Animal Assisted Therapy: How Animals Assist in the Recovery Process

Everyday humans seem to be finding a new way to get addicted to new substances and every year you see some new addicting condition come up. Luckily, we live in an era of scientific advancements, and scientific researchers are working hard day and night to come up with new and effective ways to treat addiction.

One such way that we will discuss here is the use of Animals and Animal Assisted Therapy in helping addicts recover from their problem. Animal Assisted therapy is relatively a new concept and only began to surface some 100 years ago with the development in the field of psychology. However, in this article, we will discuss that whether or not Animal Assisted therapy is effective or not.

How Does Animal Assisted Therapy Work?

We will evaluate the effectiveness of this therapy by seeing if it has proven benefits or not. Thankfully, it does have benefits, and they are as follows.

Firstly, research has shown that humans respond much more to animals and women do form an emotional bond with animals. Thus, they participate actively in the treatment process and take the initiative.

AAT has also been associated with the development and improvement of the social skills of an individual. The relationship formed with the animal translates into a good relationship with fellow humans.

AAT has been linked with improving the social esteem and boost the self-confidence of an individual which is the key to the road to recovery and treatment of addiction.

Animal Assisted theory has also been strongly linked to reducing stress, and clinical trials have shown that the reduced activity in the adrenal cortex area is the biological factor that causes this. This, in turn, reduces adrenaline and lowers stress which helps in improving the overall mood and boosting the self-esteem.

Many women have difficulty telling and opening up their problems to humans. But, the same is not applicable to animals as studies have shown that with an animal around patients tend to respond more positively to questions and treatment.

In the end, I would conclude by saying that the evidence so far conducted from various clinical trials suggests that animal-assisted therapy is indeed effective and does work. However, the studies conducted have not been enough to generalize the result and still much more research needs to be done to come to a conclusion.