ABSTRACT

Contact with animals has been increasingly recognized as being beneficial to mental health and wellbeing due to their therapeutic function, with “animal-assisted therapies” gaining in popularity. There is less research exploring how companion animals within the home impact upon mental health and wellbeing. This qualitative study explores people’s experiences of the role of their pets in reducing or exacerbating their mental health symptomology and general wellbeing. One hundred and nineteen adults, 41 with a diagnosed mental health condition, and 70 recently struggling with their mental health, completed an online survey with open and closed questions to explore their experiences of their pets and mental health. Through thematic analysis, seven key themes were identified. Six themes encompassed benefits of pets; increased hedonic tone; increased motivation and behavioral activation; reduced anxiety symptoms and panic attacks; increased social connections and reduced loneliness; reduced risk behaviors; and coping and aiding the recovery process. One theme encompassed negative impacts: increased negative feelings and emotional strain. Notably, pets reduced urges of self-harm, and prevented onsets of panic attacks and suicide attempts. Both direct mechanisms (e.g., lowering physiological anxiety through physical touch) and indirect mechanisms (e.g., elevating mood through humor, increased mindfulness and disrupting rumination) were identified. These findings encapsulate the complex roles that pets can play in people’s mental health and wellbeing, and highlights that even when the human–pet relationship is regarded positively, pets cannot “treat” mental health difficulties, and should not be viewed as such. Mental health practitioners should be aware and considerate of the importance of pets in people’s lives as well as individual differences in the potential capability of pets to both reduce or exacerbate mental health symptomology and overall wellbeing.

摘要

由于动物的治疗功能，与动物的接触越来越被认为有益于心理健康和福祉，“动物辅助疗法”越来越受欢迎。探索家庭中的伴侣动物如何影响心理健康和福祉的研究较少。这项定性研究探讨了人们对宠物在减少或加剧其心理健康症状和总体幸福感方面的作用的体验。119 名成年人，其中 41 名被诊断出患有心理健康问题，70 名最近在心理健康方面苦苦挣扎，他们完成了一项包含开放式和封闭式问题的在线调查，以探索他们对宠物和心理健康的体验。通过专题分析，确定了七个关键主题。六个主题包括宠物的好处；增加享乐基调；增加动机和行为激活；减少焦虑症状和惊恐发作；增加社交联系并减少孤独感；减少危险行为；以及应对和协助恢复过程。一个主题包含负面影响：增加负面情绪和情绪压力。值得注意的是，宠物减少了自残的冲动，并防止了惊恐发作和自杀企图的发生。确定了直接机制（例如，通过身体接触降低生理焦虑）和间接机制（例如，通过幽默提升情绪、增加正念和破坏沉思）。这些发现概括了宠物在人们心理健康和福祉中可以发挥的复杂作用，并强调即使人与宠物的关系被积极看待，宠物也无法“治疗”心理健康问题，并且不应被视为这样。心理健康从业者应该意识到并考虑宠物在人们生活中的重要性，以及宠物减少或加剧心理健康症状和整体健康的潜在能力的个体差异。