I found this NPR article on how pets are a major help for mental health patients during their every day life and even during psychosis. I used to have a cat. When I was psychotic, I’d go out in the backyard in the middle of the night and look at the stars thinking aliens were trying to communicate with me (another time I was preparing to die by torture by shady gov agents). Every time, my elderly cat would come and nestle on my chest while I laid down on the grass. It was so relaxing, it kept me from running out the door and into the wild streets in a haze.
Here’s the link to the article with an excerpt from the article below:
“I think it’s really hard when you haven’t had a mental illness to know what the actual experience is [like],” said one participant. “There’s like a chasm, deep chasm between us … [Other people are] on one side of it, and we’re on the other side of it. We’re sending smoke signals to each other to try and understand each other but we don’t always – we don’t always understand.”
People with mental illnesses often see their social groups shrink and find themselves alienated from their friends. For many of these people, says Brooks, animals can break through the isolation. They give affection without needing to understand the disorder.
“[Pets] don’t look at the scars on your arms,” one participant said. “They don’t question where you’ve been.”
The pets provided more than just emotional support and companionship, participants said. The animals also could distract them from their illness, even from severe psychosis.
I might get a kitten once my paycheck from my part-time job comes. I’m worried about emergency expenses for a vet visit, but I might get pet insurance just in case (I think it’s like 20 bucks a month or less). I live in an upstairs apartment on my own and I am lonely and I keep going by the animal shelter’s website to browse through the cats and I also have an amazon wishlist for my future kitty!
Who else has a pet that saved them?