Conciousness is not without it's DIS-advantages.

With it comes ambition, worry, sadness, happiness, anger, hate, mistrust,
loneliness, love, and so on with a litany of emotions.

Imagine a creature suddenly (in the grand scheme of things) finding itself
having to contend with a host of "feelings" that his/her instincts did not
seem able to address. I can fully understand a need or wish to "get away"
for awhile and to not have to deal with them. And, I can understand the
introduction of a host of other treatments (bonding rituals, religion,
meditation, etc.) as well.