I Get By With A Little Help

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS make their humans calmer, happier and better able to cope with life.

- Elle Mcclure, Cat Rodie, & Elle Mcclure

A SURE SIGN THAT MILLENNIALS are bucking the stigma of mental health is the current popularity of emotional support animals (ESAs). More than just your average pet, an ESA (often a dog or cat, but possibly a chicken, rabbit or, yes, even a pig) helps their owner cope with 2019grade stress and anxiety.

There’s singer Ariana Grande, who, when faced with criticism of her new companion, a pig named Piggy Smalls, tweeted: “SHE’S AN EMOTIONAL SUPPORT PIG I NEED HER.” Then there’s Lena Dunham and her “happy zoo”. “I’m the kind of anxious that makes you like, ‘I’m not going to be able to come out tonight, tomorrow night or maybe for the next 67 nights,’” she has said of her paralysing anxiety disorder. After a series of medical issues — including a hysterectomy, in 2017, at the age of 31, and the removal of her left ovary a year later — she added three Sphynx cats, Candy, Irma and LouLou, to her collection of pets.

It’s not surprising that the popularity of ESAs is on the rise. Emotional support animals have been known to assist people who suffer from severe depression, generalised anxiety disorder,