The Pacific Standard covers a study out of Florence, finding that adolescents in mental health crisis who received animal-assisted therapy had better school attendance, higher global functioning, and spent less time in the hospital.
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Animals are awesome; having two cats, a Shih-Tzu dog, and a bunny rabbit as a young person was very helpful to me when going through emotional difficulties. In object relations terms they serve as an all-good mothering object or a “good breast” that is always available, at least if they are well-behaved pets.
