As a child in Bendigo, Jennifer Connor did not feel rural life was idyllic. Instead, she suffered panic attacks, insomnia, depression, anger, and a sense of isolation.
“A lot of people had rabbits and chooks in their backyard,” she recalls. “It would become a neighbourhood event to cut the chooks head off and watch it run around. I had related to these little beings all of my life. When the next-door neighbour handed over a rabbit I had been petting, I was mortified that my mother was going to make stew from this rabbit. I couldn’t eat meat, which I related to rabbit.”
Should psychologists recognise ‘vegan depression’?
Connor's concern for animals continued into adulthood. After discovering animal cruelty in the dairy industry, she transitioned from vegetarianism to veganism.
As the only vegan she knew, Connor, now 67, says she was seen as odd and difficult to entertain, resulting in feelings of despair and loneliness.
"Vystopia" is a term which attempts to describe psychological symptoms experienced by some people who choose veganism for ethical reasons.
The term was coined in 2017 by Australian psychologist, Clare Mann.
Sufferers of vystopia perceive a dystopian reality where government, business and most humans collude in horrific, ubiquitous exploitation and abuse of other species.
Online survey research by Mann, who released a book on the subject in May, suggests Connor’s problems are common in those going vegan for cruelty reasons.
Of the 815 vegans Mann surveyed, 83 per cent reported suffering symptoms of vystopia.
Mann’s goal is to have vystopia recognised by the psychology community. She claims many with the problem are incorrectly – in her opinion – diagnosed with eating disorders, social maladjustment, and other issues.
While vystopia sufferers experience symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other problems, Mann believes it should be recognised as a unique condition.
“It is a function of knowing about the systemised cruelty towards animals,” she says.
Mann has even treated non-vegans affected by vystopia, including people upset by the live export trade, abattoir workers and farmers. Her clients include children. She says, “It’s about their heart opening and empathising with the suffering.”
But, is vystopia is a legitimate condition?
Sydney psychologist Adam Fitzpatrick says most of his vegan clients seem to struggle to some degree.
“It does impact people’s functioning," he says. "There are real psychological symptoms that are measurable and objectively observed.”
Fitzpatrick thinks it’s partly a social adjustment problem. “They may socially withdraw and feel a disconnect between themselves and others in their world who don’t subscribe to their ethics.”
They also feel guilt.
“They don’t want to push their values on other people," Fitzpatrick says. "When you feel powerless, guilt, emotionally triggered and a sense of isolation, then that’s a recipe for depression.”
Fitzpatrick says vegans tend to be more empathetic. “They find it hard to separate their own feelings and emotions about the animal industry, and the cruelty that goes with it, and live effectively in the world at the same time.”
Recognition of the problem would increase understanding and reduce some of the stigma sufferers face, Fitzpatrick says.
Carmen Nicotra, a Sydney-based psychotherapist, views vystopia as a type of existential depression: a form of depression characterised by despair around the meaning of life.
“Everything that people experience is legitimate from a therapist's perspective,” she says. “Whether we have a diagnostic category or not, we know that certain groups of people have common experiences.”
She believes vegans unfairly cop flak in our society, and a specific diagnosis could "help them make sense" of their experience, noting that vegans are "still a minority".
“Freud said, to live with death anxiety, most of us choose to pretend its not there," she explains. "I would say, that people who oppose veganism do exactly the same thing. It’s easier for them not to be confronted by the issues of animal cruelty. But vegans have that sensitivity and they live with it.”
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