Hi all,
I have not visited this forum in a long time, since my veganism has been going pretty much without any problems, but there's something I'd like to share now.
Starting off, I have been vegan for quite a few years at this point, starting still in my teenage years. It was very tough in the first year of so, when suddenly most of humanity seemed to become disgusting monsters and my enemies. It was very easy for me to get into arguments, or just become depressed just because of something that a non-vegan person said, whether that was in person or on the Internet. It was very hard for me to trust anyone. It was especially hard even living in my own home, with my mother and her occasional guests, who were not used to being near veganism. There were lots of arguments and fights.
Although, my mother did support me, it was even her that was partially responsible for me deciding to go vegan. She wanted to quit eating meat for a long time before that, but thought it was too hard to do so in a home where others eat meat. A few months after I went fully vegan, she completely stopped eating meat, and these days she rarely eats or uses any products with any ingredients of animal origin.
Over the years, my situation has improved a lot.
I've gotten much more resistant to the huge amount of animal product consumption out there being depressing to me.
I'm no longer so concerned and disgusted by most of my friends being non-vegans.
My home has become comfortable to live in, there are almost never any animal products here, I don't think there was even any meat in this fridge, ever.
I've earned a lot more trust in non-vegans and their ability to co-exist with vegans. And those who are stupid beyond repair, can no longer affect my feelings personally.
I've had good experiences with some of my close friends and family, being able to enjoy a great time together with food, and even having them cook vegan meals for all of us to enjoy.
But recently, this trust has gotten shattered.
I was visiting the family of a vegan friend of mine, since I was invited to her brother's huge birthday party. The specifics of that are not really important. We were staying at her parents' house for a few days, since her family comes from a different part of the country (and so does mine). Her family is generally not vegan at all, and the friend once told me how she was not accepted at all as vegan by her parents in her childhood, being disrespected and forcibly unable to change her lifestyle and what she eats. These days it has obviously improved, and even her father seems to have stopped eating meat, which I really respect.
But one evening was disastrous. I don't know if the exact specifics are important, but basically, my friend's mother has confused things, and we received a meal from her with meat, instead of the vegan tofu version that she had also prepared earlier. I did kind of take a closer look at it, but it did seem to look pretty much like the tofu version I've also seen and had earlier. I was pretty hungry, so I started eating it immediately. It was not until I consumed half the meal that my friend got around to eating it, but instead of eating it, she somehow noticed that something's very off.
The moment I've gained this knowledge, I immediately stopped eating it further, I've become filled with disgust, and started feeling unwell.
I did not mention this earlier, but the thing that initially made me stop eating meat, was just pure disgust, the fact that I am eating the dead remains of something that was once a nice living animal, not that different from us humans. It was not about the conditions of animal rights, conditions in farms, or the environmental and health concerns. Those things of course did come to me later, but the one thing that has really caused me to stop eating meat was just this pure disgust. So you can see, why this kind of situation was especially bad for me.
I've then tried vomiting it, there have been some fights especially with my friend's abusive father, but those specifics are personal, intimate and not really important.
The aftermath is - I've got this trauma now, and it seems like I've completely lost trust in non-vegans having anything to do with my food. I know it was an unintended mistake of my friend's mother, and I can forgive it, but the consequences are undoable. My friend's parents have also been strongly denying and disagreeing that such an event is capable of causing trauma, so I am not really willing to have anything to do with them anymore. I'm still fine, and just like I said before, I'm still able to tolerate interacting with non-vegans just fine, but the consequences are that I no longer feel able to trust being a guest in any non-vegan home, unless it would just be for a short visit without any food. So this goes for my own family as well, despite the fact that they had nothing to do with this situation.
The Christmas season is coming up, but I will not be visiting my family at all this year. There are other reasons, such as the fact that I'm not a fan of this holiday in general, but of course the primary reason is this situation.
It is pretty unfortunate, that over the years I've gained a lot of trust in people (although I never stopped being cautious), and was able to live more like a normal person in this society, just for it to be shattered by one stupid person making one stupid mistake.
If you got to the end, thanks for reading. Although I am posting this in the "Support" forum, I'm not really strictly asking for support, I'll be fine, I mostly just wanted to share my story. This happened more than two months ago, already. But if you want to, feel free to respond with support, too.
I have not visited this forum in a long time, since my veganism has been going pretty much without any problems, but there's something I'd like to share now.
Starting off, I have been vegan for quite a few years at this point, starting still in my teenage years. It was very tough in the first year of so, when suddenly most of humanity seemed to become disgusting monsters and my enemies. It was very easy for me to get into arguments, or just become depressed just because of something that a non-vegan person said, whether that was in person or on the Internet. It was very hard for me to trust anyone. It was especially hard even living in my own home, with my mother and her occasional guests, who were not used to being near veganism. There were lots of arguments and fights.
Although, my mother did support me, it was even her that was partially responsible for me deciding to go vegan. She wanted to quit eating meat for a long time before that, but thought it was too hard to do so in a home where others eat meat. A few months after I went fully vegan, she completely stopped eating meat, and these days she rarely eats or uses any products with any ingredients of animal origin.
Over the years, my situation has improved a lot.
I've gotten much more resistant to the huge amount of animal product consumption out there being depressing to me.
I'm no longer so concerned and disgusted by most of my friends being non-vegans.
My home has become comfortable to live in, there are almost never any animal products here, I don't think there was even any meat in this fridge, ever.
I've earned a lot more trust in non-vegans and their ability to co-exist with vegans. And those who are stupid beyond repair, can no longer affect my feelings personally.
I've had good experiences with some of my close friends and family, being able to enjoy a great time together with food, and even having them cook vegan meals for all of us to enjoy.
But recently, this trust has gotten shattered.
I was visiting the family of a vegan friend of mine, since I was invited to her brother's huge birthday party. The specifics of that are not really important. We were staying at her parents' house for a few days, since her family comes from a different part of the country (and so does mine). Her family is generally not vegan at all, and the friend once told me how she was not accepted at all as vegan by her parents in her childhood, being disrespected and forcibly unable to change her lifestyle and what she eats. These days it has obviously improved, and even her father seems to have stopped eating meat, which I really respect.
But one evening was disastrous. I don't know if the exact specifics are important, but basically, my friend's mother has confused things, and we received a meal from her with meat, instead of the vegan tofu version that she had also prepared earlier. I did kind of take a closer look at it, but it did seem to look pretty much like the tofu version I've also seen and had earlier. I was pretty hungry, so I started eating it immediately. It was not until I consumed half the meal that my friend got around to eating it, but instead of eating it, she somehow noticed that something's very off.
The moment I've gained this knowledge, I immediately stopped eating it further, I've become filled with disgust, and started feeling unwell.
I did not mention this earlier, but the thing that initially made me stop eating meat, was just pure disgust, the fact that I am eating the dead remains of something that was once a nice living animal, not that different from us humans. It was not about the conditions of animal rights, conditions in farms, or the environmental and health concerns. Those things of course did come to me later, but the one thing that has really caused me to stop eating meat was just this pure disgust. So you can see, why this kind of situation was especially bad for me.
I've then tried vomiting it, there have been some fights especially with my friend's abusive father, but those specifics are personal, intimate and not really important.
The aftermath is - I've got this trauma now, and it seems like I've completely lost trust in non-vegans having anything to do with my food. I know it was an unintended mistake of my friend's mother, and I can forgive it, but the consequences are undoable. My friend's parents have also been strongly denying and disagreeing that such an event is capable of causing trauma, so I am not really willing to have anything to do with them anymore. I'm still fine, and just like I said before, I'm still able to tolerate interacting with non-vegans just fine, but the consequences are that I no longer feel able to trust being a guest in any non-vegan home, unless it would just be for a short visit without any food. So this goes for my own family as well, despite the fact that they had nothing to do with this situation.
The Christmas season is coming up, but I will not be visiting my family at all this year. There are other reasons, such as the fact that I'm not a fan of this holiday in general, but of course the primary reason is this situation.
It is pretty unfortunate, that over the years I've gained a lot of trust in people (although I never stopped being cautious), and was able to live more like a normal person in this society, just for it to be shattered by one stupid person making one stupid mistake.
If you got to the end, thanks for reading. Although I am posting this in the "Support" forum, I'm not really strictly asking for support, I'll be fine, I mostly just wanted to share my story. This happened more than two months ago, already. But if you want to, feel free to respond with support, too.
