Looking to hear your experiences with pets' effects on your mental health?  Did they help you give you purpose, connection, feeling of love, etc.?  Considering getting a few guinea pigs (they're social and need to be w/ others?) to help w/ mental health.  I absolutely love almost all animals, but my SO does not like any animals at all due to cultural background, so these would be compromise pets; I feel like these will be OK since they can be caged and they're pretty low maintenance and not as much commitment as a dog or cat etc. (also good for me to have low maintenance due to my instability/volatility.)  Obvs discussing more w/ them first, but thoughts?