Do cats help with anxiety and depression?

You may or may not know that September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Mom has a blog about Suicide Prevention. While she doesn't want to busy up my blog about the topic, she did want to explore one question here since it is Suicide Prevention Month. The question is: Do cats help with anxiety and depression?  Why would mom ask that question? You might be surprised how many people struggle with anxiety or depression or both. I bet you know someone who has at one time struggled or may be struggling now with anxiety or depression....

Mom has struggled a bit with depression since our fires in 2012. She's not alone. Millions of Americans suffer from anxiety disorders or depression and sometimes both. Mom started seeing a therapist a few years ago and still sees her regularly. Her therapist says she has "situational depression" caused by the fires. Mom still occasionally has nightmares about fire. While they are few and far in between now, they are still scary when she has them. I used to cuddle with mom at night. Now that I am gone to the Rainbow Bridge I am not there to cuddle and comfort mom when she is feeling down or experiences a nightmare. That brings me to the question.... do cats help relieve depression and anxiety in their humans? Yes! At least I think we do and here's why:

Pets offer unconditional love and acceptance. We cats can help our humans by providing our unconditional love. We love our humans dearly and they love us back. It's a wonderful, uncomplicated love that we look forward to every time our human comes home and that we miss when they are away. Kitty love is purrfect to cure our humans of pain.

Pets offer a soothing presence. Research has shown that pet parents have significantly lower blood pressure and muscle tension than humans that don't have cats or dogs at home.

Pets provide a sense of responsibility. This can be a negative as sometimes just getting out of bed can seem like a chore for someone struggling with depression. However, feeling responsible for something (like the happiness/wellbeing of a furkid) will give your human purpose, which really helps in times of struggle.

Pets provide a distraction. Pets, whether us cats or those annoying doggies, are like riveting movies and books. We take humans out of their heads and into another reality for a few minutes or more - one that involves food, water, afffection, and maybe a head butt or 2 - for as long as we allow. Distraction is an effective therapy for your human. How can they feel bad or sad when you are head butting them or purring in their lap? Us pets trigger "feel good" hormones for our humans which helps them feel less stressed and happier than if we weren't there for them. Depression can sometimes cause humans to feel isolated. We help keep them from completely isolating by being there for them when maybe other humans aren't there to help.

Pets alter human behavior. Imagine this scenario: Our human walks through the door after a long day at work. A million little snafus happened throughout the day that we don't know about but has our human dangerously close to wanting to take it out on someone. We come running to the door and get tangled up in our humans legs, nearly causing her to fall. She kneels to pet us and a smile spreads across her face. Viola! We have altered our humans behavior. Now of course she doesn't know it's because we are hungry and that we are tripping her because our real motive is to get her to feed us. That's our secret! :)

Pets promote touch.  The healing power of touch is undisputed. Research has shown that a 45 minute massage can help our human decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol and optimize their immune system by building white blood cells. Hugging floods the human body with oxytocin, a hormone that reduces stress, and lowers blood pressure and heart rates. It's not surprising then that petting a kitty or doggie can reduce our humans blood pressure and heart rate as well as boost their hormone levels. It's so hard watching from the Rainbow Bridge knowing I can't snuggle with mom and she can't pet me. I loved my couch time with mom! Sisfur Mia loves to hug mom. It's so funny to see her wrap her paws around mom's neck. I wonder if Mia is hugging her or trying to strangle her? Hmm....

Cats (and doggies) have so many health benefits for humans. Since I can't be there for mom I am glad she has Sisfur Mia and Brofur Mosby there to take care of her! They better behave as I am watching over them! Sisfur Mia likes to hug mom and Brofur Mosby likes to hang out on the couch with mom. It does my heart good to see my fursibs being affectionate with mom.

Anxiety, depressiona and suicide prevention are serious topics. If you read this far, thank you! And because today's topic was such a serious one, I want to end this blog post with a funny....

Take care pals (and take care of your humans)!

Love,
Angel CJ

Mom's on a mission!

*Editor's note: Mom had to defer her marathon to next year due to injury. She still plans to raise awareness for suicide prevention, it just won't be associated with the Marine Corps Marathon this year and that's why the widget is no longer on the sidebar. Thank you to everyone who visited the campaign and provided support! 

I know this isn't kitty related but mom's on a mission and I want to help her get the word out. If you know my mom, you know she volunteers at Wayside Waifs helping other kitties and doggies find their forever home. She even adopted sisfur Mia from Wayside. What you may not know about mom is that she also volunteers for the Red Cross to help others affected by disasters. She actually started volunteering at the Red Cross before our devastating fire and because of what we went through will likely be a lifelong Red Cross volunteer. We got a lot of help after our fire and mom believes in paying it forward. Many of you helped us after our fire and we are so grateful! I am glad mom does what she does to pay it forward. And as if she isn't busy enough, she has a new mission!

On October 25, 2015 mom will be running the Marine Corps Marathon to raise awareness and funds for Suicide Prevention for First Responders. The funds will go directly to support the groundbreaking collaboration of The Sweeney Alliance and Rethink The Conversation to develop national programs to educate first responders about suicide prevention and coping with the aftermath of a suicide.

People don’t want to talk about suicide because of the stigma associated with it. It’s time to start a conversation worth having. So many people struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental health issues but because of the stigma associated with mental health many people don't reach out for help. It's even harder for the helpers - those men and women that work in Fire, Emergency Medical Services and Law Enforcement - to ask for help. They are the helpers, who are they supposed to ask for help?

Why does mom want to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention for the helpers? You can go to her GoFundMe page to read the full story. The short answer is because she was deeply affected by the loss of 2 friends last year to suicide. You can read about one of those friends (Nico) on her GoFundMe page. He was a firefighter who lost his wife to suicide nearly a year earlier. He was deeply affected by her loss and the stress may have been too much for him to handle. First Responders see a lot in their careers but they are human too. They feel emotions that can affect them at work and also at home. They need to be able to ask for help and know that help is available. 

This is a cause that has mom's heart. She hopes it will have yours too! Will you visit her fundraising page and help? If you can help financially or even share the campaign with others mom would appreciate it!  Thanks pals! 

Here is the page:  http://www.gofundme.com/suicidehelp  and mom put the widget to the side of this blog for easy access too.