Suppose you are already a self-described animal lover. In that case, you will already be fully aware of the incredible, life-enhancing plethora of benefits that the presence of an animal in your life always brings. 

Conversely, if you have never been around animals, continue reading to discover how adopting an animal can positively affect your mental health and well-being. 

Owning A Pet Gives You A Purpose

When struggling with feelings of low mood and depression, the most regular daily activities can be the hardest to start.

Having binkying bunnies, chirping birds, a purring cat, or a dog who desperately needs a wee jumping around your bedroom of a morning is an adorably loud and vibrant wake-up call that you simply couldn’t ignore even if you tried.

However much you feel as if you cannot start your day in the morning, your energetic pet will need feeding, playing with, cleaning out, and exercising. Initially, this responsibility may be hard to adapt and adjust to, in just a short time you will feel a switch and begin to want to get up and tend to their needs. 

Owning A Pet Increases Levels of Personal Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is essentially how an individual evaluates their own sense and feelings of self-worth. Self-esteem also incorporates prominent and recurring emotions, such as guilt, shame, pride, triumph, and a sense of effectiveness and one’s impact on others. 

When you adopt a deserving animal and patiently spend time cultivating a strong emotional connection and bond with them, you will find an overall increase in your feelings of self-worth, and with this new and incredibly meaningful connection becoming ever-increasingly important to you. 

Caring for your furry (or feathered) friend, including ensuring you register with an established and renowned vet’s practice, such as Pet Nest Animal Hospital, as soon as you bring them home, will further strengthen your self-esteem as you see them through various mishaps and situations which they find frightening and as you play with their new toys together that you bought especially for them. 

Owning A Pet Provides Companionship

One can feel alone and isolated even in a huge crowd of people or even in a busy family home, as depression and other mental illnesses’ chief objective is to make you withdraw from your life as quickly as possible. 

With an animal around the house, you have a silent (most of the time) companion who will be perfectly content to potter around, snuggle up beside you, and generally keep you company with no judgment or argument.  

Owning A Pet Encourages You To Live In The Moment

If one was to attempt to summarize how you feel when you have depression, one of the more accurate statements would be to an overall inability to be able to be wholly present and ‘in the moment.’

Rabbits, dogs, cats, and birds all rely on their instincts to live purely in the moment and, therefore, can surprisingly inspire you to do the same.