What a beautiful time it is for mental health sufferers: individuals who seek emotional support and someone who needs assurance on a daily basis. They can access counseling, design a treatment plan, and talk to the nearest ones about the problems they are facing. If the same situation cropped up a few years ago, people would have shied away from taking medical help.
Gladly, the tables have turned and more and more people are coming forward to talk about mental health problems. It’s safe to say that most of them embrace the flaws and work upon their shortcomings.
In fact, once you take a closer look, you will find one in five people suffering from either anxiety or depression. Unfortunately, many of them search for a sign to carry on with their lives. While others simply give up without even trying.
Amidst this chaos, it is important to realize the importance of treatment methods available for patients who suffer from mental illness. For instance, emotional support animals. The latest group of pets who help mental health patients deal with the turmoil burgeoning within their minds.
However, these pets and their owners have faced a lot of backlash in the past few years. Due to which people with genuine problems have difficulties getting online emotional support animal letters. Not only this but some people go as far as sidelining the fact that pets can actually help these people. In other words, for them, emotional support animals are more than just furry best friends.
How ESAs Play Out in the Real World?
Let’s first understand why these pets are more than just your best friend. To be honest, the relationship between pets and humans is not new. The companionship dates back to World War-2 wherein dogs played a major role. Even now dogs play a major role. Be it emotional support or physical assistance.
The same goes for emotional support animals. They provide support and comfort to patients suffering from mental health disabilities. Perhaps why the ESA trend has skyrocketed in the past few years. The only problem, in this case, is those individuals who have managed to take advantage of the loophole. And by that I mean, the laws related to emotional support animals.
Largely, there are two laws related to emotional support animals: the Fair Housing Act and the Air Carrier Access Act. The Fair Housing Act allows ESA owners to rent decent accommodation without any discrimination. As for the second law, it has been recently changed, Which means ESA’s are no longer allowed to fly in-cabin. As an ESA owner, you will be required to pay a pet fee.
Rest assured, an ESA is regarded as one of the treatments that most people ex[eriment with. If you wish to officially certify your pet as an emotional support animal, all you have to do is get an ESA letter from a licensed mental health physician. Once you do that, you can officially tell people that you have an ESA that supports your condition. And always keep your ESA letter as a documented proof.
In addition to this, you have to keep in mind that people do not hold ESA’s in high regard. They have their suspicions about emotional support animals. In particular, those that cause discomfort to others. Overall, ESA’s do not play a respectful role in the eyes of some people.
ESA Is No Excuse
People think that while emotional support animals are someone else’s comfort, they are a cause of distress for others. Especially those who have faced an unpleasant episode. For instance, a dog bit an air attendant on the flight or a lady appearing with a peacock at the airport.
So, these are some of the examples that might make people think that an ESA is just an excuse for people to get away with the pet charges. As a result, they also end up believing in the concept of banning ESA’s. But little do they realize that genuine people suffer a lot because of these circumstances.
An emotional support dog or cat can actually help a mental health patient. If you don’t believe us, take a look around, and witness the ratio of emotional support animals out there. You will find an ESA owner suffering from anxiety, depressed women with an ESA cat, and a veteran with an ESA dog: these all have a special pet to help them cope with day-to-day problems. So, completely ignoring the need for an ESA because of one bad encounter is similar to ignoring the fact that mental health problems exist.
The ESA Solution
To be blatantly honest, banning ESA wouldn’t help anyone. Instead, people should start educating themselves on emotional support animals, their role, and the laws. Only then can we demolish the anti-ESA sentiment in our society.
Interestingly, the irony is that ESAs are nothing but pets. The only exception, in this case, is that they fall under a bracket of special animals so that the authorities can curb societal discrimination.
Wherein also comes the role of online emotional support animals letters. Sadly, there are so many fake ESA letters or ESA registration services out there that people have lost trust. And it’s not fair to blame them because some miscreants in our society do not like to play by the rules. So, they go out of their way to do things – a fake ESA letter is a fitting example.
In order to curb these activities in the bud, all genuine patients with different mental health problems should understand that getting an ESA letter from the right source is extremely crucial.
The right source is your mental health doctor. The counselor who provides weekly sessions, and a mental health professional with an active license and experience. The moment you reach out to this professional, the problem of getting fake online emotional support animal letters will eventually disappear.
Moreover, you have to recognize fake from real. So watch out for red flags like:
1. ESA letter provision without virtual screening,
2. Doctor’s license no. missing from the letter,
3. Payment information before qualification,
4. Absence of physical address of the clinic.
As soon as you watch out for these red flags the problems will eventually disappear.
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