Nurturing Health and Well-being Through Pet Therapy. Resilience is the way to recover from difficulties and rise back. Resilience is not like trait that some people possess and some don’t, resilience can be learned and there are certain factors that make an individual resilient. Three main factors that make a person resilient are:
INDIVIDUAL: These are the factors that are related to individual’s own self like positive physical development, academic achievement, high emotional quotient, good self esteem, good problem solving skills, engagement in some contexts like school, peers, religion, and spirituality. Individual’s one or more talents, self confidence makes him/ her resilient.
FAMILY : Family provides an individual with structure, rules and monitoring. Family provides an individual with immense support that makes that individual resilient. Caring relations with adults, parent’s good mental and physical health, parenting practices, good bonding of both parents with each other are some factors that make an individual resilient because of his/ her positive surroundings.
INSTITUTION-NEIGHBOURHOOD-COMMUNITY: mentor’s support is also necessary for developing skills and interests. There must be some opportunities for every individual to get involved in the school or community level activities so that they can feel important. There must be positive norms for individuals and some clear expectations for their respective behaviour. These factors also should ensure individual’s physical and psychological safety. Neighbourhood must be good, supportive and in positive environment.
Absence of above factors puts an individual at risk. But there are many other factors that have not been explored yet. People at risk might get addicted to some sort of drugs or alcohol or might slip into psychological disorders and that could be a threat to themselves and people around them. So it is important to study the resilience factors so that, at risk people may get some help and become resilient. Over the globe, many researches have been done in this area but this particular factor has not been explored in India much whereas some work has been done in other countries. It has been observed that some people who keep pets at home regard them like their family members and some keep pet animals for other purposes like home safety, out of trend, therapy dogs.
It is important to study this factor in India because it is becoming a trend to keep pets now a day at home. Social media and some NGO’s keep motivating people to spare some space in their house for pets and in turn they can get immense love and a company. Celebrities’ liking to keep pets have also given people the idea to keep dogs, cats, etc at home. It is true that pets are a good company and might make people learn empathy. Some people might choose family pet as per their personal preference, allergy issues, etc. Dogs and cats are most common pets, some people also like to keep birds, horses and fish as pets.
Clinical psychologists have not emphasized much on the bond people share with their pets. Family pets serve as great companions not only to the nuclear families but also to the people living alone. Pets like dogs and cats act as a friend to the growing children. Different families give different reasons for having pets. They respond heartily to care, love and attention and in turn offer unconditional love to the owner. After a long day at work, school or college pets meet their owners with enthusiasm and affection. They also provide psychological and social support. People with pets credit them for making their kids more generous and kind towards other living beings. With the help of pets children may also prepare themselves for future life experiences.
Some people like to raise a dog or a cat before themselves being parents and some people do not want their own kids and simply raise pets instead. One advantage of keeping pet is that they reduce stress in children. People specially children feel safe when their pet is around. Pets also enhance mood and may also emotional responding in children. Serpell (1990) observed that people who had pets had less health problems and high self esteem than people did not own pets. Pets are also found to be helpful to owners in lowering their blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Research has shown animal-human interaction facilitates in reducing anxiety, loneliness and depression to some extent.
While most families report that their pet is of great importance to them at all times, they value them most at times of crisis and loss, through disruptive transitions, and in weathering prolonged adversity. Companion animals provide socio emotional support that facilitates coping, recovery, and resilience. When members are feeling vulnerable, lonely, or depressed, others may be preoccupied, distant, or uncomfortable in relating. Bonds with pets offer comfort, affection, and a sense of security. Bonds with pets are especially vital in times of illness or death. Couples with dogs had greater well-being, and those with the highest attachment to their dogs and who confide in them fared the best. Interestingly, talking to dogs in addition to one’s spouse was related to greater life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and physical and emotional health.
Confiding in pets to ‘‘discuss’’difficult life situations greatly relieved stress. Cain found that most family respondents believed that their pets understood when they talked or confided in them, and that their pets were sensitive to their moods, as conveyed in their tone of voice, body language, or tears. When family members were sick or injured, their pets were very responsive, often licking a wounded area or curling up close to offer comfort.
Conclusion:
Human beings are hard wired to be connected with other fellow beings and other organisms.This has significant health and well-being implications. It works in bidirectional ways because animals like dogs and cats in turn are cared by humans and vice versa. It is, therefore, important to nurture, and love animals to deal with life challenges and hence improve health and well-being. There is a need that this new model become famous and the population needs to be sensitized about this.
Miss. Kanchan
Sc (Clinical Psychology, Government Mohindra College, Punjabi University, Patiala)
Doctorate Student (Clinical Psychology, Amity Institute of Behavioral and Allied Sciences, Amity University Rajasthan)
kanchansingla11@gmail.com
07888568967
Dr. Mustafa Nadeem Kirmani
Associate Professor and Head Department of Clinical Psychology
Institute of Behavioral Sciences
SGT Medical University, Gurgaon, Haryaana.
nadeemcpnimhans@gmail.com
07426871886/08267871886
