Any RA at West Virginia Wesleyan College can tell you that there’s recently been a huge influx of animals on campus. What are these animals doing here? Well, many of them are Emotional Support Animals, a legitimate occupation for cats, dogs or any animal that can provide support.
What exactly is an ESA though? According to Michigan State’s Animal Legal and Historical Center, an ESA is “a companion animal that provides therapeutic benefit to an individual with a mental or psychiatric disability.” This typically means those people with severe depression or anxiety. The ESA is an animal that will help the person with the mental or psychiatric disability cope in an alternate way, as compared to medication or other coping mechanisms. For instance, for people with severe or moderate anxiety, petting the animal can be a grounding technique to stave off a panic attack. An ESA could also be the difference between a depressed person getting out of bed that day or starting the vicious cycle of missing classes.
In the fall of 2016, when I was trying to find ways to help with my anxiety, my counsellor and I talked about perhaps getting an ESA. There were days were I was so anxious I couldn’t eat. I had trouble digging myself out of the pit that was my PDD (Persistent Depressive Disorder), and my memory was so bad that I was losing track of when or if I had taken my medicine last. Honestly, I was in a rough patch.
However, at that time I was still wary of asking my parents if I could bring another animal in the home and I had no idea where to start in terms of getting permission from Campus Life. It was really more an option than a real plan, and I pushed it to the side. Besides, at that time I still lived with a roommate, and I wasn’t lonely.
January of this year really changed things. My meds stopped helping me, and my roommate went home to South Korea. My depression hit me with a vengeance, recovering after the brief pause because of returning home for Christmas Break. So, the option of an ESA became more of a plan, along with changing my meds. Unfortunately, by the time I made this plan with my counsellor, something had happened at WVWC.
The idea of getting an ESA apparently spread like wildfire once it got out that it was a possibility. Now, I need to write a disclaimer! I have NO PROBLEM with someone who has a mental, physical or psychiatric disability getting an ESA. The rest of this article is pointed at the people who have decided that an ESA is just a way for them to cheat the system and get a pet. People who have legitimate disabilities have every right to own an ESA, especially if that helps you cope.
Unfortunately, for many people, this is not the case. I understand missing your pet from home- we’re college students who are homesick, and pets are part of “home”- but I don’t understand faking a mental illness in order to bring your pet to school. I’ve overheard people say that they had their family doctor or family member who’s a psychologist just fill out the paperwork for them. They admit and everything that they don’t have a legitimate reason other than just wanting a pet. They don’t have anxiety. They don’t have depression.
Please, for the love of God, stop.
When you fake a mental illness just to reap the few benefits that those who actually suffer from mental illness get, you cast a shadow of doubt over every other person who asks for that benefit. I had people roll their eyes or treat me with distrust when I started the process because they didn’t believe that I suffered from mental illness. (I have for about six years now, but whatever.) Why? Because they know that people are just getting swept up in the idea of owning an animal.
My coping mechanism is not a fad. My ESA (a cat named Kimmie) encourages me to get out of bed so I can feed her. If I’m feeling anxious, I sit on the floor and just pet her. (Petting an animal had been proven to slow heartrate and lower blood pressure.) In the early stages of a panic attack, having something that will lower my heartrate naturally (AKA without medication) is amazing, especially if I still need to do something for the rest of the day. Many anti-anxiety medicines will make you groggy or sluggish, and having the motivation to do anything for the rest of the day is hard.
Also, she helps me remember to take my meds. Kimmie has a minor eye infection, which I medicate twice a day. At twelve-thirty, when I put on Kimmie’s medicine, I make sure I turn around to my desk and take my own. I can’t tell you how often I’ve smiled the last few days just knowing that when I went back to my room I wouldn’t go back to an empty dorm and spiral into a night of self-depreciating thoughts. She makes me calmer just having, as my counsellor says, “another heartbeat” in the room. When I get lonely, I start to stew, and when I start to stew, it gets really bad really quick. Now, instead of stewing, I love on Kimmie a bit, petting her or just telling her about my day.
So, please, students at WVWC, when you hear the words “Emotional Support Animal” and start to think that it’s an easy way to just have a dog, don’t. Just stop. Because it’s not. It’s one of the few tools that I have to combat my mental illness. If you want a dog so badly, commute. Pay the extra money to commute. Or- wacky idea- you could do like most college kids who miss their pets, wait until you go home and love on your animals. Stop making people with mental illness look bad by lying and casting doubts over all of us.