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Every now and again, an article decrying the
prevalence of depression among vegans and
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vegetarians stirs up controversy, most often
prompted by the publication of one study or
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another assessing the impact of diet on mental
health.
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While sensational headlines like “The Scary
Mental Health Risks of Going Meatless” are
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sure to grab attention and pique the Schadenfreude-driven
morbid fascination with taking veganism down
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a notch, are the studies behind such articles
actually the damning evidence of vegan-induced
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mental unbalance their purported to be?
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Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome
to another vegan nugget.
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There is, unsurprisingly, a great deal of
back and forth withina the scientific, medical,
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and lay communities, about the impact of veganism
on mental health, with ample studies indicating
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the mood enhancing benefits of a whole foods
vegan diet, while others suggest a correlation
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between veg inclinations and incidents of
mental illness.
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While I will go into greater depth on the
nutritional side of veganism and mental health
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in a separate video, I have included on the
blog post for this video, citations to some
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of these studies as well as additional resources
if you want help making sure your diet is
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balanced.
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But I’m addressing something in this video
that was, for the most part, entirely absent
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in the hundreds of studies and articles I
consulted, save for a few mentions here and
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there—the reason why, if in fact vegans
are by and large more depressed, which I have
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yet to see any broad enough statistical analysis
of, I would not be surprised in the slightest.
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In focusing on things like the quality of
plant-derived long-chain omega fatty acids,
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all of these studies and articles failed to
address the issue of awareness.
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There are many reasons people refuse to go
vegan, but in my personal opinion, one of
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if not the main source of that resistance
is the pain of accountability and the trauma
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of facing the true impact of our choices.
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Interestingly enough, the two studies behind
the sensationalized headline I mentioned,
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stated that participants’ mental illnesses
had pre-dated their dietary switch.
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This of course lead to speculation that “the
experience of a mental disorder increases
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the probability of choosing a vegetarian diet,”
and that “being a vegetarian [is] a fairly
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significant commitment and it picks up people
at the fringe of the obsessive-compulsive
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spectrum."
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Essentially meaning you have to be crazy to
even go vegetarian, god forbid vegan.
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Framing veganism as a manifestation of dietary
neurosis neglects the true breadth and depth
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of veganism, and the non-dietary motivations
for changing ones diet.
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For example, maybe depressed individuals are
by nature more sensitive and empathetic to
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the suffering of others, influencing both
their depressed state and their decision to
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go vegan.
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There is one preliminary study that ventured
into this area, using functional MRIs to observe
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and compare the brain activity of omnivores,
and ethical vegetarians, and vegans as they
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viewed scenes of alternatively human and animal
suffering.
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While admitting their study’s own limitations,
their results suggested higher empathy for
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non-human suffering amongst ethical vegans
and vegetarians than within omnivores.
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Another study, which I cover in-depth my video
“The N-Words Meat-Eaters Use,” attempted
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to standardize the rationalizations made for
eating meat.
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A more controversial aspect of their findings,
supported by previous work as well, was that
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the people who ate the most meat tended to
support, endorse, or justify, inequality within
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their own species as well.
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Denial and justification do function as protective
measures.
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The true awareness of the horrors we inflict
upon animals, of the destruction we’ve wreaked
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upon the environment, and the damage we’ve
brought upon our own bodies and those of our
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children, can prompt both a shift to veganism
and an understandable state of depression.
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I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a vegan
conversion story devoid of emotional strife.
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Of course once we’ve gone through the pain
of confronting our own part, we have the pleasure
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of watching the vast majority of the world,
including our own friends, family, and loved
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ones, continue to participate in what we now
clearly see as the enslavement, torture, and
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murder of innocent beings and decimation of
our planet.
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Perhaps we see their health declining as they
eat themselves to death.
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If you’re non-vegan and find this a bit
hyperbolic, you’re not alone.
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I have two videos that delve into this matter
in greater depth, explaining the apparent
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emotional volatility, over-sensitivity, and
at times outright aggression of vegans.
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Both videos are linked in the sidebar and
below.
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In many ways, going vegan is like becoming
an exposed nerve.
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Suddenly everything you’ve worked so hard
to shield yourself from even thinking about
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comes into painfully clear focus—for some
all at once, for others, progressively over
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time.
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Many vegans—whether consciously or not—start
to rebuild their protective insulation, understandably
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finding it all too much to bear.
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If any of us were ever to be fully and completely
aware of what was happening every moment in
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this world, we’d literally be driven insane.
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Activists working on the front lines every
day are exposed to a level of trauma rivaling
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any war zone.
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Whether undercover at slaughterhouses, hearing
the horrific cries of pigs in gas chambers,
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seeing the terror in the eyes of cows in knock
boxes, watching sentient beings bleed out,
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gasping through torn tracheas, standing by
as billions of male chicks are ground up alive
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in the egg industry, infiltrating the dog
meat industry where unspeakable torture of
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many species is standard practice, or bearing
witness outside of slaughterhouses, watching
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truck after truck after truck carry terrified
beings to their brutal deaths—striving to
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educate and inform a widely uninterested—even
apathetic—and at times aggressively resistant,
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public to the lies they’ve been told and
the realities they’ve denied.
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For many, being vegan means seeing what we
don’t want to see—what our entire society
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strives so profoundly hard to block out and
ignore.
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And even when it is thrust out into the open
whether through undercover footage and documentaries,
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solid scientific evidence on the medical and
environmental fronts, or the overturning of
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a livestock truck, literally spilling out
into the open the very individuals we want
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so much to remain hidden so we can eat their
bodies without thinking of their faces, even
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then—when the truth is so blatantly exposed,
we have well-practiced denials at the ready.
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That it’s an isolated event, it’s not
like that here, it’s faulty science, we
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buy humane products, we need the protein,
it’s what has to be done, we need better
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standards, vegans are just overly-emotional,
and on and on.
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Or may be run out of justifications.
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And all we’re left with is brazen denial.
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As flimsy and ineffective at hiding the truth
as the cardboard used to shield the public
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execution of the injured survivors of one
overturned truck in Canada.
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We see, day after day, astoundingly malicious
acts of cruelty, and disgustingly selfish
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disregard for the lives of others and the
environmental crisis affecting us all.
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And perhaps even more heartbreakingly, our
own family—self-proclaimed animal lovers—continuing
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to support everything we’re fighting against.
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We watch as our loved ones eat the bodies
and secretions of our loved ones.
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We watch as those holding the gun or the blade
are protected, while those holding the camera
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or bottle of water are arrested and vilified,
because within the realm of the animal products
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industries, the killing of children is standard
business practice, and anyone wanting to stop
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or even document this reality, is the criminal.
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So if a study does come out one day finding
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definitively that vegans are more prone to
depression and mental illness than non-vegans,
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don’t expect to count me among the shocked.
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Honestly, with the state of our world and
what we as a species continue to inflict upon
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others, ourselves and our planet, not being
heartbroken, devastated and enraged is a far
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more troubling reaction.
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While this video may seem like the worst commercial
for veganism ever, going vegan has and does
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enhance the physical and mental health of
so many people.
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But it can simultaneously be incredibly challenging
to stay connected to all the suffering and
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destruction.
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But I for one would not for a second trade
the pain of awareness for the comfort of denial.
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Yes, there is bliss in ignorance, for the
ignorant.
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For more information on what I covered today,
please see the links in the video description,
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including the blog post, where I have provided
resources to self-care and decompression ideas
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for activists, as well as information on nutrition’s
influence on mental health, which I will cover
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more in depth in another video.
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I do want to note that while this video largely
focused on trauma-induced and situational
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depression, mental illness does not depend
on one’s experiences or beliefs.
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In addition, for any vegans with concerns
about the ethics of medication, please see
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my video “Is Medication Vegan.”
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I personally want to thank my $50 and above
patrons and my whole Nugget Army Patreon family
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for making it possible for me to dedicate
myself fulltime to providing free, vegan education.
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If you’d like to help support the efforts
of Bite Size Vegan please check out the support
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links in the video description below or the
link in the sidebar.
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If you found this video helpful, please give
it a thumbs up and share it around to reach
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others struggling, and subscribe for more
vegan content every week.
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Now go live vegan, with awareness, and I’ll
see you s on.
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I've heard people say "I thought I was going to be tougher, I thought I was going to be able to handle this."
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There's no honor in being able to "handle it."
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We should all react that way.
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We should all be horrified.
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We should all be in tears.
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If you're there and you see that and it doesn't—
it doesn't rip you apart...
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...that's when there might be a problem.