Dog bites can be frightening occurrences for any Connecticut resident. After the physical scars have faded, though, people sometimes still experience trauma related to the incident. Emotional trauma stemming from a dog bite can affect many parts of a person’s life, even long after the bite has occurred.
After experiencing a dog bite, people may sometimes develop cynophobia– the fear of dogs. According to CNN, this can occur especially if a person was bitten at a young age. Emotional trauma also includes anxiety that may occur when people reflect on the event. This anxiety has the potential to turn into post-traumatic stress disorder if a person thinks he or she may have been responsible for the incident. Additionally, people who been bitten by dogs sometimes experience agoraphobia or nightmares.
Dog bites can be especially traumatic for young children. Doggone Safe says it is important to talk to children about the event so that they process what happened. This helps children understand that they did not do anything to provoke the event. One child psychiatrist suggests that parents encourage their children to speak about the event until they can discuss it without fear.
Because PTSD can develop in children after a dog bite, parents may want to consider therapy if they think their child needs help processing the incident. This option can be helpful for children if they start avoiding animals or do not want to speak about the event. To encourage safety in the future, parents may also want to teach their children how to recognize a dog’s body language.
