Dwayne Johnson an American celebrity, action movie star and pro wrestler loves dogs. This is well known and it’s also well-known that he has been very open about his depression. He is admired for being open about it which is correct.
It is also well-known that dogs and indeed other companion animals can contribute to your happiness. Studies have shown that dogs reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Dogs ease loneliness and they encourage exercise and exercise is a way to alleviate melancholy. Dogs make you go outside to take them for a walk. Simply being outside is beneficial to one’s health because you connect with nature and other people which is a wonderful way to feel better.
I would like to connect the two aspects of Dwayne Johnson’s life that I know about, namely his depression and his dogs. I can’t find anything on the Internet which tells me that one reason why he likes to be a carer of companion dogs is to alleviate his depression. I suspect it is. It would make sense. It would be nice to know more about that because it would raise the profile of companion dogs and thereby improve their welfare too.
On May 1, Labor Day, 2015 Dwayne Johnson showed off two new additions to his family, baby French bulldogs. He named one Brutus and the other Hobbs. On his Instagram account he showed them off standing up in a swimming pool with the puppies in each hand. Brutus couldn’t swim and he had to rescue him him as he sank to the bottom of the pool!
I’ve since learned that Dwayne lost Brutus when he ate toxic mushrooms. This happened about a month after after the photograph was taken of him holding his puppies in a swimming pool. The tragedy, he said, reminds him that people should live and love as greatly as they can today because tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Mr Johnson said he was crying constantly at one point. His depression was brought on by injuries which smashed his dream of playing pro football. His team let him go within one year of signing up and his then girlfriend broke up shortly after.
I reached a point where I didn’t want to do a thing or go anywhere,” he told the Express. “I was crying constantly.”
Dwayne Johnson
I feel sure that his love of dogs is partly because they make him happier. It is a simple formula. Mr Johnson has 141 million followers on Instagram! The video above is from his account.
