Interested to hear from people on here who are vegan and whether your own suffering impacted that decision?

[LaughingGoat]

I don't have search functionality yet so sorry if this has been discussed before. This is also not a post meant to sway anyone's opinion or proselytize, just have an open discussion.

Personally I dealt with depression and suicidal thoughts long before I became vegan. Looking back, I regret my disconnect between the suffering caused and my actions, lacking the empathy to acknowledge my role in the cycle. I initially had a lot of disgust with the world and myself, but got to a state of mind where I have no negative feelings towards people who use animal products as I see it as a natural choice and recognize we are animals who have no inherent moral code (lot of thoughts here but trying to keep it brief and not about me).

As stated in the title, I am interested to hear from others how their feelings around their own existence and experiences relate to their veganism or really anything you have to share on the matter.

 

[splendiferous]

I'm glad to see a post about veganism on here but I disagree with saying eating animal products is a natural choice. Omnivores use precisely that concept when trying to justify their worldview that is one of the causes of so much (mainly) farm animal suffering. And many times they know it but simply don't care.

I think we do have an inherent moral code and even if we didn't that wouldn't justify the amount of suffering we cause animals not to mention each other. Even if we didn't, we have developed a moral code since the dawn of civilization. Yes we are animals but we have a "higher brain" on a level that no other animal has.

One of the problems is that our current majority moral code when it comes to non human animals is not science or compassion based when the science tells us animals are sentient and capable of feeling physical and psychological suffering. I would like to keep it cordial, sorry if my tone says otherwise

 

[Kawaii_Shoujo215]

It wasn't so much my own suffering, although that has made me much more sensitive to the pain and suffering of others in general, but rather becoming more aware of the extent of suffering that factory farming causes. What really pushed me into veganism was the documentary "Dominion", which made me go vegan overnight.

Going vegan made me realize just how ubiquitous and omnipresent two aspects are in society - ignorance and apathy. People do not care about what isn't directly in view, "out of sight, out of mind", and simply reproduce harms while knowing full well that their actions cause immense suffering. People intentionally limit the extent of their consciousness or awareness, choosing to remain ignorant to preserve their comfort and taste-pleasure, instead of admitting or acknowledging the suffering that their actions cause and using that to change or grow for the better. I think there's a word for that - "Vystopia", like a dystopia but in terms of ubiquitous animal exploitation.

Ultimately, it made me hate both humanity as a whole and individual human beings much more (although I was already quite misanthropist before), as well as be much more aware of all the suffering that occurs in the world, in factory farms, in society, even in nature/in the wild. I suppose being aware of the horrors of the world makes it much harder both to be able to function, and to be willing to continue participating in a society that causes so much suffering.

In conclusion, going vegan made me realize that this is not a world I want to live in - regardless of my own personal experience with life.

 

[LaughingGoat]

I'm glad to see a post about veganism on here but I disagree with saying eating animal products is a natural choice. Omnivores use precisely that concept when trying to justify their worldview that is one of the causes of so much (mainly) farm animal suffering. And many times they know it but simply don't care.

I think we do have an inherent moral code and even if we didn't that wouldn't justify the amount of suffering we cause animals not to mention each other. Even if we didn't, we have developed a moral code since the dawn of civilization. Yes we are animals but we have a "higher brain" on a level that no other animal has.

One of the problems is that our current majority moral code when it comes to non human animals is not science or compassion based when the science tells us animals are sentient and capable of feeling physical and psychological suffering. I would like to keep it cordial, sorry if my tone says otherwise

I definitely respect that perspective and agree many justify suffering using that logic. I will share how I got to that view. We know that our ancestors over 2 millions years ago were eating meat and continued to do so. They had no discernable civilization or moral code. Given that eating animals has continued for 2 million years and people are raised to see it as completely normal, then it's as much of a natural choice as anything else we do as a society. Morality is a purely subjective, abstract concept. Morality doesn't exist in nature outside of our creation of it, empathy does but those two things are not equivalents. That's why the majority of debates I have with people who eat meat is to demonstrate how their morality is inconsistent with the animals they deem are ok to exploit and cause suffering.

It wasn't so much my own suffering, although that has made me much more sensitive to the pain and suffering of others in general, but rather becoming more aware of the extent of suffering that factory farming causes. What really pushed me into veganism was the documentary "Dominion", which made me go vegan overnight.

Going vegan made me realize just how ubiquitous and omnipresent two aspects are in society - ignorance and apathy. People do not care about what isn't directly in view, "out of sight, out of mind", and simply reproduce harms while knowing full well that their actions cause immense suffering. People intentionally limit the extent of their consciousness or awareness, choosing to remain ignorant to preserve their comfort and taste-pleasure, instead of admitting or acknowledging the suffering that their actions cause and using that to change or grow for the better. I think there's a word for that - "Vystopia", like a dystopia but in terms of ubiquitous animal exploitation.

Ultimately, it made me hate both humanity as a whole and individual human beings much more (although I was already quite misanthropist before), as well as be much more aware of all the suffering that occurs in the world, in factory farms, in society, even in nature/in the wild. I suppose being aware of the horrors of the world makes it much harder both to be able to function, and to be willing to continue participating in a society that causes so much suffering.

In conclusion, going vegan made me realize that this is not a world I want to live in - regardless of my own personal experience with life.

I definitely can relate to those misanthropic feelings, it hit me like a wave initially. I searched up the the term Vystopia and there is actually a book about it that I'm surprised I've never come across and plan to check out. So thanks for the info.

 

[LaughingGoat]

I was vegan for a few years. I had a random epiphany about animal suffering while meditating (practiced for years), and stopping eating animal products basically immediately. I'm no longer vegan primarily due to health reasons but partially due to general apathy.

Personal suffering always plays some role in empathizing with another person or animal, but there will always be limits once a certain level of convenience to do good is no longer present. I have noticed that vegans are significantly more likely to be depressed or pessimistic than the average person. I do believe it tends to attract a type of person that has fewer issues with expressing strong individuality and has lower pressure to conform to those around them. This seems to be correlated with lower social connection in general. This clashed pretty strongly with who I was as a person and was always uncomfortable.

That being said, I will likely always view veganism as virtuous.

There have been studies showing social consciousness correlates with depression and mental illness, so there definitely is something to be said for the emotional toil that comes with anything related to ethics.

The ironic thing with being a suicidal vegan is we generally live longer, so that's kind of self-defeating.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Not directly related to veganism but the raw and merciless of the natural world (which is the context that humanity arose in of course) has always got me down.

I tend to view animals as being victims rather than culprits even as they rip each other apart.

I'm not a vegan though. I know there is nothing ethically wrong with consuming other animal per se. Meat consumption and hunting played a pivotal role in human evolution. Humans didn't evolve to eat meat; they evolved BY eating meat.

I only eat poultry and I don't think I will be able to shake it like the other meats. But at least I can technically die a vegetarian!
What matters is that the animals be raised and slaughtered humanely, especially since the world is never going to go vegan. But humans can't even treat other humans well on a universally systemic basis.

 

[YEAR2050]

My depression and existence on earth fostered my antinatalist views, which much like you made me realise the disconnect between my beliefs and my actions. So I became vegan

 

[Kavka]

Thanks for starting this thread!

I don't think my own suffering plays a major role in becoming vegan. Although maybe indirectly because there is some evidence that depressed people have less positive bias and are more accurate in their causal attributions of events. This probably makes it more difficult to resolve the cognitive dissonance without actually changing your behaviour.

Veganism, and other related issues like antinatalism and wild animal suffering, definitely do play a big negative role when it comes to my own mental health and suicidal ideation. I have always been a bit of doomer, but this really changed the way I view the world, society and the human race as a species.

I know gashlighting is a trendy word right now that's used for everything, but I do really feel gaslighted when people act like this cruelty and exploitation of non-human animals is not a problem and make me feel like I am the weirdo for being vegan. I have autism so connecting to other people has never been my strongest suit, but I don't think this is really helping.

What really broke me though is the wilful ignorance or apathy of the people I adore and love.