Key Ways in Which Pets Help with Depression

 

Dr. Christie Mensch is an experienced psychiatrist who treats patients through the Wyandot Center in Kansas City. In this position, Dr. Christie Mensch helps patients with anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. Many people have had success combatting depression and its symptoms through pet therapy.

Pets have the power to improve mental health in a number of ways. First, pets provide unconditional acceptance, and they teach us that we are worthy of loving. In addition, pets provide a calming, consistent presence.

In many situations, pets directly alter human behavior. For example, imagine coming home annoyed, angry, or upset. When a pet shows excitement and wants immediate attention, we let go of those negative emotions.

A number of researchers have documented the healing power of touch. Pets provide a constant source of touch, and petting a cat or dog has been shown to lower blood pressure while also increasing dopamine and serotonin levels.

Finally, pets provide individuals with a sense of responsibility, which is key to promoting mental health. By having ownership of a task, such as taking care of a dog, you get a boost to your self-esteem.

Hypomania and Mania in the Bipolar Client

As a psychiatrist at the Wyandot Center in Kansas City, Kansas, Dr. Christie Mensch diagnoses and treats patients with a broad range of mental health concerns. Dr. Christie Mensch draws on experience in the treatment of many mood disorders, including Bipolar I and II.

From a clinical standpoint, the distinction between Bipolar I and Bipolar II disorders lies in the presentation of manic symptoms and in the consistency of mood symptoms. Bipolar I disorder, the more severe of the two conditions, features episodes of true mania. A manic episode presents as periods of heightened energy and racing thoughts, which can arise so quickly that the individual cannot keep up. A patient in a manic period may feel a decreased need for sleep, may talk too much or too fast, and can make destructively impulsive decisions.

The heightened mood of hypomania, as often seen in Bipolar II patients, is significantly less intense and may not appear abnormal to external observers. Someone with hypomania may also sleep less, talk more, and act in a slightly more impulsive manner, but their actions are typically not destructive or self-destructive. A person experiencing hypomania may feel energetic and motivated and, as a result, may not recognize the hypomanic period as a symptom of illness.

If this occurs, hypomania may not make its way into the patient’s file. This can lead to the misdiagnosis of Bipolar II disorder as simple depression, as the patient’s low moods are of far greater concern to them than the times when they feel good. For this reason, it is important for both clinicians and patients to closely examine mood differences and compare them to both individual baselines and diagnostic criteria.

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