Can Animals Help With the Grief Process?
Can Animals Help us Deal With Grief?
Many people deal with grief in different ways and methods. Most of us are familiar with the five stages of grief: 1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; and 5. Acceptance. Though these stages are commonly known, how grieving people move through them is very unique and personal to them. If you’re reading this, you may be looking for different ways or help to move through these stages. The psychological and physiological effects of having a pet can actually help grieving people. We have broken down the physical and emotional benefits of having a pet and how they can help with grief.
When people are dealing with grief, it is common for self care to become an afterthought, including exercise and moving your body. This leads us to our first physical benefit of having a pet during a time of grieving: a dog needs to be walked and you need to walk it.
Getting outside, breathing in fresh air, and moving for 10, 20, or even 30 minutes a day does good things not only for your cholesterol and blood pressure (1) but also provides a sense of control (2), improves your mood (3) , and reduces stress while increasing your ability to cope with stress (3).
Oxytocin, endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin. These chemicals in our brains, when increased, cause a string of impacts that just make us feel better. Oxytocin is most commonly known to be activated when giving birth but can actually be activated while stroking an animal, i.e. petting your dog or cat or brushing a horse (4). This Boston Globe article references a South African study that showed when people stroked or talked to their dog, their endorphins or natural painkillers increased as well as their dopamine levels. This article also references a study by the University of Missouri that showed petting dogs boosted serotonin levels. This neurotransmitter is actually what antidepressants try to boost for people taking them.
Owning pet also gives you an opportunity to be around people when you otherwise wouldn’t when dealing with grief. As referenced above, taking your dog for a walk or especially, taking your dog to a dog park, increases the opportunity to have a social interaction. Having a pet also increases the chance for virtual interaction. Joining Facebook groups or forums, following other social media accounts, that feature the same type or breed of animal you have allows for you to reach out and talk about our favorite thing in the world; your pet. Leaning on someone for support or having someone to talk to and connect with helps with grief and lessens the feelings of loneliness that comes with it.
When dealing with grief, it is easy for us to fall into a pattern of not caring for our selves. The depression that comes with grief is the main cause of this. Owning a pet gives us something more than ourselves to focus on and that we are responsible for. Whether that pet be something as small a fish or as large as a horse, these pets are still relying on us to feed them and clean their tank or brush them and provide them with their daily exercise. Forcing us to be active and attentive can snap us out of a daze and focus on something other than our grief.
We found some quick general facts about how having a pet benefits your health:
- Did you know a cat’s purr ranges from 20-140 Hz, humans that are nearby enough to hear the purr are very likely to therapeutically benefit from it? (5)
- Having a pet results in 15-20% fewer visits to the doctor each year (6)
- Having a fish is good for you heart – they reduce blood pressure and have been known to lower your heart rate by 5-6 beats per minute (7)
- On average, those who own a pet live 2 years long than those who don’t (8)
Time heals all wounds but that does not mean you have to wait out that time alone. Whether it be asking to walk your friends pets or going as far to adopt one of your own, spending time with any animal will surely ease the grieving process for you. We have listed our sources below for further reading about what we wrote about here.
