Can pets make you happy?

Can spending time with a pet make you happy? I know I feel happy when I just look at my very special brain damaged white cat (except when he wakes me up at 4.30am meowing to have his jellymeat refreshed). But I hadn’t thought about pets as an antidote to depression until a friend (none other than the anonymous Mr F) handed me a chapter from Healing without Freud or Prozac the other day. In it author Dr David Servan-Schreiber quotes studies showing that people are happier when they have contact with animals. One study found that older people had much better psychological resistance to life’s difficulties when they had a pet. Another discovered that Aids patients were much better protected from depression if they had a cat or dog. Lastly, people who were housebound due to a disability and virtually unable to move round unaided were much happier if they had a dog as a companion. Not only that, but they had more friends and more contact with relations than people in similar circumstances who did not have a dog. Apparently just having an animal by your side makes you more attractive to others. (Daters take note!)

Dr Servan-Schreiber also went into the benefits of animal companionship for physical health, which were considerable – lower death rates after heart attacks, going to the doctor less often, and lower blood pressure. Intellectually, people with pets and health problems were sharper too, doing better on stressful activities like mental arithmetic and public speaking, and making fewer mistakes in their work. Overall, it appears you just can’t lose owning a pet. I know that every day one of my three pets does something that makes me laugh. Barney barndog has just discovered that if he plonks his paw down in the water of a stream it splashes up and he can drink it. Watching him work this out had me laughing out loud. India, the dog next door, a Staffy-Ridgeback cross built like a tank and made of muscle (very like the dog in the picture to the left), likes to climb into my lap and be pampered and groomed like a little poodle. The look of bliss on her ugly mutt makes me smile all over. The cats do that classic cat thing of going to jump on something and missing, then getting a look on their faces that says ‘oh that was completely deliberate – I meant to do that’. And it’s delightful on a cold morning to have my special cat snuggle down under the blankets and purr by my side. So do pets make you happy? Apparently the answer is yes.

Noticing the good things

It's easy to miss the positives that happen each day. That’s because we remember what we focus on. Let me illustrate what I mean. Look around the room you’re in and notice the blue things. Now look at the computer screen and try to remember what red things are in the room. Chances are you can’t remember many because you weren’t focused on them. It’s the same with good things. Focusing leads to noticing. And it's noticing the good things that has a positive impact on mood.

Here are some questions that can help with focusing on and remembering good things that happen:

• What social events did you attend in the last week? Who did you talk to there?
• What have you eaten that was yummy?
• Have you listened to anything that brought you pleasure e.g. birdsong, music, waves, rain on the roof?
• Have you sat in the sun, or a hot bath, or had a massage or some other pleasurable sensual experience?
• Did you have any enjoyable contact with pets or other animals? I got to scratch a pig’s head yesterday, which was enjoyable in a gross kind of way
• What have you achieved today or in the past few days? Even if it’s small it counts. For me posting letters is a huge achievement because I find it so hard to remember to do it!
• Did you go anywhere? Did anything good happen there? Even if it’s just the same old place you go all the time something nice could have occurred
• What exercise did you do? Was it pleasurable? (even if only because it stopped!)
• Have you seen or read anything beautiful or moving?
• Did you have any enjoyable times with kids (your own or others’) or family members or people you are close to?