Your well loved bear reminds me of the Velveteen Rabbit which also reminds me of our journey in therapy/life:

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become.
It takes a long time...Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."