Last week I talked about how getting in touch with nature can help us to be happy. This was inspired by the experiences I was having at the time of writing the blog when I was on my short trip to the countryside. It got me thinking about the birds in the trees singing and, even though I could not see any at the time, other wild animals. I wondered what life was like for them in terms of well-being. I can imagine it could be a hard life, having to spend most of their time searching for food all day, but then again, they don’t have stressful jobs. I did some research to find out some interesting information about animals and mental illnesses.
In turns out that captive
; however, they seem to get theses illnesses as a direct result of humans. Going to the zoo to see and learning about animals may be a good experience for the family, but it could be a cause for their depression. They become depressed, but it is termed Learned Helplessness. Humans and animals that are put in traumatic situations out of their control become victims of learned helplessness.
According to Professor Bjarne Olai Braastad, a Norwegian Professor of animal behaviour, animals rarely become mentally ill in the wild. Apparently they do have many problems in their natural state, as you can imagine, but they are not enough to cause a phenomenon like mental illness. They still have to hunt for food, live in fear of their predators and find an ideal place to live; however, these problems are more or less under their own control. They are not stuck wherever a human wanted them to be.
So my take away from this is that if nature is good for animals, it is also good for us. This really makes sense as to why getting in touch with nature can help us to be happy. If you are looking for a qualified counsellor to talk about your everyday problems, feel free to contact me. The first session is free.
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https://universityobserver.ie/animal-depression-does-it-exist/
