Some people wake up by kiss of their mother, some by kiss of their spouse but for me kiss of the morning is totally wild and a struggle to save my hair from being pulled or arms being scratched. Seems scary right? However, nothing to worry, it is the best morning kiss anyone can have, because it’s the kiss by my little cutie pie/ munchkin, my black lab/ my pet dog “Riley”.
I was freezing inside my blanket, room was colder, while peeping through my blanket and carefully and slowly slowly I brought out my hand to find AC remote, not to wake up my bed partner. The gaze of him, sleeping in a side sleeping position with head resting on pillow, gives me the impression of a family member, a human with a dog like face, four legs and a tail, rest everything human ok! And then he jumps after waking up, only to lend on my face, tries to pull my blanket with his paws, I resist, hold back it tightly, either he wins to gain access through a loose end of blanket only to slide in and lies with his belly up beside me to get cuddles or I shout back at him that “No I’m not going to wake up yet”, only to give up minutes later and as soon as, I come out of blanket with my eyes half closed and my face covered with my open hair, to restrict rest of my view, this guy takes the opportunity to lie in my lap after licking my face and sometimes even my lips.
This might seem unhygienic or disgusting to few but believe me, this could be the best wake up routine anyone can have and most of the pet owners will agree with me. He is more disciplined and punctual than me and helped me maintain my usual wake up time during these lazy days of inactivity and uncertainty of COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lock-down. My purpose of writing this article is, to make people aware of importance of pets in our lives and especially to tell many of us, who hate or misbehave or torture animals, or just stare with their raised eyebrows and frowned forehead, a common sight in high rise societies with educated, elite class, obsessed with tidiness and hygiene beyond relevance, people, that having a pet is as much “A Blessing” as having your own child.
I can describe this from my own experience, that how much has my Dog helped me to stay sane during this lonely period of lock-down. While most of my family members were away and maintained contact through video calls and chatting, I still could have felt lot lonelier without physical presence of a family member, during this stressful period of month’s long lock-down. Every day of my life starts with waking up on almost a fixed time of 5:30- 6:00 AM to take him, “Riley” for walk. All thanks to him, for giving me experience of this fresh breeze of Dawn, I feel energetic whole day. It is a form of mandatory or I would rather say a forced exercise for me. Certain chores are fixed for me, like, taking him for walk three times in a day on fixed time, feeding him thrice, he gives me company in all my three meals, cleaning his paws after returning from walks, last but not the least playing with him, whenever he desires, which is mostly at odd times, like, I wake up seeing him jump and trying to play with me while I struggle to open my eyes or during evenings when I try to read, he would come and sit in my lap or keep his head in my lap, looking with his naughty eyes into my eyes, asking for attention or even lies down on my book to stop me from reading. I get amused seeing his tactics to draw my attention. Such an attention seeker!
Most important of all, is his emotional connect with me. I myself get surprised coming across his abilities to understand my emotional state, empathize with me, efforts to comfort and reassure me. Not only he senses my low or irritable mood, he endures my negative reactions also, while trying to comfort me during those bad phases. He at times even made me realize, that he is there for me and I am not alone and all this, without any verbal communication. His eyes, his gestures do all the communication and deliver his message to me and I feel blessed to have him, my pet dog, my companion, my lockdown therapist.
There is a famous saying by philosopher Aristotle that “man is by nature, a social animal”. This social organization might have started, as a survival method, in the beginning but with the evolution, we know we conquered this planet with our collective efforts and social behavior. As per Abraham Maslow’s Self-Actualization Theory, a theory that described a hierarchy of needs or motives, individuals have, Belongingness and love needs ( need for affection and affiliation) comes first and above in priority then Esteem needs ( need for prestige, success and self- respect). Having mentioned that, I want to emphasize that social relationships and social support can maintain or promote psychological and physical health. Development, urbanization, cultural shift from collectivism to individualism have weakened social ties. Social media epidemic of current times have brought people closer virtually and across a long distance but has made people distant and emotionally disconnected in real world and at a family level. Lonely and external validation seeking individuals have stopped communicating effectively or spending time with their own dear and loved ones in real world. However, they are physically closed but are becoming emotionally distant. Besides this, many elderly people or couples are living separately, in long distance relationships, due to their academic and career related or occupational goals. Their need of having a companion, to reduce their loneliness can be fulfilled by having a pet. Can a pet replace a human companion! Seems silly right? As a psychiatrist, I am fully aware of its psychological significance with a biological underpinning.
Pet therapy (Animal Assisted Therapy, AAT) is a guided interaction between a person and a trained animal, also involves the animal’s handler. It is a formal, structured set of sessions that aims at reaching specific goals in their treatment. AAA (Animal Assisted Activities) involve more casual meetings, in which an animal and its handler interact with people for comfort or recreation. Dogs and cats are most commonly used however; fish, birds, guinea pigs, horses and other animals can also be used. It is a scientifically proven fact that interacting with a friendly pet can help many physical and mental health issues. It releases endorphins that can alleviate pain, reduce stress, produce a calming effect and improve your overall psychological well-being. Benefits of pet therapy include increasing happiness, lessening depression, decreasing loneliness and isolation, reducing boredom, reducing anxiety, providing comfort, providing non-judgmental environment, helping children learn empathy and nurturing skills, increasing self-confidence and reducing self-consciousness, increasing verbal communication and developing social skills, increasing motivation to join in activities and exercise, some physical benefits like improving motor skills and joint movement and improving assisted or independent movement. Pet therapy can be used for people with cancer and heart diseases, people undergoing chemotherapy, residents of long term care facilities, veterans and patients of PTSD, Children having physical and dental procedures, Children with Autism spectrum disorder, strokes patients undergoing physical therapy, people with dementia, people with various mental health disorders. It is not only patients but also family members, who attend animal visits, feel good too. I have personally advised, a patient with schizophrenia whose positive symptoms have resolved, but had residual negative symptoms, to have a pet dog. That turned out to be a miracle for the patient and the family, turning an almost 100 kg man proactive in exercise and taking care of the pet. There was significant improvement in his mood, apathy and anhedonia along with physical benefit of weight loss.
There are studies published that heart attack patients who owned pets lived longer than those who didn’t and petting one’s own dog could reduce blood pressure. Other studies have found that besides endorphins, animals can increase people’s level of hormone “Oxytocin” that helps us feel happy, increases trust and our overall health. Therefore, if you already have a pet or planning to have one, you are living with a silent therapist and a happiness secret.
What started as a tale of my own pet ended up being a scientific and informative write up at the end!
Thank you
Dr Anita Sharma
www.dranitasharma.com
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