Dylon Harrison
News Editor
In today’s society, there are more people than ever who suffer from mental disorders like depression and anxiety.
One effective way to help people go through their lives with these disorders is the companionship of an emotional support animal.
These animals can play a vital role in allowing their owners to go about day-to-day life with limited difficulty caused by their mental illnesses.
Despite this, students, arguably the group with the highest amount of mental disorders per capita, can find it incredibly difficult to get permission to have their emotional support animals in their home.
Even though it is legally required for all housing options to allow service animals, both traditional and for emotional support, everywhere you go will have different requirements that must be met before the animals are allowed in.
For example, University Housing has different requirements for emotional support animals than Bengal Creek.
At Bengal Creek, a resident must have all their roommates’ written consent before they are allowed to have an emotional support animal on the property.
While this makes sense in the case of a roommate who might have allergies related to that animal, it can make an already anxious person’s life much more stressful.
Because of this rule, a person who needs an emotional support animal could be denied the assistance they are legally allowed, simply because one of their roommates has decided they don’t like the idea of an animal in the apartment.
At this point, the person in need of the animal has to either live without the much needed assistance of their animal, or move to an entirely new apartment and hope their new roommates will be more inviting.
It’s understandable that not everyone likes to have animals in their home, but mental disorders are legitimate medical conditions. This means a professional recommendation for an emotional support animal is just as important as a prescription for medication.
Because of this, unless there is a legitimate, medical concern for one of the roommates, someone who already suffers from anxiety and depression should not be forced to undergo more stress by being forced to get written permission from their roommates.
There is also a general, public stigma about emotional support animals. There are multiple stores with posted signs saying emotional support animals will not be recognized as service animals.
This is absurd, because there are some people whose mental disorders are so severe that they can not go into public without the company of their emotional support animal.
Limiting access of housing and public businesses to emotional support animals is just as bad as restricting any other type of service animal.
It is time for society to recognize that illnesses of the mind are just as real as illnesses of the body, and should be taken just as seriously.
This means that emotional support animals should be afforded just as much access and support as any animal aiding with a physical issue would, and denying this access should not continue to be allowed as much as it is today.
