Is Veganism Depressing?
Recently I came across a twitter post of a man who was newly vegan (one year) but was finding the constant on-line postings of animal suffering to overwhelming and was depressed.
Most people become vegan when they realise just how cruel the farming and entertainment industries are to animals. Not to mention animals in sport, tourism, laboratories, or work animals. Quite often it is through these very posts, articles, videos etc that you become an ethical vegan in the first place. The shock and awe tactics are really targeting non-vegans to highlight the cruelty behind farming and other industries. You don’t have to be vegan to have compassion and make better choices in your diet or lifestyle. For instance, for a lot of people fur farming, puppy mills, animal testing and dog/cat meat farms are abhorrent.
But once you are on your journey, it is no longer necessary to bear witness to the endless stories of suffering animals. In fact, you can overload on these stories, and it can affect your mental health. I want to be supportive to campaigns on twitter and raise awareness of animal suffering and will interact to help raise the profile of abused animals. However, you need to have balance and learn to switch off from spending most of your time viewing horrific content.
I therefore prefer to scroll on posts that offer positive and good news stories of rescued animals being given a second chance at a peaceful life. I applaud both sanctuaries rescuing animals all over the globe down to individual one-man shelters housing and feeding stray dogs and cats. I love vegans posting about their favourite food, sharing recipes and favourite places.
The real tragedy is getting meaningful change by way of legislation. I follow several accounts where they are endlessly campaigning, petitioning, or lobbying government for changes from banning factory farming/cages, live exports, and trophy hunting imports. To date not much significant change has taken place although I admire and respect their persistence. Maybe the most horrific posts are necessary to showcase abuse and get it stopped.
“Saving the life of one animal won’t change the world, but the world will certainly change for that one animal” – unknown author.
