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Originally Posted by BibleBeliever  Are there any instances of animals showing the classic symptons of mental illnesses we often see in people.
I ask this because I want to know if the mental illnesses we are familier with in this day and age are biological or related to our environment. If biological then animals will suffer too.
Out in Kenya a few years ago I found out they claimed they had no issues with mental illness even amongst the poverty, aids sufferers, high infant mortality and near starvation that were aparant out in the country away from large cities. |
It would be hard to compare 'classic symptoms' in animals vs people. The methods used to diagnosis in people being much more complex in part, due to the ability of people to communicate distress/complexity more easily than animals can. We are left with observing behaviors with animals. Personally, I have seen only one case of what I would classify as severe mental illness in a dog we owned and for that situation there was no option other than to put the dog down. If I had to classify the condition, it would be autistic or paranoid schizophrenic.
Now for wild animals the problem being the same as with people who suffer from great mental illnesses (paranoia, autism, schizophrenia). We tend to take enough care of our severly mentally ill to ensure their survival. In the wild, the animals usually wouldnt survive long enough to reproduce so a genetic factor would be marginal in its ablity to pass on the tendency to a degree that such a issue would become a dominate characteristic. But then one can look at the animals that do survive with conditions, if displayed in the human, could be considered a mental illness. The flight/startle reactions of deer to movement (for example) would not serve a human well, but keeps the deer better defended against being attacked.
Canine Autism
"canine autism" - Google Search
A more common disorder, Seperation Anxiety:
Pet Columns: Separation Anxiety: A Destructive Mental Illness
Canine Schizophrenia:
Schizophrenia Can Strike Your Pet
Forum examples of extreme behavior:
Chevy's story agression.htm Veterinary Information - Neurologic Diseases and Disorders of Dogs
To compare the instances of human vs animal is harder being as the most common method for resolving dehabilitating mental health issues in domestic animals is to spay/neuter the afflicted animal (thus no potential for genetic transmission) or to destroy the afflicted animal.
As far as the Kenya claim, have you searched for any reliable information to back up this statement as true?
