So far, psychological problems are very common. It is easier for people who are under severe work pressure and children who are ignored by their busy parents for a long time to have mental illnesses. Nick, Lipley says,“ Nurses In Northern Ireland have been warned that they face a sharp rise in the number of patients suffering mental illnesses” (par.2). Because of the increase in mental illness patients, it is necessary to think of ways to solve the problems that have emerged in the world. Pets which are humans’ friends can not only enrich our lives, but also play a very important role in the treatment of mental illnesses. According to Moratti and Francesca’s article, “ Pet therapy is efficient in improving depressive symptoms and cognitive function in residents of long term care facilities with mental illness” (Moratti.Francesca et,al.125). That means that a person can use pet therapy to avoid mental illnesses without taking drugs. Pet therapy can be a good approach to people’s health.
Pet Therapy has been used in treating people’s mental diseases especially in Alzheimer’s disease for many years. This is a common and high incidence of disease in the elder group. Some drugs can alleviate it, but they have serious side effects. And then some medical researchers finally found a good way to solve this problem through recent research, which is pet therapy. According to Margaret Sheppard, Mason, Damon and May concluded pets’ impact on Alzheimer’s patients in 1986, the dogs and their owners made some presentations and put on performances to these patients. Before the treatment, the patients were self-closing and taciturn, and now they like talking to others and often beamed to people (16). This shows that some mental disease cannot be treated using specific drugs, but they can be solved by pets without bad side effects. In addition, cancer is a difficult disease to cure. Patients having cancer always suffer from both physical and psychological pain. Pet Therapy is still helpful in alleviating the pain of cancer patients. According to Rebecca A. Johnson et al , cancer patients often feel upset and lose control. There was as high as 70% of the psychological problems. Some researchers found that the pain of cancer patients was reduced through the treatment of Animal-Assisted Activity, the pain of cancer patients has reduced (225-226).Pet Therapy is a simple and easy way to deal with the psychological disease of cancer patients. Their bodies may be much better because of the ease of mood. People should attach importance to this natural treatment, which may change the fate of many patients.
Pet therapy can also reduce our life pressure. Nowadays the social competition is fierce, more and more people have huge psychological stress, which can cause mental illness. So we must pay attention to that. According to Chesika, Crump’s article, the researchers found that the animals especially cats and dogs as pets. They are effective in alleviating human psychological stress. At the end of the experiment, the volunteers had the less stress than other groups (579-590). This means that the pet owner may feel more relaxed. Besides, The family which keep pet always get along with each other better. In a research of social interaction schemed in the daily life of couples Allen, it is concluded that people with pets are getting along with more harmonious. Because they can often pour out their unpleasant emotions to their pet, which will make people feel satisfied with their life (Walsh par. 14). It is necessary to reduce mental pressure, because some mental illness like depression are all caused by it. Pet therapy can be a easy way to avoid suffer from these problems. People are supposed to do more research to make pet therapy used in more ways.
In addition to psychological disease, we also need pay attention to the psychological problems. Children who lost their parents in their childhood or encountered violent events tend to have the shadow in their hearts, which will have a negative impact on their growth in the future. They may feel that the world is unfair and hate the people around them.They may become selfish and mainly care about themselves. Pets which are people’ good friends can help solve this difficult problem. “Taking care of an animal reminds you that all humans and animals have needs that may eclipse your own, and you’re able to see things from others’ point of view. That helps you become more caring and compassionate,” says Niven.( Esther par.5). Keeping pets is a good way for children to teach themselves to be kind to people around them, and thus it will reduce the juvenile delinquency. Pets can also prevent the old people from feeling lonely. Because children are busy, or widowed, some old people may feel very lonely, which may cause some mental illness and reduce people’s life expectancy. It is a good choice for the old people to keep pets. Because of various reasons, the old people will lose a lot of good friends, but they are hard to make new friends（The Health Benefits of Dogs and Cats par.13-15). Having a pet will make the old have a happy ending of their lives. Pets can play a very important role in people’s lives. They can’t talk but they can understand our feelings. Pet Therapy makes people’s life more beautiful and makes them` feel warmer.
Pet therapy not only has a good effect on mental illness, but also have a vital impact on physical illnesses. In medical field, people more than 65 years old are easy to suffer from high blood pressure. Long-term use of antihypertensive drugs will have various bad side
effects, so people should reduce the use of drugs which can control high blood pressure. Pet Therapy could be one of good methods to solve the problem. According to Fensternaker, Tia’s study of the relationship between animal assisted therapy (AAT) and physiologic effects on the patient shows us that AAT can control the blood pressure effectively (15). The use of AAT can reduce the negative effect of antihypertensive drugs on people’s body. In addition, Pet Therapy can also help people lower heart disease risk. Dr.Glenn Levine found that dogs or cats could lower the risk of heart disease by helping people do more body exercises because it can increase people’s anti-street hormones.(Alexandra par.3). Since heart disease is a very dangerous disease, the widely use of pet therapy would be good news for people. More and more people are now in a state of sub-health, which are caused by unhealthy life styles. It is obvious that Pet Therapy increasingly benefits people’s life.
As we can see, people now spend a lot of time indoors than before, which cause more people to be obesity. That is not just a question of figure, it will also affect our health. According to Jeanie,L,Davis’s article, being fat can cause many healthy problems, hurts people’s heart, ups males hormones, ruins sleep, wrecks hips and knees. Losing weight is a lifesaver (par.1-9). If people don’t like to go to the gym and want to lose weight, keeping a pet will be a good choice. If you have pets, especially dogs, you have to walk it everyday, you will slowly find that your obesity problem has been eased to a certain through a simple walk. “Dog owners walk 79 percent farther each day than people who don’t have a dog,” says David Niven, Ph.D. (Esther par.2). Besides, pets can also help blind people. People can often see the guide dogs help people, but the dogs should be trained before they can be guild dogs. Diamond,A said :“ As with guide dog for the blind, each animal is tested to ensure it has the right temperament for pet therapy” (28). It is easily seen that becoming a member of pet therapy isn’t an easy thing, and Pet Therapy is a very formal way to help people solve their health problems. Generally, if people are sick, they should try to find a new way instead of taking drugs at once. If people have Physical defect, they should not give up their body because the pets may help.
However, some critics argue that the Pet Therapy for the treatment of the disease does not have a good effect, and it cannot replace the use of drugs. It means spending time on doing Pet Therapy research is useless. Researchers found that quite a lot AAT studies are defective. There is little evidence that the improvements seen in animal studies are due to the presence of animals (Hal Herzog Ph.D. pars.6-7). It shows that the patient’s condition is not improved by use of pet therapy. Hal Herzog Ph.D. says: “children who were highly attached to the therapy horses had higher levels of depression and anxiety. But the study was never published” (par.12). That means people can always see the successful examples of Pet Therapy and can easily find the patients’ data in those treatments, but some examples of failure are not mentioned at all. It cannot be concluded that Pet Therapy is useful because of some seemingly successful examples. As a result, people should not stop taking medicine when they are sick.
It may be true that Pet Therapy cannot substitute medicine and sometimes even do harm to people’s health. However most drugs are also harmful to the human body. Approximately 4.5 million people in America are affected by drug side effects and have to go to the hospital or even be sent to the emergency room (Prescription Drug Side Effects par.2). It means drugs have more bad effects than Pet Therapy. Experts say, more and more people are keeping pets for mental health, and these pets are professionally trained (Elizabeth Landau par.5). This shows that pet therapy is a safe and effective treatment. More and more people choose to use animal therapy instead of taking medicine, especially for some psychological diseases. All in all, Pet Therapy is more advantageous than using drugs in some diseases.
Everything has two sides. Pet Therapy is not perfect, and does not cure people immediately compare with drugs. Pet Therapy, which is a natural treatment , has great value to do more research on it.