Emotional support animals are wonderful companions that help their owners overcome feelings of fear, anxiety, and panic. These animals can be grounding for their owners, and they are often a very important part of a treatment plan when someone is dealing with anxiety and needs extra animal support.
Let’s say you are considering adding an emotional support animal for anxiety into your treatment plan. If that’s the case, then it’s important to understand the exact benefits that an ESA can bring to your life, how to get a valid ESA, and which considerations to keep in mind when choosing your emotional support animal for anxiety.
Our article tells you more about ESAs for anxiety and answers your important questions about these companion animals.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal?
An emotional support animal is any companion animal that is prescribed to help an individual deal with the symptoms of a specific disability or mental health condition. Emotional support animals can be any type of animal, including cats, dogs, fish, rabbits, and reptiles, and the presence and comfort they bring are the benefits that they add to an individual’s life.
Your emotional support animal does not need to be trained, but if they can be trained, this helps. After all, well-behaved emotional support animals tend to get along better at home and in public. Your ESA will be granted federally protected housing rights, as this allows individuals in need to live alongside their emotional support animal without paying any extra fees or adhering to any specific housing complex rules about pets and breed restrictions.
All emotional support animals must be prescribed to the owner through a mental healthcare professional or a doctor licensed in the state where the individual intends to live with their ESA.
Do Emotional Support Animals Really Help Anxiety?
Emotional support animals are companionship and comfort animals, and there may be some controversy about whether or not these support animals can actually help individuals deal with anxiety. Fortunately, there are many studies that show that ESAs bring significant relief and benefits to individuals with mental health conditions, and these animals do not need to be trained in any way to help their owners deal with anxiety feelings.
An emotional support animal can help their owner manage anxiety by providing comfort and companionship when their owner is feeling anxious, by grounding them during moments of panic, and by giving them a sense of routine as they care for their animal. Many times, an emotional support animal such as a dog will give the owner a way to get out and about in public, providing them comfort while they do so.
Should I Get an ESA or a Service Animal?
Deciding between an emotional support animal and a service animal can be difficult, as both of these companion animals can be highly beneficial to those with disabilities or certain mental health conditions. However, there is a major difference between ESAs and service animals that you must keep in mind when deciding between these two.
Emotional support animals are considered to be companion animals, and they are generally left at home; they do not accompany individuals out in public unless the owner is going to a pet-friendly space that can accommodate their specific type of ESA. On the other hand, service animals are usually dogs, and they are specifically trained to complete tasks for an individual.
For example, an individual with anxiety may have trouble remembering to take their medication, which their service animal can remind them to do. They may also have a fear of crowds, and their service animal can act as a buffer between the owner and others, or they can guide them to a safe, calm place in the instance of a panic attack.
If you think that you would benefit from more help throughout the day, then a service animal that is trained to complete tasks for you is a better choice. If you only need comfort and support from an animal to help you overcome anxious feelings and negative emotions, then an ESA is a better choice.
Emotional Support Animal for Anxiety: Considerations to Keep in Mind
When you want to add an emotional support animal for anxiety into your treatment plan, it’s important to keep the following considerations in mind. These factors can help you decide if an ESA for anxiety is right for you and the type of animal that you would benefit from having in your care.
Type of Animal
Choosing the type of animal that you would like as your ESA is a very important consideration and the first step in determining if an emotional support animal is right for you. You must have an animal in mind or a pet that you wish to register as an ESA with your doctor or therapist before starting this process.
Most individuals will choose dogs or cats as their ESA, as these animals are the easiest to care for; they are also easy to adopt and easy to live with in any area of housing. However, emotional support animals can be any type of animal, and you may benefit from a rabbit, bird, or reptile as your ESA.
Housing Rights
Understanding your housing rights is vital as you add an emotional support animal to your treatment plan. You have federal and state-level protections that allow you to live with ESA, and these rights are only granted after your emotional support animal is prescribed to you by your doctor or therapist. Speak with your provider to learn more about your ESA rights.
Your Treatment Plan
Taking your treatment plan into account is just as essential as choosing the right kind of animal to help you with your anxiety. Your treatment plan may be more extensive, or it may require a certain combination of medications and therapies. You will want an animal that can support your treatment and one that you can physically and financially care for; your ESA should be an addition to your treatment plan, not a challenge to deal with as you manage your condition.
How Do I Make Sure My Emotional Support Animal Is Valid?
Making sure your emotional support animal is valid requires that you meet with a mental healthcare provider licensed in your state or a medical doctor. Only your provider can evaluate your need for an ESA and your ability to care for one, in addition to determining if an emotional support animal is the right addition to your treatment plan.
In some states, you may need a relationship with your provider of at least 30 days before they are able to write you an emotional support animal letter; this is done to decrease fraud when it comes to ESAs and to ensure that your emotional support animal is a valid part of your treatment plan.
Once your provider approves your ESA and you meet all state emotional support animal requirements, they will write you an ESA letter stating your need. This letter is all you need for your emotional support animal to be valid, and you can show it to landlords in order to request your ESA accommodations.
What Are My Protected ESA Rights?
When you have a valid ESA, you are able to benefit from select federally protected rights that ensure you can keep your emotional support animal at your side. The main regulation that protects ESAs is the Fair Housing Act. This act allows individuals who need ESAs to live alongside their animal in any area of housing, regardless of the type of animal, pet restrictions in the housing, or city-wide breed restrictions.
Additionally, since an emotional support animal is necessary to help an individual deal with the symptoms of their disability or mental health condition, the Fair Housing Act states that owners with an ESA should not be charged additional pet rent, pet security deposits, or pet fees. That being said, if your emotional support animal is destructive to a property, you will be asked to pay for the damages caused.
Can My Emotional Support Animal for Anxiety Be Denied?
It is possible for your emotional support animal for anxiety to be denied, but this typically does not happen unless your accommodations request is not reasonable for the housing unit you are trying to live in or if your ESA is too aggressive and dangerous to others.
In general, your emotional support animal must be approved if you can comfortably live with them and care for them in your housing unit. Your landlord may legally deny your ESA if there is not enough room in the housing unit to care for the animal, such as living with two large ESAs in a studio apartment, and there are no larger units available.
If you try to live with an exotic animal as your ESA, your landlord may deny this, as it would be unreasonable to try and care for them in a regular apartment home; requesting that a miniature horse or exotic reptile is accommodated, for example, is likely to be denied.
Finally, if your emotional support animal is aggressive, out of control, dangerous, or causing significant destruction to property, they may be denied by your landlord or property manager. It’s important to train your ESA when possible and always ensure you are monitoring their behavior for the safety of others and the safety of your ESA.
Am I Legally Required to Register My ESA?
You are not legally required to register your ESA in the sense that you need to get certifications and identification paperwork. However, if you want your emotional support animal to be valid and able to take advantage of federally protected housing rights, you will need an official emotional support animal letter written by your therapist or doctor.
Only an official ESA letter written by your provider will allow you to secure your emotional support animal rights, and you should take care not to print a templated letter off of the internet or simply buy an ESA letter that your therapist has not prescribed. ESA letters that are not written by your provider will not count, and you will not have ESA rights when using these letters.
Managing Your Anxiety With an ESA
Emotional support animals have the power to help comfort, support, and provide valuable companionship to those in need. If you are dealing with anxiety in your daily life, the addition of an emotional support animal can help you better overcome your symptoms and provide you with the support you need throughout the day.
Speak to your doctor or a mental healthcare provider licensed in your state to learn more about how an emotional support animal can help with your anxiety and start the approval process for adding a valid ESA to your treatment plan.