Effects of Pets on Mental Health

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Due Date
Pet Ownership and Mental Health
From a logical standpoint, pet ownership does not make evolutionary sense given the high cost of maintaining a pet and other associated downsides such as potential personal injury or disease from owning a pet. Notably, pet ownership has been identified as one of the second most common causes of conflict among neighbors after late-night noises. However, pet ownership is one of the most common phenomena in the United States, with most households composed of a pet that is considered a member of the family. Researchers have conducted studies to examine why people keep pets despite the presence of logical reasons why one should not keep pets. One of the reasons cited for pet ownership is the view that pet ownership plays a role in influencing the mental health of the pet owner. Notwithstanding the potential downside to owning a pet, pet ownership, has a positive effect on the mental health of the owners.
A major effect of pet ownership is decreased levels of stress levels. Several studies have shown that petting or playing with an animal at home lowers the production of cortisol hormone while increasing the production of dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine and serotonin are two main hormones that are associated with a feeling of calm and relaxation in a person. When facing a stressful situation, a person accompanied by a pet is likely to record lower blood pressure levels compared to an individual who faces such situations on their own (Vitality 1). Mental health professionals have recognized the ability of pet ownership to lower stress in a patient. Consequently, patients with disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or borderline hypertension are encouraged to keep pets so that they can enjoy the calming and relaxation effects of pet ownership. To this end, some studies have shown that PTSD patients who took up pet ownership reported a decreased reduction in symptoms. As such, pet ownership has a positive effect on mental health as pets lower stress levels.
Another major positive effect of pet ownership on mental health is an increase in physical activity. Cull reports that having a pet requires the owner to exercise daily regardless of the weather (1). Pets such as dogs require daily walks so that they can calm down. In a study examining the relationship between pet ownership and physical exercise, Tan et al. found that pet owners had 31.8 more minutes of physical activity when compared to the number of minutes reported by non-pet owners in the study (1). The findings were more pronounced in the pet owners who were aged 30 to 64 years and owned a dog as a pet (Tan et al. 1). Health Navigator notes that pet ownership is associated with being in the outdoors and in nature, which is considered to be vital to mental health (1). Pet owner has to constantly interact with nature when walking their dogs, cleaning cages, or even collecting eggs from the chicken. As such, pet ownership has positive effects on mental health through physical exercises.
Further, pet ownership has been observed to have positive mental health effects given that pets provide a constant level of companionship for the owner. Health Navigator report th...