Mental & Emotional Well-being for Vystopians and Animal Rights Advocates

World Mental Health Day is on 10th October of each year and encourage everyone to reflect on their own and other’s mental health and well-being.

For everyone living in the modern world, overwhelm is a frequently expressed reaction to the enormity of information and demands around us. The advent of the internet, mobile phones, mainstream and social media and 24/7 access to entertainment, information and people, has to be managed or else it will result in ‘mental dis-ease’.

But What About the Mental Health of Vegans?

In my book, Vystopia: The Anguish of Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World, I state that vegans have all the normal problems of life to contend with, and then vystopia is thrown on top.

The research for my book, highlighted a number of felt and behaviourally-manifested mental challenges expressed by vegans, including:

• Struggling daily to live in a dark and cruel world of hidden animal cruelty.
• Being consumed by anger, grief and misanthropy for what humans are capable of doing to animals.
• Despair that the world is darker than one ever thought, resulting in the question, “If I didn’t know about billions of animals suffering behind closed doors every year, what else don’t I know?”
• Self-blame and guilt knowing we must change ourselves in order to influence others to not contribute to the problem, and yet unsure of how to do this.

There is a way to turn one’s vystopia into positive action and, frankly, it’s the only solution I’ve found to channel vystopia directly and productively. This involves a combination of Inner Transformation and Communication Mastery.

What about the Mental Health of Animal Activists Working on the Front-Line?

Whilst it’s enormously challenging to hold the Burden of Knowing and discover new forms of animal exploitation or be ridiculed, resisted and ignored by others who feel one’s veganism is extreme, being constantly faced with animal cruelty directly is a huge challenge to one’s well-being.

Special Podcast on the mental health of Vegans and Animal Rights Advocates

The UK Vegan Society marked World Mental Health Day 2025 with a special edition of The Vegan Pod, available now. Together with Damian Watson from The Vegan Society and Animal Justice Projectactivist, Ayrton Cooper, we discussed the specific triggers of poor mental health in vegans and how to look after ourselves while you look after others.

The Vegan Pod is available on Apple, Spotify, Podbean: https://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/vegan-pod

I encourage you to listen to this enormously helpful podcast and also check out the other recordings which embolden and empower our lives and outreach as vegans and animal rights advocates.

References:

MANN, C.E. (2018) Vystopia: The Anguish of Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World. Australia: Communicate31.com

The Vegan Pod : on Apple, Spotify, Podbean: https://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/vegan-pod