I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP

Newsflash: pets are the new therapists.

A SURE SIGN THAT MILLENNIALS are bucking the stigma of mental health is the current popularity of emotional support animals (ESAS). More than just your average pet, an ESA (often a dog or cat, but possibly a chicken, rabbit or, yes, even a pig) helps their owner cope with 2019-grade stress and anxiety.

There’s singer Ariana Grande, who, when faced with criticism of her new companion, a pig named Piggy Smalls, tweeted: “SHE’S AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT PIG I NEED HER.” Then there’s Lena Dunham and her “happy zoo”. “I’m the kind of anxious that makes you like, ‘I’m not going to be able to come out tonight, tomorrow night or maybe for the next 67 nights,’” she has said of her paralysing anxiety disorder. After a series of medical issues — including a hysterectomy, in 2017, at the age of 31, and the removal of her left ovary a year later — she added three Sphynx cats, Candy, Irma and Loulou, to her collection of pets.

It’s not surprising that the popularity of ESAS is on the rise. Emotional support animals have been known to assist people who suffer from severe depression, generalised anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and many other serious conditions on the spectrum of mental illness. According to the Black Dog Institute, one in five Australians experience a mental illness in any year, and half of us will experience a mental illness in our lifetime. As anyone who’s been triggered by the horrors on their newsfeed can attest, we’re living in tumultuous times.

ESAS are fast becoming mainstream. Last year, Townsville Airport teamed up with local organisation Sensitive Companions to bring a therapy dog into the terminal to help soothe anxious travellers. Therapy dogs are also popping up in hospitals, courtrooms and schools. The trend is booming in the US, where airlines noted that between 2016 and 2017, there was a more than 50 per cent increase in the number of passengers flying with their own ESAS. Stories, like that of a woman travelling with her duck (dressed in red shoes and a Captain America nappy), are raising awareness of ESAS, while breaking down the taboo of mental illness.

Why are so many people turning to animals for the extra support they need? Melanie Jones, a psychologist at Lead The Way, a Melbourne-based animalassisted therapy organisation, says the reason is more of us are living in isolation. “There is a rise in single-person households and many people are delaying parenthood. Psychologically, animals are meeting our basic need for attachment and connection. They’re providing people with a reason to live, in some cases.”

As yet, not much research has been done into the benefits of ESAS, but several studies have detailed the perks of spending time with pets. “People feel happier, calmer, more trusting and less stressed,” explains Jones. When it comes to finding the right animal for the job, she says it’s a very individual process: “Many people have found their ESA by accident.” This was the case for Dunham and Bowie, a Yorkshire Terrier she inherited from a friend. When Bowie died last year, Dunham took to Instagram to pay tribute, writing “[Bowie] made me feel safe and strong in a sea of change and reminded me that joy needn’t be diminished by a bunch o’ imperfect body parts.”

The law in Australia doesn’t yet recognise ESAS (they’re considered pets, unlike assistance dogs, which are medical aids). However, you can ask a GP or mental health professional to document the role your animal plays in your life, which can prove useful if you want to bring your ESA to a public place or if your landlord doesn’t allow pets. Of course, if you want to take to the skies, you’ll need to check with the airline first, and if your ESA is a duck, squirrel or miniature horse, be ready to field a lot of requests for #animalselfies from fellow passengers. E

“Animals are meeting our basic need for attachment and connection”