How can Luigi help you?: Who is Luigi and what the heck am I talking about?!

In a world filled with prescription drugs and over diagnosed problems, how can we counter the use of self-medication but still help ourselves feel better? The growing popularity of holistic medicine has sparked interest in a different kind of medicine -- animal assisted therapy.

You may not think Fido is good for much else besides pooping out your keys after he ate them yesterday, but research has shown that animals of all kinds are beneficial to our health. I, myself, have a cat which I consider to be a therapeutic helper when my hyper-active anxiety runs wild.

And here is! The feline of the hour, my loving and wonderful, Luigi. Aside from being cute and cuddly, Luigi is also very intuitive of my emotions; he comes to me when I am upset or stressed out and cuddles me until I'm forced to smile. He helps me through the bad days, and is a fun friend for the good days as well.

Luigi was always a part of our family, but wasn't allowed to live with us in Duluth due to rules in our apartment building. That is when Luigi had the chance to become more than just a simple house pet. After discussing my issues of anxiety with my doctor, and informing my reluctance to take prescription drugs, we came to the conclusion that Luigi would help calm me down without putting potentially harmful chemicals into my body in the form of a pill. And thus, Luigi came to live with us once again.

With my new found somewhat anxiety-free life, I have come to think about how Luigi has helped me overcome my problems, and how he could potentially help other people, perhaps with other ailments. Since I'm not a doctor, I'm not able to run any tests, or attempt to help anyone with the use of my cat. I am however able to research animal assisted therapy, so that I can suggest it to people who don't like the thought of using chemical drugs to improve their lives, people like me! And thus, Luigi become inspiration number one for my research.

But anxiety, while a very common problem for many people, is a somewhat simple ailment compared to what others experience, and furthermore, I already know first hand that an animal can help counter the feelings anxiety brings. I also know about the more commonly practiced ways that animals help people, like seeing eye dogs. So what about other problems? Ones that are less easier solved through alternative methods? Ones a little less understood and a little less common? I want to know that an animal can help a person with the types of disorders that I will never be able to fully understand myself.

Enter RJ. Or rather, enter Sasha, RJ's mother, as I haven't yet had the privilege of meeting RJ. I befriended Sasha through a mutual friend, and later learned that she has a son who is autistic, named RJ. After seeing pictures of him, I felt that the impossibly adorable RJ would be inspiration number two for my research on animal assisted therapy.

And thus, the topic is born. Animal assisted therapy with autistic children. Normally, this would be the time when I would pose a research question to adapt my research to, but I find this topic too fascinating to limit myself. Instead, I want to know as much as possible, letting questions arise as I learn, and then writing about the most significant information.

I will hopefully be able to meet little RJ next weekend. I hope to spend time with him, learning more about him, and about autism. Essentially, I view getting to know RJ as the first step to understanding how animals might be able to help children with autism, because in order to understand potential treatment, you must first understand the disorder.

Until then, I will leave you with some pictures to enjoy!