psychms
replied to your post “Are some species pokemon more prone to certain illnesses or conditions…”

Huh, it seems cruel that despite the fact that Audino tend to have anxiety due to an inborn aversion to humanity, they are so often seen in Unovan Pokemon Centers. Don’t they have to deal with a lot of human contact there? What’s the deal with that?

Very astute of you to point out, @psychms!

In truth, anxiety in pokémon, particularly the more human-like ones such as clefairy or audino, can possibly be managed the same way human anxiety is with proper care and patience from their human partners. In other words, it’s entirely possible to work with these species in order to maintain or even lessen their symptoms so that they may lead functional lives alongside humans. However, the younger such care begins, the easier it is to acclimate one of these pokémon to a human-based environment, and many Unovan audino nurses are actually specifically bred for the job from carefully selected parents who do not exhibit anxiety at all towards human kind. (Not all audino have this aversion, strangely enough. The ones that appear in what local Unovans call “shaking grass” are of particular note for this behavior.)

Of course, the inborn aversion is related to these species’ sensitivity to noise, and particularly loud noises may cause these pokémon to panic. That’s why nurse audino undergo special training to minimize the likelihood of this occurring.

Admittedly, it’s true that it seems a little odd to go to these sorts of lengths just to groom an audino to be a nurse, but in truth, issues with noise aside, audino are actually the third best suited pokémon for medical work in existence due to their other abilities, including an inclination to help others, ability to hear another’s physical state, and actual healing techniques. (The first and second best nurse pokémon are, of course, chansey and blissey, respectively.) Once trained to manage its sensitivity to noise and its shyness around humans, it can also be a highly dedicated worker and loyal companion to a Nurse Joy.