't saying never get a pet if you struggle with depression but if you're like working with a therapist ask them say do you think I am in a place where it would be a good idea for me to get a pet you see what I'm saying so I'm very glad that Dr. Alex touched on that but like he said too if you have a dog a cat a fish a ferret I don't know whatever you got like if you believe that it helps you with your mental health like let's have a conversation down below fun fact real quick story before I end this video I actually got my cat when I was doing quite well it was actually right when Tristan and I first started dating and like I was dealing with some of my own stuff and I'm like you know what I've been afraid to get a pet afraid to get an animal kind of like what Dr. Alex said like eventually someday you know my uh you know my cat might get sick or whatever but eventually I got my cat and just uh uh love love that little girl so much some of you saw her dress up in her beautiful dress that Tristan made um anyways let me know down in the comments below about your emotional support animals or just your animals that provide you with emotional support all right but anyways don't forget to subscribe to Dr. Alex the link will be up in the info card down in the description and in the pinned comment but if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon you are all amazing and make sure you go subscribe to Dr. Alex if you're a pet owner he has a bunch of free tips and advice and his channel link is right there click it all right thanks again for watching I'll see you next time