VeggieBoards banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Overwhelmed!

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Tom 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi, I have been a Vegetarian for 37 years. I live in Northern Ireland which, to say the least, isn't very veggie friendly.

However, I have always coped one way or the other. I have just finished watching the Doc. Vegan 2020 on Youtube, and although I thought it was very good, I find myself increasingly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of animal torture and slaughter going on each year!

I know things are getting better and we now have Veganuary etc happening, but I find that people are still of the opinion that animals don't matter and after all, are here for us to eat, that's all! I suppose it's this time of year and the talk of turkey slaughter everywhere, plus vegans/vegetarians are saying that Covid 19 is caused by how we have mistreated the animals! If this is true I find the whole subject very distressing and disturbing.

Just wondered if others found it this way, and how you handle the gargantuan figures of animal destruction and the horror of continuing slaughter houses, plus the fact that humans are the root cause of this terrible virus :(

Probably should also have added, I'm the only vegetarian in my entire family and circle of friends!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I'm sorry. Being vegan, and especially being vegan animal activists, comes with a huge helping of despair, helplessness, and overwhelm at times.

What you're feeling isn't uncommon. My husband and I have a blog and a couple of years ago my husband was going through something similar - so he reached out to his readers and asked them what they do to cope. Here are the replies, and there's some very interesting, helpful stuff.

http://thethinkingvegan.com/the-thinking-vegan-pop-quiz-how-do-you-deal-with-despair/

But being the lone veg, without social support, is not good for your soul either. Since meeting people in person isn't likely right now I strongly suggest finding some online communities where you can create a bit of a "culture" to not feel so isolated. The Veganuary FB page might be a place to start. There are a lot of FB groups for vegans who share a particular interest such as vegan business, vegan fashion, vegan gamers -- so if there's something you're passionate about do a search and see if anything pops up. There are of course hundreds of food/recipe groups too. This particular message board isn't too active unfortunately and it's not the same sense of community as FB where people can interact more or less in real time.

There's also Vegetarian and Vegan Northern Ireland, so who knows, maybe there's a circle of friends already out there waiting for you:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/VegetarianandveganNorthernIreland
 
#3 ·
Thank you Evolutus for your reply and help.
Also thanks for the links and suggestions, I was beginning to think I was on this forum by myself!

The link to the Thinking Vegan is particularly interesting.
 
#4 · (Edited)
@Evolotus has already given you lots of good information, so I'll mostly just say: Welcome!

I've been vegetarian since early 1972, and was pescatarian a few years before that. Even though vegetarianism and veganism are much more widespread than they formerly were, many of us don't know people in real life who share this passion with us. It's good to have a website like this, although as Evolotus mentions, it's not as active as it formerly was. You might try looking in the VeggieBoards "Local Forums" area to see if anything is going on in your area.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top