How Exactly Our Dogs Have Helped Us Maintain a Good Mental Health during Covid 19 Pandemic?

2020 was a dark year for almost everybody globally; that's beyond doubt! Covid 19 pandemic brought in much uncertainty and stress in our lives, which adversely affected the our mental health. 

There has been many surveys and research programs conducted by several renowned institutions/ organizations to understand how dogs (or a cat or a horse...) impacted the mental health positively. The research outcome confirmed that presence of pets have had significant role in maintaining a psychological health during the most stressful times brought in by Covid 19 Pandemic. 

So exactly how the presence of a pet is helping humans to maintain mental health during Covid?

 

There are a few factors that need to be considered while figuring out how dogs and cats have improved the mental state during the stressful time. The social isolation had been one of the biggest reasons for depressions in humans, apart from joblessness, health uncertainty and economic instability. The want of social interactions was so rampant for some people that it bred depression, adversely contributing to their mental health. A pet provide immense support to fight depression by the way of being a companion - rather a dependent companion that have their needs, which keep their owners distracted from their loneliness.

During the covid phase doctors repeatedly advised to maintain physical activities keeping a social distance. It had been noticed that many humans that have restricted activities due to lockdown developed psychological depression, which in turn impacted their physical health too. In the surveys it was found that the pet owners (mostly the dog owners than the cat owners) had had some kind of constant physical activities despite being isolated during the lockdown. This kept them away from mental stress.  

It was thus found that having a pet helped the owners to maintain mental health by mitigating depression due to restrictions during covid lockdown.