Feeling stressed out during enhanced community quarantine? Your pets can help

Have you ever come home from a long day at the office, gave your dog a belly rub, and feel the stress and exhaustion suddenly leave your body?

Pets can certainly help reduce some of that weight on our shoulders, especially as some of us might be feeling stressed or anxious under quarantine.

“Pets are proven to reduce anxiety and pain,”  Dr. Anna York Bondoc, a psychologist and a pulmonary specialist from the UP College of Medicine, tells GMA News Online.

Animal therapy is an accepted mode of therapy in hospitals specifically for cancer patients and children, as well as those with anxiety, PTSD or dementia.

READ: Fighting fear and depression amid COVID-19

In this case, Dr. Bondoc said our pets can help decrease stress, as well as promote exercise and playfulness.

She also said pets can act as "pampa-kalma," and remind us that we are thinking and looking out for others, not just for ourselves.

"Spending time with animals teaches us to be more caring, too."

READ: 8 ways to cope during the COVID-19 threat, according to the Psychological Association of the Philippines

Dr. Bondoc therefore recommends those at home to spend more time playing with their pets, and pay more attention to their health and wellbeing.

And if walking your dog is possible, make sure you wear a mask and observe social distancing.

"Feeding your pets, bathing them, grooming them, lahat 'yan okay. Sleeping with your dog or cat  beside you can be very comforting, too," she said.

The Department of Science and Technology Food and Nutrition Research Institute advised that stress should be managed to "help prevent lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, liver disease and respiratory illness." —MGP, GMA News