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Greetings, Steemit!

Im Lilac, and Im writing about living with domestic violence, surviving it, PTSD, how life gets better, and how I recover.

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Its funny how much difference an animal can make. Ive had dogs all my life, except for the last few years. A couple of months ago, me and my fiance decided to finally get a family dog. We found and fell in love with a 7 month year old crossbreed of Rottweiler, German shepherd and Bernese Mountain Dog (Yeah, she is a big girl! )

Me and the big puppy fell in love instantly. She follows me everywhere and is friendly but pretty uninterested in people except for people that she knows, she loves them to bits =).

I have developed a semi strong social phobia and anxiety. I am always nervous when meeting people I don't know, I rarely speak (I used to talk all the time before meeting Mike), and I get extremely nervous around people I don't know unless my fiance is with me.

Luckily, I have the most supportive and loving fiance I could imagine. Hes work allows him to work from home most of the time, so hes always with me. He comes with me to meetings and doctors appointments when I have bad days and am too nervous to go by myself. He holds my hand through everything and he is the true love of my life.

No couple can do everything together, however. My fiance has to leave for work sometimes, and we need some time for ourselves every now and then, like everyone does.

Since we got our dog, I'm no longer afraid to be home without my fiance. I have someone there with me that I can hug if I feel sad or nervous, or play and take walks with to relax my mind.

Since I take her everywhere with me, it has made our social life much better. If i feel awkward or insecure, the dog is an easy topic to talk about. When I feel unsafe around people, which I do almost regardless of who we meet unless I know them well, I can turn my focus to my dog and calm down.

I also have a reason to get up every morning, even after a hard night with nightmares and little sleep, to go out for walks and get fresh air every day.

If you are going through a hard time, having a pet can be very helpful and healing. But please remember to only take on a pet if you know you have the time, energy and space for it, if you can afford the pet, insurance, food and toys, and if you can provide a stable home for it for the rest of its life.