Many people who have lived a childhood marked by abandonment are unaware of what it really means to receive the support and sincere care of a loved one. After years of loneliness find in their dogs the necessary therapeutic help to be able to feel and understand what true unconditional love means.
Why having a dog helps heal emotions
Most of the Emotional problems of adult life are caused by Bad experiences suffered in childhood. Not having felt loved or not having received the unconditional love that all children need, implies that adults carry deficiencies and seek unhealthy ways to repair the damage suffered.
After these helpless experiences, some people may fall into addictions (drugs, alcohol, shopping, food, gambling, etc.), depression, somatic diseases, etc. or even hook up with toxic people who, in exchange for small displays of affection that are never sincere, blackmail and manipulate them.
The emotional health benefits of having a canine companion are substantial. Specific, Living with dogs can help heal blockages and repair deep wounds emotions carried over from childhood:
- The dog shows us unconditional love
A dog does not intend to manipulate or blackmail. He love What does he offer his family? completely unconditional, free of other secondary motivations. Even when humans aren’t kind to them, dogs don’t hold grudges and are always willing to give their love.
This experience of unconditional love is just what babies and children need to grow up healthy and balanced. is the basis of a secure attachment that will help them prevent future emotional problems For this reason, although many adults have not experienced it in their childhood and carry the shortcomings that I have mentioned above, living with a dog can provide that model of unconditional love, so necessary to heal.
- Dog affection can transform the brain
Thanks to brain plasticity, the new ones inputs canines stimulate the pathways of oxytocin, peace and well-being and help to rewire the brain, maturing those areas that could not do so due to the lack of adequate loving stimulation. Regardless of age, anyone can benefit from this therapeutic connection.
The mere fact of looking at and petting your dog, when you return home after a long day at work, reduces stress and increases the feeling of relaxation.
Having a dog can help in case of depression
In experience since my practice, many people have told me, with tears in their eyes, that Until they lived with their dog, they had never felt or received unconditional love before. This is the case of Paula, a young woman who went to therapy suffering from depression and problems socializing.
When you come to my office, Paula felt sad and alone. It had been a while since she had spoken to her parents, who had beaten and mistreated her as a child, and she had just broken up with an abusive partner.
On an emotional level, Paula felt devastated, she did not value or love herself, she thought that she was a person who “was not worth it.”
We start therapy. It so happened that one day Paula called me very embarrassed because her neighbor had had an accident and had asked her to help her walk her dog. knowing the enormous benefits that friendship with a dog could contributeI encouraged her to take care of her.
During the time that her neighbor’s convalescence lasted, Paula established a sincere friendship with the dog.
He walked her, took care of her at home, pampered her and, as she told me in amazement, he began to feel what it was like to receive affection from “the good guy”. She would tell me: “When I go to pick her up, she is always waiting happily, wagging her tail. No one has ever given me so many kisses in my life.”
In therapy, in addition to healing his past, We worked with the new sensations that the unconditional love of her new friend brought her. In this way, Paula was able to rebuild her self-esteem, develop a positive self-image and Get out of your depressed state.
Some time after finishing her therapy, Paula happily wrote to me. She had adopted two puppies in the shelter and the three had formed a beautiful family. In addition, she and her neighbor had become great friends and, every day, the five of them walked together.