Does YOUR Mental Health affect your dog/pet?

I'm posting here because it's more a general question including any kind of mental health issue that affects mood or how you process information etc.

In my past I was in a better state mentally and the dog that lived with me 24hrs a day was a confident friendly dog, (though she was also possibly part lab so a sociable breed) When she got old as I knew I wouldn't cope without her I got a puppy. He had no problems behaviourwise in his early years while my other dog was alive.

However since she passed my mental health went downhill rapidly, I had severe depression, some physical ailments involving high pain and fatigue levels also didn't help. It's now a couple of years since her passing I live almost constantly in my daydreams (severe Maladaptive Daydreaming) taking a few hours to make sure my dogs needs are taken care of. He's now 6 and doesn't like being approached by people or most dogs (he's ok with a select few, usually much smaller than him) and went through a period of being very reactive at a time where I hated having to go incase someone stopped me to ask where my other dog was. If someone tries to talk to me now he barks constantly over them. He's not as bad walking past other dogs as long as I am between them and he's between a wall/hedge and my mobility scooter if we have to pass them so the dog passes on his side he lunges at them still. Making walks stressful so I go out really early 5-6am when no-one is around so he sees no one else but me.

I only found out yesterday a neighbour has stopped stroking him through the fence as he started snapping at her, though he goes to the fence for a fuss whenever he sees her, she still talks to him but she won't try and stroke him. When she tried to talk to me through the fence though he starts barking!


After having a dog that was virtually bombproof who loved people and virtually dragged me to see people she wanted to see when out (whether I felt in the mood to say hello or not!) I'm finding it hard to disguise my feelings enough to stop him being snappy with people that he perceives I don't want to talk to as he's SOOO sensitive to my mood and in a way so like me (I have autism anyway which hasn't helped the situation) it's scary! Its like he can literally read my mind... and is reacting the second I've thought 'oh god, don't want to talk to them today, they'll start talking about {past dog} again' Not that I don't want to remember her, I think about her constantly in my daydreams everyday, imagining she'll reincarnate and come home, but those thought are highly private to me and not open to discussion with the layperson in the street! I don't like showing emotion in public either as I struggle to control them once they really kick in.


He can also tell when I'm getting lost in my imaginings and turning into another character and starts growling at me, my other dog was never bothered she was just really laid back and took everything in her stride. I have to put him in another room before I can plan to get 'lost in space' for a few hours. He sometimes tend to whine and pant heavily when my imaginings have been so intense I've been pacing up and down the hall constantly for a few hours and having other motor movements while doing so (hand flapping etc) I don't understand why he reacts like this when my other dog didn't react at all and would be on the sofa perfectly chilled regardless of how intense my 'imaginings' got in the next room!

Has anyone else ever had issues with their pets? particuarly dogs (not sure it would affects cats/rabbits etc???) especially if your mental illness means you spend alot of time imagining/hallucinating or generally 'lost in your thoughts' for much of the day?

Don't know, but:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/scie ... -fish.html

Seriously though, I imagine any social, domesticated animal would be affected.

i spend a very small amount of time with my bunny bc of my mental health. it breaks my heart that someone helps me take care of her bc i cannot completely take care of her but i know that she still loves me; she once held on my leg the EXACT same way a human baby might

Domestic animals are very intelligent and because of their verbal communication restraints, they must rely on non-verbal queues.
My cat is very in tune with my body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, schedule upsets (she likes routines), sleep disruptions, odors and probably picks up on my psyche.
I have been comforted by animals when no one else was around. I have stayed by the side of a sick or dying animal as a true friend would do. I can't help but think that there is a very intense and deep connection with our pets. I'm sure that it goes both ways.

Slightly off topic:
I don't know, but it's interesting that so many mentally ill people see their pets as a form of therapy. There are even laws protecting people and their emotional support animals. I'd be interesting to know if the pets also see us as a kind of therapy.


https://www.certapet.com/emotional-support-animal-laws/
https://www.certapet.com/delta-new-policy-on-esa/

That's not quite what I mean. I know alot of people feel their pets help their illness but what I mean is do you think you been mentally ill (and the effects on your behaviour) affects your pet?

Eg I now can't take my younger dog out when there's other dogs around, I'm constantly on the look out which means I can't relax and he's extremely reactive (attacked a dog just this morning that came out of nowhere and I'd let him off because the field was empty when we arrived).

He'll want to approach people do the excited puppy body wiggle towards them (though he's an adult) but if they put their hand out to stroke him he'll nip and/or suddenly start growling. His behaviour getting worse has coincided exactly with my MI getting worse after the death of my older dog.

If I'm having a good day, feeling more able to cope, get out early (not feeling really tired, depressed, lost in daydreams etc) he's better behaved. If I'm at all tense and struggling to cope with going out he's constantly pulling and looking for the next thing to come round the corner kind of thing, ready to go for anything as if he thinks I'm afraid something is going to come out and jump on us at any minute!

It's a struggle as my last dog was bombproof so it didn't matter how I was feeling she'd encourage me to go out and be happy and friendly with everyone which in turn encouraged me to talk to more people. She would have made a great (official) therapy/assistance dog! (though I never took the exam with her as I couldn't cope with the amount of travel/social stuff needed to complete the training for her to officially work in public) unofficially she helped me loads just with confidence and around the house when my mobility problems happened. The younger dog is great round the house and when its just me and him though he will growl at me if he senses a change of character/mood.

I daren't stop and talk to anyone incase they assume he's friendly and go to stroke him (he looks cute and fluffy which people associate with 'friendly') and he nips or growls and going out at a sociable time to get contact with anyone is out, we can only go out very early hours...not looking forward to winter as I've always had a fear of the dark and the fields/parks etc aren't lit so are literally pitch black if there's no moonlight.

Other than keeping him on sedatives to keep him calm and hoping that will make him less able to detect my emotions I'm not sure what to try next? so just wondered if anyone else's illness affected their dogs in this way? (particuarly if you have severe mood swings/multiple personalities, severe depression etc)

It may not be your mental illness affecting the dog's behavior at all. I would get the dog to a vet ASAP for bloodwork and a checkup.
A sudden change in temperament may be an illness or disease. Don't try to diagnose this yourself or put the dog on sedatives.
Maybe your dog is trying to tell you something? Explain to the vet what happened recently.
Best of luck to both of you.

I think I may have given my cat OCD.

About three years ago, he started over-grooming to the point where he had no fur on his belly. The vet suggested it was compulsive behavior and asked if he had experienced any trauma, which he hadn't. She suggested meds but I declined. I don't believe in psychiatric meds, I'm certainly not going to give them to an animal. Who knows what the side effects there would be? Veterinary medicine is even less of an exact science than psychology. At least crazy people can tell their doctors how they feel.

I figure if the worst that can happen is him having no fur on his belly, then so be it. It's better than terrifying him with a vet visit and forcing pills down his throat once or twice a day.

I have a theory: He's a bottle feeder from a very very young age. He thinks I'm his mom. He's focused on me 24 hours a day. Perhaps seeing me repeatedly pacing and repeating tasks constantly gave him anxiety. I'd like to think this isn't true, but who knows?

This past 6 months he's been over-grooming less and less. The fur has pretty much grown back. My OCD still rages, it's certainly no better, but maybe he's gotten used to it or learned to ignore it.

I'll never know.

Interesting! Star seems a bit more settled since one of my alters left this week and the one's left work much better together as a whole.