Why having pets is beneficial to mental health is exactly what this article is all about so sit back and enjoy the article.
Do you have a pet? How mentally exhausted are you with your pet? Is your pet making you mentally strong?
Having pets is beneficial to mental health since pets help their owners fight mental stress and reduces mental pressure.
Do your pet help you overcome stress? Tell us about life with your pet in the comment section below. Now let’s go to the topic of the day.
Dog owners tend to be a more stressed-out bunch than those with cats, according to new research.
Why Having Pets Is Beneficial To Mental Health
The findings come from the Allergy, Asthma, and Clinical Immunology journal.
In a survey of over 1,300 dog owners and 1,000 cat owners, researchers discovered that, on average, dog owners are between two and three times as stressed out as cat owners.
One of the reasons for this is that dog owners have around five times more intense contact with their dogs than cat owners, and that dog owners are more aware of their dog’s needs and how well they are coping.
And it’s not just the quantity of contact that matters, but also the quality, in terms of interruptions from work, visiting grandparents, going out, and feeling lonely.
Here’s why pet owners have lower levels of mental health.
Read more about Benefits Of Having A Pet – 6 Health Benefits.
Dog owners are more connected to their dogs
Dog owners are much more likely to be attached to their pets than those with cats.
That may mean they feel less guilty when their dog barks at the postman or digs holes in the garden, because they know that’s just what dogs do.
The only other group who report feeling less connected to their dogs is cat owners.
But this could be because cat owners don’t have many other things to get stressed about, so, while they might worry about their pet, it’s just not in the same way as if they had a baby or a newborn.
Animal owners experience a ‘home from home’ effect
The stress of looking after a pet is easily forgotten when you have someone else to talk to about it.
Researchers found that people who are frequently visited by their pets experience a ‘home from home’ effect, where they feel more connected to their home and community.
This effect is strongest when people are pet owners themselves, but also applies to anyone who spends a lot of time with animals.
Some people don’t get enough contact with animals
The amount of contact and emotional investment we have with our pets isn’t just about the amount of time we have with them – we also want to spend a lot of time with them.
Pet owners are much more likely to spend more time with their pets than people without cats or dogs.
People with pets report feeling less lonely
Researchers surveyed over 1,300 pet owners and 1,000 cat owners, asking them questions about their feelings of loneliness.
People with dogs were less likely to report feelings of loneliness than those with cats, and less likely to report feelings of loneliness than people with dogs.
It may seem a little odd that people feel more connected to their pets than their friends or family, but the research reveals a greater bond between people and their pets than we think.
And as pets start to get older, they form an even stronger relationship.
Animal owners feel less connected to their human partners
Researchers found that people with dogs reported feeling less connected to their human partners than those with cats.
But that wasn’t always the case, because those who didn’t own pets said they felt much more connected to their human partners than those who did.
The same was true for people without animals. In the survey, people with pets said they felt much more connected to their humans partners than those without pets.
The link between human and animal relationships was greater in men than in women.
This has to do with the way men see the world: they’re more likely to see the relationship between humans and dogs as analogous with their relationships with women than they are to a relationship with their fellow human beings.
‘When you think of how men and women are socialized in relation to each other, you can see this happening’, said co-author Dr. Rob Gooch.
‘In a way, it’s a kind of evolutionary shortcut: dogs were socialized to view men as providers and women as social providers, and that’s not something that goes away when people stop associating with their dogs or cat.’
Recommended article: 8 Best Dogs For Pet: Kids Pets.
Owning a dog may lead to more intimate relationships
Co-author Dr. Gooch explained that people who have pets are more likely to report intimate relationships than those who don’t own pets.
‘It’s quite a surprising finding,’ he said.
‘On the face of it, not having a pet would make you less likely to feel close to your human partner – especially if you see them less often and therefore you feel less connected with them.
‘But when you start to think about it in a different way, we would have expected people with pets to feel less close to their human partner, but our study suggests that doesn’t happen.’
Co-author Dr. Kathryn Liederman said: ‘Animals in the home may actually foster a more intimate feeling than not having animals in the home because the home becomes an extension of the family, rather than a place separate from it.
‘The pet becomes a sort of pet cousin.’
The Takeaway From This Study
For those who may not understand the article here are the takeaways from the study;
- Having pets especially dogs is more beneficial to mental health than nothing having a pet.
- Pets can help you over mental stress from work or from your friends.
- Having pets makes you feel you have someone to fall back on when things are not going the right way.
- Some people are too bonded to their pets that they only find joy staying with their pets.
- Families with pets feel more mentally responsive to their pets than those without pets which makes the home boredom.
- Dog owners are more mentally exhausted than cat owners.
- People who live with pets have a happier life than those without pets.
- Your home is more lively with pets than homes without pets.
- You build your sense of responsibility more when you have a pet to care for.
- You feel less lonely with pets compare to without having pets.
The last word, I can strongly tell you that people who have a pet are by far happier than people without pets.
If you still have doubts then get a pet and grow the bond, after some period of time check how happy you will be when your pet runs up to you, to welcome you after a hectic day from work.
As a Golden Retriever owner the joy he or she gets when his or her pet comes to welcome him or her at the doorway every day he or she is back from work!!!
Other helpful article to read more.
Cheers
