My psychiatrist keeps insisting at every appointment that I should get a dog and that it will help me feel much better with my depression symptoms.
Today I replied to him saying,
i don’t think I can do that. I have a difficult time with dogs.
I said, I get very overstimulated. For example with my friends dogs. The neediness, hyper, loud barks and whining. It makes me feel overstimulated, nervous and I’ve sometimes had meltdowns triggered , for example if I go see my friend for support and his dog jumps all over me and barks or squeals, it can push me into a more intense meltdown . I am very sensitive with loud noise or high pitch noise as well as not having personal space
This is what he replied to me :
You have two eyes and they are made to look outside into in the world and appreciate things. Your eyes are looking inside of yourself only.
This really hurt my feelings and I’m very confused .
I don’t hate dogs. I think they can be cute, from far . Or for just very short periods of time.
I just feel like I need a more calm independent animal, like a cat .
He said if I get a dog, then I won’t have time to feel depressed or anxious because I will be too busy taking care of the dog