Dear Tina;

I would like to read more about your personal suffering that was inflicted on you by other people, which led you to being “fed up with the human species”. If you feel okay sharing, please do.

anita

Yes, thank you for keeping this conversation open and searchable. I found it by searching “how to deal with suffering of other beings.” Pascal’s words especially resonated with and helped me. Thank you!

Hello, like others who have commented here, I found this post after a Google search on empathy & animal suffering. These posts really helped to put things into perspective. Thank you for taking the time to write this content & for making it accessible. The post written by Matt was especially helpful for me. I tend to go through cycles with these immense emotions regarding this issue (last night I could not sleep at all). And it is only contributing to the overall “pain burden”. Seeing it in that way is so helpful…and I will try to remember that the next time the downward spiral takes off. Thanks again – S

I would like to thank everyone on here who has posted and I think there is some great advice on here. I also have been through great suffering over the past few years due to the cruel acts done to animals which led me to some very dark places. At one point I felt as if my soul had finally broke and that I was living in an actual hell. This deep suffering eventually turned to anger against the world and I found myself despising humanity. I could barely function in the world anymore.

I eventually realized that I needed to get help and I began to go to a psychiatrist to help rid myself of this anger and pain. Over many months I learned how to become aware of my emotions and to let go of what I could not control. I turned to mediation and let myself grieve for all of the suffering I had witnessed. It has not been an easy battle and I still struggle day to day. However the struggle has eased and the pain is not so great.

The greatest lesson I have learned throughout this process is that the suffering of other beings will always be present in the world. This is the nature of existence and it is not something I will ever be able to end. I have come to accept this. However I do what I can and I focus on the good that I have done. Do not focus on the bad or you will go crazy.

I truely believe those that feel suffering as we do are all going through this process for a reason. I know it has made me a more compassionate person on a much deeper level then before. I am starting to realize the magnitude of the suffering in those that are inflicting pain on other living beings. The bigger picture has begun to come into focus.

I felt very lost for many years but I would not give up this experience. I feel like I have evolved as a human and that I am reaching a small, but measurable level of contentment. The world is not such a terible place and is actually filled with a lot of beauty and  beautiful people with kind souls.

I didnt mean to come on here and just talk about myself but I hope that my story will help someone else that is suffering. You may be in a very dark place now but keep on working through it. It will get easier and you will be a better person for it.

I just created an account in order to reply to this thread, as I found it so helpful. The pain I feel when thinking about animal suffering can feel crippling. It seems to be getting worse as the years go by, to the point that even cartoons and films will bring me to tears. Loved ones will tell me “it’s just a film” but it simply reminds me of the truth behind them and the realities so many of us turn a blind eye to. The same applies for human cruelties and violence.

I, like many others on this thread, recognize these feelings are not productive, beyond changing my own behaviour, i.e. going vegan, supporting animal welfare charities, working in a hospice. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to shake the guilt that comes with knowing that every minute of the day, there is suffering and death of innocent, sentient beings while I am safe and fortunate in my own life.

It helps to know there are others feeling similarly and am glad I Googled my way to this thread. So grateful and will re-read this when I need it. 🙏🏻

Dear Contributers,

I have been suffering with the same issues as the people before me. It has been less than a year for me to really learn about the abhorent cruelty that animals have to suffer by the actions of human’s.

My cats have been my compassion connection & thanks to them I recognized that every animal is a unique individual and has wishes, fears & feelings. By supporting animal welfare organizations that help strays I naturally learned about industry farming, industry fishing & the uncountable horrors of hunting, fur farming, animal testing, pouching. Paired with the ongoing biodiversity loss & the 6th mass extinction, I cant help but despise humanity for destroying this planet & torturing helpless animals on a daily basis for consumption, entertainment, money. I have immense guilt for having contributed to this as a human and as a meat eater. Eventhough I started to advocate, donate & turned vegan, I cant stop having obsessive & suicidal thoughts as the suffering seems never ending & the animals beyond saving. My soul is broken & often feel like I have swallowed the Red Pill & like in the Movie the Matrix have come to know that there is an evil kind abusing sentient beings. But knowingly the majority participates. For months I have been daily reading News, watching documentaries & cant let go of this topic. I dont feel happiness anymore & I dont think I deserve it, for all the suffering I inflicted with my actions & because every moment there are millions of animals suffering.

BUT I have to thank to the writers before for writing about the little time we have had on this planet & that the earth will survive us.

I also understand now that I have been inflicting pain to myself as a punishment & by also feeling that I am doing something for the animals by gathering all the gruesome facts, instead of taking action.

I understand now that I wont help any kind with hatred & sadness in my heart & will try to heal by not getting so emotionally involved and becoming stronger, so that I can eventually put all this time & emotions into action instead of doomscrolling & paralyzing.

When I first became a vegetarian, I started leaving copies of “Eating Animals” in libraries and I even gave it to someone I knew, one of my few acquaintances, a spiritual leader, and she decided to become a vegetarian because of that book and because her daughter is a vegetarian…. And now at community functions, she sometimes in this irritated way introduces me as The Person Who Made Me Give Up Meat, and I’m like 😯

So I give up. I stopped promoting that book. But, I also never ate another animal.

Sometimes people suck; they can’t figure it out. They just look around them at the other people, you know. 🤧

…. I don’t know, right.

Hmm, I manually checked back here and found a reply, but I actually checked the box that said for the site to e-mail me when this thread was updated, which did not happen—does anybody who knows the site understand this?

As for the content, although I certainly didn’t join this site to argue with people, anymore than I “blame” people I don’t know for things—factory farming did not exist before the 20th century, although it’s how 99% of meat is processed in the USA today. I read “Eating Animals”, which, although I was trying to be funny, was actually a great book, which you might consider reading, or some other book like that, as I don’t expect anyone to have a conversion experience from me writing one or two paragraphs. But just briefly, our ancestors are far less meat than we do today, which was acquired far more humanely, and there were far fewer of them. The environmental effects of factory farming today actually have a negative influence on the human race surviving.

But I also don’t go around “blaming” people, as I thought I made clear. I actually think meat eaters are far more likely to spout off about vegetarians than the reverse (Anthony Bourdain made this joking comparison of us to “terrorists” I guess because we don’t eat the “American way”—even if it tastes the same!). People can get incredibly blame-y at the very idea of other people trying to make good choices, even if those people never blame or even ad-blitz them the way that the 95% of the food industry that eats meat ad-blitzes everyone else.

My apologies if that sounds angry or whatever; sometimes I think I sound angry even when I am not. I just like to line up all the arguments into a satisfying little row, you know.

have a nice day.