![\"beth](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unknown-681b84da35122.jpeg\" "\\"beth")
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Beth Ashton<\/p>\n
Have you ever experienced something so devastating \u2013 the loss of a loved one, a terrible break up \u2013 that you look around expecting the world to stop with you? Instead, people carry on as though nothing is wrong. Living with depression<\/a> can feel a lot like that. When it takes hold, work, friendships and relationships feel overwhelming, and even the ability to cook a meal or take a shower can feel impossible.<\/p>\n Like so many others, my mental health doesn\u2019t have a beginning or an end. It just is. I\u2019ve lived with depression for as long as I can remember \u2013 even as young as 14. Now in my mid-30s, I\u2019m still learning how it shapes my life and ripples out to affect those around me. <\/p>\n \u2018Looking after myself felt impossible\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n When you\u2019re disconnected from life for so long by depression, everything starts to feel meaningless and, in 2017, I hit my lowest point. I\u2019d been signed off work by my GP and hadn\u2019t left the house or even got dressed for weeks. I could barely function. I couldn\u2019t picture a future for myself and, truthfully, didn\u2019t believe I deserved one. As I started thinking about plans to end my life, I realised I couldn\u2019t keep myself safe any more. I confided in a friend who helped me contact a crisis team near where I lived in Manchester. <\/p>\n The team were so supportive and we put a plan in place for me to visit them twice a week. Some days, I couldn\u2019t even make it out of the house for the appointments, so the crisis workers came to me as I lay frozen on the sofa. The idea of looking after myself felt impossible. One day, one of the team gently suggested a strange idea. <\/p>\n \u2018Imagine you\u2019re looking after a dog,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n \u2018A dog?\u2019 I asked. <\/p>\n \u2018Yes. What would you name her?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Uh\u2026 Gracie?\u2019 I replied. <\/p>\n \u2018And if Gracie was hungry, what would you do?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019d feed her\u2026 I suppose.\u2019<\/p>\n It sounds simple, and maybe even a little bit silly, but something about this concept stuck with me. Each day became a tiny checklist I\u2019d run through in my head: pull the duvet back, put your feet on the floor, stand up and feed imaginary Gracie. Every step was a slog, as though there was an opposing force pushing against me. But I kept trying. Days passed with tiny improvements until, after a couple of weeks, I could get dressed. After a month, I was making it to all of my appointments. <\/p>\n \u2018Something about it just felt right\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n I couldn\u2019t believe the difference. I thought, \u2018If I\u2019m going through the motions of caring for an imaginary dog, why not try the real thing?\u2019 As a child, I\u2019d had many pets \u2013 a canary, budgie, hamster, countless goldfish \u2013 but never a dog. Everyone around me \u2013 my mum and my friends included \u2013 thought this was a very bad idea. How could I look after a dog when I couldn\u2019t even look after myself? I knew that it was a huge responsibility, but something about it just felt right. I started looking for dogs online and fell in love with a tiny, blue and white, 12-week-old whippet. I looked at the face in the photograph on the screen and knew that was my real-life Gracie. <\/p>\n I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration to say that Gracie changed my life \u2013 possibly even saved it. What I\u2019d been unable to do for myself, I found myself able to do for her. I had to get out of bed so I could feed, walk and train her. It was the fact that I had someone to care for that pulled me back into the real world. Gracie didn\u2019t care that I had depression \u2013 she didn\u2019t have to walk on eggshells around how I was feeling, she was just so happy to see me every morning. I felt a deep connection with her immediately. <\/p>\n ‘Gracie gave me a reason to try\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n Beth Ashton<\/p>\n When the fog of depression told me I couldn\u2019t do anything, Gracie gave me a reason to try. I made a promise to myself: for every act of care I gave to Gracie, I\u2019d do one for me. If she ate, I\u2019d eat. If she went outside, I\u2019d try to speak to someone. I discovered that being a dog owner comes with a built-in community \u2013 people who don\u2019t know each other\u2019s names but know each other\u2019s dogs. They stopped to chat and I had to talk back. Now, wherever we walk, I can connect with people easily. With time \u2013 and the steady support of therapy, medication and Gracie \u2013 the fog began to lift.<\/p>\n And I have more than my mental wellbeing to thank Gracie for. A mutual friend put in a good word for me with a girl I liked and told her I had a whippet. I brought Gracie on the first date to a restaurant in Brixton in 2018, but was mortified when she ate a slice of pizza out of my date\u2019s hand. But I needn\u2019t have worried as, in fact, it broke the ice and we\u2019ve been together ever since. Four years later, we got married and Gracie, alongside two more sighthounds we\u2019ve since rescued, walked us down the aisle. Gracie has been there through it all \u2013 the very worst and now the very best of times. <\/p>\n Beth Ashton<\/p>\n It\u2019s been seven years since Gracie came into my life and I\u2019ve learned a lot about what it means to live with depression. It\u2019s not something that will ever vanish completely, and sometimes it arrives without warning, as though the floor has dropped out from under me. But now I have the tools, support and a better understanding of what I need \u2013 and part of what I need is Gracie, still walking beside and supporting me, every day. <\/p>\n To mark her journey, Beth is taking on the huge personal challenge of an Ironman 70.3 triathlon to raise money for Rethink Mental Illness<\/a>. Her goal is to help others get the same support she was lucky to receive. The fee for this article has been donated and you can help fundraise here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you (or someone you know) need(s) help, support or more information around mental health, visit Rethink Mental Illness<\/a>, Mind<\/a> or the NHS<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beth Ashton Have you ever experienced something so devastating \u2013 the loss of a loved one, a terrible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[1329,40757,1331,105,1330,218,40756,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-84647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-content-type-feature","9":"tag-contentid-affe2fa2-e93e-4212-9a5d-86e23bb92ef4","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-locale-gb","13":"tag-mental-health","14":"tag-shorttitle-how-a-dog-called-gracie-saved-my-life","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114472318755330761","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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![\"gracie\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unknown-1-681b6ed8d2751.jpeg\" "\\"gracie\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"3](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unknown-2-681b6ffb59110.jpeg\" "\\"3")
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