There is a lot of confusion and misinformation in today’s society about mental health and mental health disorders, but when looking at statistics, the numbers are alarming.
Consider for a moment that:
- One out of seven U.S. children aged 2 to 8 years had been diagnosed with a mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder.
- An estimated one in four (26%) American adults live with a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder affects 7.7 million U.S. adults, or 3.5% of the population.
- Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States every year.
One thing that has helped those with mental disorders tremendously are emotional support animals or ESAs.
An emotional support animal is any animal that helps its owner in dealing with or overcoming a specific disability. This is different from a service dog because an ESA is not trained to offe