{"id":2443,"date":"2011-03-19T23:37:18","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T23:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=2443"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:59:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T16:59:27","slug":"play-with-your-animals-even-when-youre-depressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/play-with-your-animals-even-when-youre-depressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Play with your animals! Even when you&#8217;re depressed."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-talk.jpg\"><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have a cat named BiBi:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2444\" title=\"bibi\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi.jpg 816w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She is a very lively kitty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I&#8217;m depressed, it&#8217;s hard for me to do many things. Work- karaoke with friends, work, creative endeavors. Lots of things. Another problem I have is that it&#8217;s very hard for me to play with BiBi. She needs attention, but it just seems like so much work when I&#8217;m depressed. It&#8217;s easier to just pet her a bit and then do my own thing. When you&#8217;re depressed, animals can be a great comfort.\u00a0 I call then depression companions. The problem is that we can get really passive and forget to actually play with them. They need exercise and lively interaction, even when we feel too depressed to do anything.<\/p>\n<p>I now give BiBi my undivided attention when I get home at night.\u00a0 She is so happy to see me. I don&#8217;t want to let my depression get in the way of my relationships with people or my animals.<\/p>\n<p>My dad has two dogs: Marcus and Molly.\u00a0 They are great depression companions, but they need attention no matter what mood\u00a0I&#8217;m in.\u00a0 I believe we have to act lively around animals when we don&#8217;t feel lively. They deserve as much love as they so unconditionally give us! Julie\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/playing-with-marcus-and-molly.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2446\" title=\"playing with marcus and molly\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/playing-with-marcus-and-molly-297x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/playing-with-marcus-and-molly-297x300.jpg 297w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/playing-with-marcus-and-molly.jpg 336w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just received this comment from Annmaree:<\/p>\n<p>Hi Julie, my \u00a0cat always keeps me company and amused with his funny ways!<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s very vocal about telling me what he wants, food, outside, or play etc So I think they are absolutely a great help in combating depression and getting yourself more lively or active, even when you don\u2019t want to!<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve read studies that petting an animal makes you calmer and eases depression, just type in \u2018animals help depression\u2019 at google and the amount of info is amazing!!!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/reader-cat.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2456\" title=\"reader cat\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/reader-cat.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"182\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/reader-cat.jpg 180w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/reader-cat-148x150.jpg 148w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 180px) 100vw, 180px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0PS: If you like this post and find it helpful, please click on the like button below. You can also post it to your Facebook page, Twitter account or send it to a friend!<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-talk.jpg\"><\/a> I have a cat named BiBi:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2444\" title=\"bibi\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-150x113.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi.jpg 816w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bibi.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p> She is a very lively kitty. <\/p>\n<p> When I&#8217;m depressed, it&#8217;s hard for me to do many things. Work- karaoke with friends, work, creative endeavors. Lots of things. Another problem I have is that it&#8217;s very hard for me to play with BiBi. She needs attention, but it just seems like so much work when I&#8217;m depressed. It&#8217;s easier to just pet her a bit and then do my own thing. When you&#8217;re depressed, animals can be a great comfort. I call then depression companions. The problem is that we can get really passive and forget to actually play with them. They need exercise and lively interaction, even when we feel too depressed to do anything.<\/p>\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/play-with-your-animals-even-when-youre-depressed\/\">[ Read More ]<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11729,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions\/11729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}