Emotional support animals (ESAs) are some of the most beloved companion animals around due to their ability to provide comfort, support, and love with their presence alone. Your emotional support animal can be a very valid and helpful part of your treatment plan, and many people can qualify for the addition of an ESA into their lives. It’s important to discuss this with your mental healthcare provider or a doctor, as your provider will have the final say on whether or not you qualify for an ESA.
Our article discusses emotional support animals, including giving you information on which disabilities might qualify for an ESA and what your rights are once you have a valid emotional support animal in your treatment plan.
What Is an Emotional Support Animal?
An emotional support animal is a companion animal that provides support, love, and comfort to an individual with a qualifying disability or mental health condition. These animals can be any breed or animal that brings the owner comfort, though most owners will opt for their ESA to be a cat or a dog, as these are the most accessible animals and easiest to take care of.
Emotional support animals are not trained and do not need to perform disability-related tasks for their owners. Instead, the presence of an ESA and the routine of caring for them typically help the owner better navigate negative feelings, difficult situations, and other symptoms related to a disability or mental health condition.
You can have more than one emotional support animal as well, though each ESA you do have needs to be valid and provide comfort for a specific part of your disability. For example, you could have an ESA dog that helps you get out and be more social while also having an ESA cat that provides cuddles and comfort when you are dealing with stress or depression.
Are Emotional Support Animals the Same as Service Animals?
Emotional support animals are not the same as service animals, and they have different rights under federal and state law. Service animals are specifically trained to help individuals with tasks related to their disabilities. For example, they might be trained to alert their owners to drops in blood pressure or blood sugar or to help guide someone who is visually impaired.
On the other hand, emotional support animals provide their main support through companionship and comfort. Your ESA can be trained, and they should be generally well-behaved, but they are not required to perform specific tasks for you.
Service animals have more wide-reaching public access rights due to this difference, and you can expect a service animal to be able to accompany you into more public places like restaurants and businesses than an ESA would be able to.
When Do You Need a Service Animal?
You can benefit from a service animal instead of an emotional support animal in instances where your disability or mental health condition is directly impacting your life and affecting your ability to complete your daily tasks or live without significant stress. Service animals are directly trained to help you go about your day and complete tasks you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to without their help.
For example, if you have depression but you can still go about your day, an emotional support animal is the perfect choice for supporting you, giving you a routine, and helping to chase away negative emotions.
However, if you have depression and you cannot go about your day as normal, you have difficulty taking medications, and you are often overwhelmed by negative emotions to the point of self-destructive behavior, a service animal might be a better choice. In this case, a service animal could bring you your medications, interrupt self-harming behaviors, and provide you with the support you need to go about your daily life.
Your doctor or mental health provider can help you understand the difference between these two types of companion animals and determine which best suits your needs.
What Tasks Does an Emotional Support Animal Perform?
While emotional support animals do not perform tasks in the same way that a service animal would, they can still be an important presence in your life. Your ESA will provide you with comfort and support with their existence and the routine that caring for them brings.
For instance, if you have trouble getting out in public, but you know that doing so would make you feel better, caring for a dog with outdoor exercise needs can help you to achieve your goal and relieve some of the symptoms of your disability or mental health condition.
Many emotional support animals are also fairly empathetic, and they form strong bonds with their owners. Studies have shown that simply interacting with your animal and caring for them can increase happiness, chase away stress, and decrease the intensity of negative emotions. For individuals who may need this extra support and comfort, emotional support animals are the perfect addition to their treatment plan.
What Disabilities Qualify for an Emotional Support Animal?
Emotional support animals can provide companionship and comfort to many different individuals, regardless of the type of disability or mental health condition the individual is dealing with. That being said, there are some disabilities and mental health conditions that benefit more than others from the support of an emotional support animal.
Disabilities that can potentially qualify for an ESA include:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Chronic stress
- Autism
- Learning disorders
- PTSD
- OCD
- Bipolar disorder
- Eating disorders
- Chronic pain disorders
- Certain phobias
Keep in mind that while an emotional support animal can help relieve certain symptoms of a disability, they should be part of a treatment plan prescribed by a doctor or mental healthcare provider.
Suppose your disability affects the way you live daily or you have trouble completing daily tasks due to your condition. In that case, you may need to speak to your provider about potentially adding a service dog to your treatment plan.
How Can I Get a Valid ESA?
If you want to add an emotional support animal to your treatment plan and take advantage of the main housing benefits of a valid ESA, you will need to speak to your mental healthcare provider or your doctor. Your provider can evaluate your disability or mental health condition and discuss the possibility of adding an emotional support animal to your treatment plan. In general, your provider will evaluate whether or not you can benefit from your ESA and if you can physically care for your support animal.
Once your provider has approved an emotional support animal, they will write a letter that states your need for an ESA along with details about your ESA and about their credentials as a mental health professional. They will sign this letter, and it will have an expiration date (the expiration date is typically one year from the date of issuing your ESA letter).
After you have your valid ESA letter, you can show the letter to landlords and property managers in order to request housing accommodations.
What Are My Emotional Support Animal Rights?
When it comes to your emotional support animal, you will have certain protected rights that allow you to live with your ESA and benefit from their companionship. The main federal law that protects your right to live with your ESA is the Fair Housing Act (FHA). This act prevents discrimination against individuals who may need to live with their emotional support animal, and it aims to make housing fair.
Under the FHA, individuals living with their ESAs cannot be charged additional pet rent, pet fees, or pet security deposits. ESAs are not subject to breed, size, or pet restrictions, which means that you can live with your emotional support animal even in a housing complex that does not typically allow animals.
Take note that you will need a valid ESA letter to ensure you receive these accommodations and live alongside your ESA without trouble.
Can My ESA Accommodations Be Denied?
Your ESA accommodations can be denied, though the chances of this happening are generally rare if you are requesting reasonable accommodations and your ESA is well-behaved. Typically, a landlord or property manager will only deny your ESA accommodations in the following circumstances:
- You are attempting to live with an ESA that cannot be cared for comfortably in your housing unit, such as bringing several large dogs to live with you in a small studio apartment.
- Your ESA is too exotic for a housing unit, such as a reptile, that needs an extensive tank set-up and specialized care; if your ESA is not legal in a specific state, it can be denied.
- Your ESA is aggressive, destructive, or causing serious issues around the property where you live, including threatening others and causing financial strain on the property owner.
Outside of these reasons, a landlord cannot typically deny your ESA accommodation request. However, you should make sure that you understand your rights before requesting accommodations and that your ESA is totally valid before starting the accommodation process.
Can I Take My Emotional Support Animal With Me In Public?
It is possible to take your emotional support animal with you in public, but you must keep in mind that your ESA will not have the same public access rights as a service animal. As we mentioned above, emotional support animals typically only have the protected right to live alongside you in any area of suitable housing. This means that you do not have the right protected by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to access businesses, restaurants, malls, and other private spaces with your ESA.
The only places you can take your emotional support animal in public are spaces that are designated as “pet friendly.” You should make sure, however, that the type of ESA you have qualifies as a pet and is permitted in these spaces. For example, many restaurants have pet-friendly patios that allow dogs, but they may not allow cats, rabbits, or snakes in these spaces.
Always check the rules and regulations of public spaces and understand your public access limitations with an ESA before bringing your companion animal with you in public.
Adopting an Emotional Support Animal
Adding an emotional support animal to your treatment plan doesn’t need to be the confusing and overwhelming task you might think. Many individuals qualify for emotional support animal help, and the first step to getting this process started is speaking with a mental healthcare provider licensed in your state.
Remember that you must be able to physically and financially care for your emotional support animal, as they are both a supportive companion animal and a beloved family member who is around to help you feel better in your daily life.
If you have any questions about adopting an emotional support animal or your suitability to add an ESA into your life, speak to your doctor or therapist as soon as possible.