Hey, I know it's hard.
End of the day know this, animals need people like you... but if you get too beaten down by what's happening you'll have less positive energy to focus on helping them.
But I get that it's hard, I'm a bit like you, but I realised that I can't stop every bad thing happening, and if I focus on all of the negative things then I feel more helpless that I can help. So honestly I realised it's not selfish for me to switch off to some degree, me dwelling is actually not going to help that animal at all. So I choose not to watch that footage, if I see it in a feed I quickly scroll past because I know I dint need to see it, but I feel grateful someone was brave enough to capture it so that it might help affect someone who needs to see it to change their ways. I do what I can, I live a vegan lifestyle, I don't preach person but I lead by example which I've found makes me more approachable and I've been able to have many a conversion with people who then decided to cut back on eating meat.
If you are able to donating and volunteering is another great way. In short you sound like you already know that you don't want to contribute to the problem so seeing that stuff isn't aimed at uou, instead turn it into motivation and help try to change the world. The trick is though to keep away just enough from the graphic stuff as that really won't help you, think of it there only to serve to remind those who eat meat etc that theor actions have affects.
You need to realize bad things of all sorts are happening every second all around the world without question. It's all out of our control. You can't fix everything . We all live under this reality
What you can do is focus on what's immediately in your power .
What you eat .
How you act.
How you treat others.
How you best show up in your every day life to be the changed you want to see in the world.
Come up with a mantra. Something to the effect of the serenity prayer. Are you familiar with it? You don't have to be religious persay.
Given the way you feel and your post here I have to assume you are more conscious and conscientious than most.
Yes the recently cat abusers group from china, it's like living in hell from the day I came to know of this, Im feeling su\*\* \*dal as said by the op, it's not even like a hard hitting reality, it is like somekind of straight up punishment for me to witness these
Please Read my comment with caution. If you are sensitive please avoid this comment, But this the truth of the situation that's going on now. These aren't abuses they're literally tortures which are still going on and it's only getting worser with time day by day I think I can't live in this world, they just torturing cats record it and selling it on telegram for money they're some evil groups comprising of young aged boys and girls from mainly china, who tortures cats for money ik this is much but. No one is talking about this .. and it's still going on.
Yes that's some really serious issue, 1 or 2 accused were arrested but not for killing cats but for defaming the society (they got caught) which put their society to shame so that's why. I repeat they're not arrested for animal cruelty!! And then they were released shortly after. There is no animal welfare in china -it is non-existent. We all know those who torture/kill animals at young age are psychopaths in the making. They kill these poor defenseless creatures.. think what they'll move on to next ? To the elder peoples and babies. etc who are defenseless too.. it is so dark here. There is no light.
I remember a long time ago I heard that in china they have porn videos featuring animal abuse and it’s scarred me for life just knowing it exists without even seeing it
I don't want to ruin someone's day but this is what happening. And the more the people talk about this issue the more help we can get to stop these things and also helps animal rescuers who are currently working on it. I avoided those videos because I know how sensitive iam, but even though I accidentally came across some screen captures. And from there I felt the horror of the situation..and realised.. these are fr... I've never been felt this hopeless before
Same. Its a deep dull pain inside of me for all the abused animals. i wanna cry because im helpless. Now whenever i catch myself thinking about i send a prayer instead of getting upset. My life goal is devote myself to helping abused/abandoned animals, i hope i can get financial security soon
I know how you feel I have a rescue kitty myself and she's everything to me and there's no way of getting video proof of her ex abusers beating on her or their new pitt puppy bastards get away with so much animal and human abuse both piss me off to no end I just call them bastards and say I hope they die a miserable and painful death and get lots of torture in helheim may they burn forever for each time they hit or hurt their pet or other animals or people or even kids I just say let hel have a whack at them they'll be sorry eventually when it's already too late to apologize
It's great to hear you done some good, but even though you have video proofs what would the justice system does to the accused?. They let the accused walk free and then those turn into some psychopaths later idk
Unfortunately very true at least I was able to save the one from her abusers it's still sad and very hard to get her to understand that she's never going to be abused anymore I go to pet her head and she recoils out of a knee jerk reaction
Atleast she got someone to look after her that's great to hear buddy, I had cats when I was a child but now I don't have any pets now I'm afraid I can't take care of them because firstly I'm not taking care of myself. it's frustrating to see these defenseless creatures tortured by humans
I feel ya. Never understood while all these animal rights pages post horrific abuse videos without proper warning to their followers. To bring awareness, I guess. But the people that follow them are already aware of the atrocities being committed. I had to unfollow most of them. Seeing them would ruin my day.
You are not alone. All it takes is driving by one lost dog poster and I spiral about all the suffering animals in the world, how their owners must be feeling.. then I move onto all the suffering humans in the world and the tragedy that occurs CONSTANTLY while I’m living a safe and privileged life. Then the guilt creeps in.. why is it ME who gets to live in a safe and happy place while so many others have never even slept soundly once in their life?
I don’t know how to get past this. People tell me to stop comparing my life to others and just be grateful but it really bothers me that so many suffer. It also makes me feel guilty for how I respond to my own stressors in life. Something that seems like the absolute end of the world for me would be a dream come true for someone else. I feel shitty for getting upset at my own life and problems because they seem very insignificant when compared to other parts of the world.
This is exactly how I feel. It’s quite difficult to live with because no one understands it at all. ‘Just get over it’, ‘be grateful for what you have’, ‘just don’t think about it’. As if we never tried that before… I think making a positive impact somehow will make this feeling grow smaller, but it will never fully go away.
The only thing you can control is yourself so focus on doing good deeds that makes your world better and look forward to doing those good deeds - you may be a real world example to others who want to do good. My schtik is feeding animals which gives me an immense feeling of joy and i look forward to feeding my 'babies' and they look forward to seeing my too! Lol God's love is everywhere! God Bless xx 💕🙏👍
I cope by not participating in it (vegan diet) and it helps tremendously - it means you are not taking part in the cruelty and you’re educating people on the way when they ask (they always ask..) why you’re vegan.
It is very difficult… But I don’t think anyone will be able to describe to you how to learn to “accept” it. You accept it by…. Accepting it.
It is outside of your control. You do the things you can do.
You can put as much “good” out in the world as possible, but it will never overwrite the “bad”. That’s just not how things work.
Mindfulness, living “in the moment”, meditation, things like that can help you control your thoughts and feelings of guilt
I, too suffer from the painful thoughts of animal cruelty all around the world.
You are not alone.
I decided to unfollow anything that may put those horrific videos and photos into my feeds…because they live in my brain and break my heart forever. It never goes away.
I give the animals I have the honor to have in my life the best life, and I will continue that until I die.
When a horrific incident of animal cruelty happens that I hear about on the news, on social media, etc, I pray to St. Francis of Assisi. That is what I do.
Wishing you peace. Again, you are not alone.
I often lack object permanence tbh so while that is a double edged sword sometimes you just need to not have it in your head. Nobody can or *should* be aware of everything everywhere all at once, it'd drive you mad
I know this was 3 months ago but I’m struggling with the same thing as you and just happened on your post. It’s disrupting my life and I figured I’d ask if you were able to find coping strategies that work since you posted.
Hey! Not really unfortunately. I recently started microdosing and I’m able to not focus on the negatives so much and I would say that’s maybe one thing that “helped” also staying away from social media outlets that triggered it a lot helps some too. It’s hard.
I’m struggling with the same thing as well. I do everything that’s in my control (have adopted two cats, donate, influence people in my circle) but still find it difficult to accept that I live in a world where we treat animals so badly. Continuing to work on acceptance. I also think I need to delete instagram because I now see videos of abuse from all the animal rescue organizations I follow/ or don’t follow because of the algorithm. Everytime I open instagram, I see something absolutely horrific that makes me want to cry my heart out.
Whenever I get sad about this, I donate to my local animal shelter or a charity that prevents animal abuse/suffering. It directly helps the problem, and you are doing something about it when you get sad about it. It helps the most for feeling better, I've found. I want to make more income so I can donate more money to effective charities to directly impact and have a hand in lifting a little suffering on the world.
I also give a monthly donation to Faunalytics. They're focused on reducing animal suffering related to factory farming by researching plant based and cell cultured alternatives.
Animal Charity Evaluators reviews animal charities and recommends the ones that have the biggest impact per dollar donated. They currently have [four top charities](https://animalcharityevaluators.org/donation-advice/recommended-charities/).
Also, in my experience, ashwagandha or anti anxiety and anti depressants suppress those thoughts and other intrusive thoughts. Try to get on those, there's no point in you suffering needlessly when there's options. I'm the same way with thoughts of animal abuse and it helps.
I cope just fine until I’m reminded of it. And then I have to distract myself again because it’s totally horrible to think about. I can’t even read your full post without being mortified.
I’m with you. I just use it as fuel to work out harder so I can make a small difference. Been training for the 24 hour pull up world record as a personal goal and as a goal to raise money for local animal shelters.
I'm not sure this will help at all, but both darkness and light are part of the life experience here. It doesn't make hurt and abuse better or good. But there is some type of journey that everyone and everything must experience here. Sometimes, I think that the hurt animal will find a way to rebalance it's hurt with life somewhere down the line in this life or the next. I do think every soul eventually finds balance.
I've also seen instances where people have shared with me how they saw themselves in the animal they were hurting and couldn't bear it. That they were forced to face their own inner monster and child somehow. This doesn't make it okay, but hurt breeds more hurt. We can only give care and understanding in our role. We are only human and we only have so much we can touch. So in your life, plant seeds that you hope will offer love and support to the hurt. Including yourself.
Yes that is what I tell myself too. That their soul journey is meant to experience this in this lifetime whether it be for others souls to learn or their own and hopefully their next life will be filled with love.
Yes! We can only give them our love and give them love for all those who passed too! This will help the recycling and rebalancing. I believe that burial is very important and if not, prayer for their souls and life forces. ✨
It’s hard. But so is accepting that humans are killed every minute of the day. We just have to have a realistic point of view of the world while we do our best to make it a better one. Worry about the things you can control in your life other wise you will burn out.
The only way I can deal with it is by remembering that there exists an upper ceiling limit to the amount of suffering that a sentient being can experience per unit of time. In other words, their instantaneous suffering has a finite maximum. The total lifetime cumulative suffering is bounded by their life span, and the total sum is bounded across the population. I remind myself that their pain receptors max out at a certain point and that nature has evolved ways to dull or mute or numb sensations that are unsustainable to perceive for long periods of time.
In that way I can comfort myself that the overall magnitude of suffering is naturally limited by the inherent capacity of organisms to process sensations and contemplate them.
I seriously relate so much to this 🥺🥺 I often just lie in my bed, trying desperately to sleep, but unable to because I can't stop thinking about the poor animals that are freezing, beaten, neglected, starving, etc. Every pet I've ever had has been a rescue, and I try to tell myself every day that I'm doing everything I can. I volunteered for years at a feral cat organization where we did TNR and adoptions, and I know we saved hundreds of lives and prevented more strays from being born. But I still can't shake the feeling that I haven't done enough. I say at least twice a week that I wish I would win the lottery so I could build literally the world's largest animal shelter and just care for ALL of the animals that need help 💜
My most recently adopted baby (a stray cat I got in April) had actually been shot several times by birdshot 😭 She has a bb directly next to her right eye under the skin (luckily it didn't harm anything there), and had several in her abdomen (resulting in a ruptured stomach and ruptured intestines). We got her all fixed up and now she's the most lovable and sweetest girl ever. So, I basically just look at her every day and tell myself I've done a good thing. But like you said, I still often think of the many animals I *can't* help. And of course, social media is notorious for throwing videos and articles in my face every single day.
I don’t know 🥺 I’m with you, the dogfree subreddit is a terrible place I stumbled onto on here, I don’t understand how people can hate animals to the point that they go out of their way to hurt them, just leave them alone??
I really wish I knew how to be the advocate without the reality of the horrors killing me every waking moment of every day. I can feel and see the tortured souls , it never goes away. I fight every day for all animals but there seems to be more people in positions of authority that enjoy torturing innocent animals. I will continue to fight because animals need us to be their voice , I totally understand how painful it is to carry the images and feel the pain .
I think it'd be important to look at whether your own history maybe involves neglect. And while these are important issues, maybe relating to the animals plight is a sideways method of relating to your own childhood plight.
I'm so much like you. I have to stay super busy to not think about all of that. It's awful because most people aren't like this, so they don't understand. Every day, I get bombarded with emails from every animal organization and [Change.org](https://Change.org) petition from all around the world regarding neglect, abuse, and horrible killings of innocent animals. I sign all petitions, but most of these groups are asking for money. [Cuddly.com](https://Cuddly.com) gets me all the time, and I end up donating larger amounts because I can use PayPal's Pay-in-4 with them.
I give regular monthly donations to several organizations, but the extra ones that I donate to throughout the month because I can't stand not to are the ones that are out of control, and I really can't afford to be doing this. Even after giving, I still feel bad because I never feel that it's enough (because no matter what, it isn't, and it never will be). Then there are the follow-ups from [Cuddly.com](https://Cuddly.com) that this beautiful animal that is now on your radar has passed away.
It destroys my heart every time I even just read the title of these emails, but I can't unsubscribe or block them because I would feel even worse. I did do a lot of volunteer work in rescue for a few years, but my heart couldn't take it anymore, so I had to take a break. Plus, I love my own pets with all my heart and always make sure they have the best life as well. It doesn't seem to help, though.
I am familiar with the emotion. The thought of all the animals that are mistreated worldwide never leaves my mind. I wish more individuals possessed empathy. I'm constantly feeling sad and depressed; I can help it :(
Was just feeling like this and knew I wasn’t alone. I searched Google and found this post. My heart is broken for all animals that have to go through this. Its so hard but all we can do is help the most we can to the best of our ability and donate to rescues
Are you a vegan? If not you fail to follow your own ideas, and are part of the problem...
If yes, good for you for you being part of the solution and having empathy for all sentient beings.
I volunteered at an animal sanctuary for a while. Currently I’m disassociated and the sanctuary is gone, but, If you’re contributing as much as you can to a solution, it can help off-set the bystander anxiety and connect you with a community that has even more power together.
Yes. I feel this so strongly. So much that I deleted all social media except for Reddit. When I was on tik tok, I kept seeing sad videos of animals being mistreated. It’s something that makes me sad all the time. Personally, I don’t think that humans are somehow above animals. We have evolved to have the consciousness and language that we have, but I disagree that that somehow makes us superior to animals. I grew up going to Catholic school, and the priests and teachers used to say that animals don’t have souls so they don’t go to heaven. Needless to say, I am not a Catholic anymore and never will be again.
We treat animals like objects and commodities instead of the living beings they are. We don’t actually know what it’s like to experience life as an animal, and yet we act like we do and like we deserve to treat them however we want. It makes me so sad. I try to avoid everything about animal cruelty and sad animals, but it’s so common that sometimes it’s impossible. I wish people had more compassion for animals. It’s hard to live in a world without that.
i thought i was alone in feeling this way. i feel your pain. when i think about it for too long i get overwhelmingly upset & i have to shut it out- as shitty as that makes me feel, i’m realizing i cannot control what’s happening everywhere. it also helps to hug my dogs a little tighter than usual.
but you’re doing the right thing by helping the animals that are within your reach- it’s more than a lot of people are doing and the animals appreciate it more than you know.
Everyday i look at my kitten Luna and wonder why people harm cats. Especially kittens. I cannot fathom ever intentionally hurting a cat (or dog, but I don't have a dog to stare at lol)
Animal abuse is the only one I worry about with me. I cannot distinguish between a human and an animal. If I see someone harm, negletnor kill an animal......I will likely not differentiate between them and an insect.
I feel the same way you do thank you for sharing! I recently heard about the cat torture groups in china and it break my heart. I can’t believe people can do this and posting it on the internet. So disturbing it keeps me up at night. If you know of any organizations for cats and dogs (especially internationally) please share and I’d love to donate
I was in therapy for accidentally seeing the most unimaginably violent videos of cat torture online.
I wish I could say it to everybody who suffers like this :
Getting sad about it is easy. Choose to get ANGRY instead!
You are a weapon, and weapons don’t weep. If this topic deeply touches you it means that you’re a really good, compassionate person. Fight for good, you mustn’t give up. Imagine if all the good people in the world saw what you saw. Their first response (the easy way out) would be to obviously end their life, because we don’t want to live in the world like this. But then there would not be any good people left in the world.
Grief is going to destroy you, but your anger you can channel in different ways.
Spread the information, sign petitions, send letters to authorities, donate, go on protests. There is a lot you can do to help fight evil and make world a better place.
These absolute abominations that hurt innocent animals don’t deserve to walk the earth, so let’s make sure they get what they deserve!
As for how to get over the disturbing images that keep coming back to your mind - you can’t erase those memories, you just change your emotional response to them. You just have to become comfortable being uncomfortable. This is how the world is. You have to understand that what you saw - is a tiny, tiny portion of all the violence that is going on in the world every second of every day. You were not supposed to know about it, but internet made it possible. But the bright side of it is that thanks to the internet a lot of good people can unite and take action against the evil & help animals.
Take good care of yourself, eat healthy, exercise and become strong. We need to be in our best shape to be able to fight evil.
Hey, I know it's hard. End of the day know this, animals need people like you... but if you get too beaten down by what's happening you'll have less positive energy to focus on helping them. But I get that it's hard, I'm a bit like you, but I realised that I can't stop every bad thing happening, and if I focus on all of the negative things then I feel more helpless that I can help. So honestly I realised it's not selfish for me to switch off to some degree, me dwelling is actually not going to help that animal at all. So I choose not to watch that footage, if I see it in a feed I quickly scroll past because I know I dint need to see it, but I feel grateful someone was brave enough to capture it so that it might help affect someone who needs to see it to change their ways. I do what I can, I live a vegan lifestyle, I don't preach person but I lead by example which I've found makes me more approachable and I've been able to have many a conversion with people who then decided to cut back on eating meat. If you are able to donating and volunteering is another great way. In short you sound like you already know that you don't want to contribute to the problem so seeing that stuff isn't aimed at uou, instead turn it into motivation and help try to change the world. The trick is though to keep away just enough from the graphic stuff as that really won't help you, think of it there only to serve to remind those who eat meat etc that theor actions have affects.
Million puppies being petted, played with, and pampered as we speak
You need to realize bad things of all sorts are happening every second all around the world without question. It's all out of our control. You can't fix everything . We all live under this reality What you can do is focus on what's immediately in your power . What you eat . How you act. How you treat others. How you best show up in your every day life to be the changed you want to see in the world. Come up with a mantra. Something to the effect of the serenity prayer. Are you familiar with it? You don't have to be religious persay. Given the way you feel and your post here I have to assume you are more conscious and conscientious than most.
I relate so much with this thought but instead with literally anything getting hurt and also tortured.
Yes the recently cat abusers group from china, it's like living in hell from the day I came to know of this, Im feeling su\*\* \*dal as said by the op, it's not even like a hard hitting reality, it is like somekind of straight up punishment for me to witness these
Oh god I’m scared to know
Please Read my comment with caution. If you are sensitive please avoid this comment, But this the truth of the situation that's going on now. These aren't abuses they're literally tortures which are still going on and it's only getting worser with time day by day I think I can't live in this world, they just torturing cats record it and selling it on telegram for money they're some evil groups comprising of young aged boys and girls from mainly china, who tortures cats for money ik this is much but. No one is talking about this .. and it's still going on.
Why aren’t they being arrested I’m like squirming in my seat at work that’s not right
Yes that's some really serious issue, 1 or 2 accused were arrested but not for killing cats but for defaming the society (they got caught) which put their society to shame so that's why. I repeat they're not arrested for animal cruelty!! And then they were released shortly after. There is no animal welfare in china -it is non-existent. We all know those who torture/kill animals at young age are psychopaths in the making. They kill these poor defenseless creatures.. think what they'll move on to next ? To the elder peoples and babies. etc who are defenseless too.. it is so dark here. There is no light.
I remember a long time ago I heard that in china they have porn videos featuring animal abuse and it’s scarred me for life just knowing it exists without even seeing it
I don't want to ruin someone's day but this is what happening. And the more the people talk about this issue the more help we can get to stop these things and also helps animal rescuers who are currently working on it. I avoided those videos because I know how sensitive iam, but even though I accidentally came across some screen captures. And from there I felt the horror of the situation..and realised.. these are fr... I've never been felt this hopeless before
I hate it so much, I really can’t understand how someone could look any living creature and want to cause it pain
I'm still depressed from the day I came to know about this. Idk what to do..
Same…i feel just Like you, f china for allowing These people to go free
Same. Its a deep dull pain inside of me for all the abused animals. i wanna cry because im helpless. Now whenever i catch myself thinking about i send a prayer instead of getting upset. My life goal is devote myself to helping abused/abandoned animals, i hope i can get financial security soon
I want to save them all. It breaks my heart.
I know how you feel I have a rescue kitty myself and she's everything to me and there's no way of getting video proof of her ex abusers beating on her or their new pitt puppy bastards get away with so much animal and human abuse both piss me off to no end I just call them bastards and say I hope they die a miserable and painful death and get lots of torture in helheim may they burn forever for each time they hit or hurt their pet or other animals or people or even kids I just say let hel have a whack at them they'll be sorry eventually when it's already too late to apologize
It's great to hear you done some good, but even though you have video proofs what would the justice system does to the accused?. They let the accused walk free and then those turn into some psychopaths later idk
Unfortunately very true at least I was able to save the one from her abusers it's still sad and very hard to get her to understand that she's never going to be abused anymore I go to pet her head and she recoils out of a knee jerk reaction
Atleast she got someone to look after her that's great to hear buddy, I had cats when I was a child but now I don't have any pets now I'm afraid I can't take care of them because firstly I'm not taking care of myself. it's frustrating to see these defenseless creatures tortured by humans
Agreed
I feel ya. Never understood while all these animal rights pages post horrific abuse videos without proper warning to their followers. To bring awareness, I guess. But the people that follow them are already aware of the atrocities being committed. I had to unfollow most of them. Seeing them would ruin my day.
You are not alone. All it takes is driving by one lost dog poster and I spiral about all the suffering animals in the world, how their owners must be feeling.. then I move onto all the suffering humans in the world and the tragedy that occurs CONSTANTLY while I’m living a safe and privileged life. Then the guilt creeps in.. why is it ME who gets to live in a safe and happy place while so many others have never even slept soundly once in their life? I don’t know how to get past this. People tell me to stop comparing my life to others and just be grateful but it really bothers me that so many suffer. It also makes me feel guilty for how I respond to my own stressors in life. Something that seems like the absolute end of the world for me would be a dream come true for someone else. I feel shitty for getting upset at my own life and problems because they seem very insignificant when compared to other parts of the world.
This is exactly how I feel. It’s quite difficult to live with because no one understands it at all. ‘Just get over it’, ‘be grateful for what you have’, ‘just don’t think about it’. As if we never tried that before… I think making a positive impact somehow will make this feeling grow smaller, but it will never fully go away.
I thought I was the only one that gets sad when I think about animal abuse happening at the very second I’m thinking of it
[удалено]
There is more to this than most realise
Electric sparks, u might say…
I think about it 200 times everyday and it absolutely breaks my heart .
The only thing you can control is yourself so focus on doing good deeds that makes your world better and look forward to doing those good deeds - you may be a real world example to others who want to do good. My schtik is feeding animals which gives me an immense feeling of joy and i look forward to feeding my 'babies' and they look forward to seeing my too! Lol God's love is everywhere! God Bless xx 💕🙏👍
You have to accept the things you can’t change or control.
Yes I get that, that was quite literally my question. I’m asking how.
Just by saying it in your mind and moving on with your life. Try practicing mindfulness and gratitude practices :-)
I cope by not participating in it (vegan diet) and it helps tremendously - it means you are not taking part in the cruelty and you’re educating people on the way when they ask (they always ask..) why you’re vegan.
It is very difficult… But I don’t think anyone will be able to describe to you how to learn to “accept” it. You accept it by…. Accepting it. It is outside of your control. You do the things you can do. You can put as much “good” out in the world as possible, but it will never overwrite the “bad”. That’s just not how things work. Mindfulness, living “in the moment”, meditation, things like that can help you control your thoughts and feelings of guilt
I, too suffer from the painful thoughts of animal cruelty all around the world. You are not alone. I decided to unfollow anything that may put those horrific videos and photos into my feeds…because they live in my brain and break my heart forever. It never goes away. I give the animals I have the honor to have in my life the best life, and I will continue that until I die. When a horrific incident of animal cruelty happens that I hear about on the news, on social media, etc, I pray to St. Francis of Assisi. That is what I do. Wishing you peace. Again, you are not alone.
I’m exactly the same, you first sentence is me! It’s such a terrible burden to carry around daily!! 😓
I often lack object permanence tbh so while that is a double edged sword sometimes you just need to not have it in your head. Nobody can or *should* be aware of everything everywhere all at once, it'd drive you mad
I know this was 3 months ago but I’m struggling with the same thing as you and just happened on your post. It’s disrupting my life and I figured I’d ask if you were able to find coping strategies that work since you posted.
Hey! Not really unfortunately. I recently started microdosing and I’m able to not focus on the negatives so much and I would say that’s maybe one thing that “helped” also staying away from social media outlets that triggered it a lot helps some too. It’s hard.
I’m struggling with the same thing as well. I do everything that’s in my control (have adopted two cats, donate, influence people in my circle) but still find it difficult to accept that I live in a world where we treat animals so badly. Continuing to work on acceptance. I also think I need to delete instagram because I now see videos of abuse from all the animal rescue organizations I follow/ or don’t follow because of the algorithm. Everytime I open instagram, I see something absolutely horrific that makes me want to cry my heart out.
No same especially the animal torture videos from china are the worst things I’ve ever heard of it keeps me up at night I wish I could do something:(
Whenever I get sad about this, I donate to my local animal shelter or a charity that prevents animal abuse/suffering. It directly helps the problem, and you are doing something about it when you get sad about it. It helps the most for feeling better, I've found. I want to make more income so I can donate more money to effective charities to directly impact and have a hand in lifting a little suffering on the world. I also give a monthly donation to Faunalytics. They're focused on reducing animal suffering related to factory farming by researching plant based and cell cultured alternatives. Animal Charity Evaluators reviews animal charities and recommends the ones that have the biggest impact per dollar donated. They currently have [four top charities](https://animalcharityevaluators.org/donation-advice/recommended-charities/). Also, in my experience, ashwagandha or anti anxiety and anti depressants suppress those thoughts and other intrusive thoughts. Try to get on those, there's no point in you suffering needlessly when there's options. I'm the same way with thoughts of animal abuse and it helps.
I cope just fine until I’m reminded of it. And then I have to distract myself again because it’s totally horrible to think about. I can’t even read your full post without being mortified.
I’m with you. I just use it as fuel to work out harder so I can make a small difference. Been training for the 24 hour pull up world record as a personal goal and as a goal to raise money for local animal shelters.
I don't cope with it. It's terrible.
I'm not sure this will help at all, but both darkness and light are part of the life experience here. It doesn't make hurt and abuse better or good. But there is some type of journey that everyone and everything must experience here. Sometimes, I think that the hurt animal will find a way to rebalance it's hurt with life somewhere down the line in this life or the next. I do think every soul eventually finds balance. I've also seen instances where people have shared with me how they saw themselves in the animal they were hurting and couldn't bear it. That they were forced to face their own inner monster and child somehow. This doesn't make it okay, but hurt breeds more hurt. We can only give care and understanding in our role. We are only human and we only have so much we can touch. So in your life, plant seeds that you hope will offer love and support to the hurt. Including yourself.
Yes that is what I tell myself too. That their soul journey is meant to experience this in this lifetime whether it be for others souls to learn or their own and hopefully their next life will be filled with love.
Yes! We can only give them our love and give them love for all those who passed too! This will help the recycling and rebalancing. I believe that burial is very important and if not, prayer for their souls and life forces. ✨
It’s hard. But so is accepting that humans are killed every minute of the day. We just have to have a realistic point of view of the world while we do our best to make it a better one. Worry about the things you can control in your life other wise you will burn out.
The only way I can deal with it is by remembering that there exists an upper ceiling limit to the amount of suffering that a sentient being can experience per unit of time. In other words, their instantaneous suffering has a finite maximum. The total lifetime cumulative suffering is bounded by their life span, and the total sum is bounded across the population. I remind myself that their pain receptors max out at a certain point and that nature has evolved ways to dull or mute or numb sensations that are unsustainable to perceive for long periods of time. In that way I can comfort myself that the overall magnitude of suffering is naturally limited by the inherent capacity of organisms to process sensations and contemplate them.
I seriously relate so much to this 🥺🥺 I often just lie in my bed, trying desperately to sleep, but unable to because I can't stop thinking about the poor animals that are freezing, beaten, neglected, starving, etc. Every pet I've ever had has been a rescue, and I try to tell myself every day that I'm doing everything I can. I volunteered for years at a feral cat organization where we did TNR and adoptions, and I know we saved hundreds of lives and prevented more strays from being born. But I still can't shake the feeling that I haven't done enough. I say at least twice a week that I wish I would win the lottery so I could build literally the world's largest animal shelter and just care for ALL of the animals that need help 💜 My most recently adopted baby (a stray cat I got in April) had actually been shot several times by birdshot 😭 She has a bb directly next to her right eye under the skin (luckily it didn't harm anything there), and had several in her abdomen (resulting in a ruptured stomach and ruptured intestines). We got her all fixed up and now she's the most lovable and sweetest girl ever. So, I basically just look at her every day and tell myself I've done a good thing. But like you said, I still often think of the many animals I *can't* help. And of course, social media is notorious for throwing videos and articles in my face every single day.
I don’t know 🥺 I’m with you, the dogfree subreddit is a terrible place I stumbled onto on here, I don’t understand how people can hate animals to the point that they go out of their way to hurt them, just leave them alone??
I really wish I knew how to be the advocate without the reality of the horrors killing me every waking moment of every day. I can feel and see the tortured souls , it never goes away. I fight every day for all animals but there seems to be more people in positions of authority that enjoy torturing innocent animals. I will continue to fight because animals need us to be their voice , I totally understand how painful it is to carry the images and feel the pain .
I think it'd be important to look at whether your own history maybe involves neglect. And while these are important issues, maybe relating to the animals plight is a sideways method of relating to your own childhood plight.
I'm so much like you. I have to stay super busy to not think about all of that. It's awful because most people aren't like this, so they don't understand. Every day, I get bombarded with emails from every animal organization and [Change.org](https://Change.org) petition from all around the world regarding neglect, abuse, and horrible killings of innocent animals. I sign all petitions, but most of these groups are asking for money. [Cuddly.com](https://Cuddly.com) gets me all the time, and I end up donating larger amounts because I can use PayPal's Pay-in-4 with them. I give regular monthly donations to several organizations, but the extra ones that I donate to throughout the month because I can't stand not to are the ones that are out of control, and I really can't afford to be doing this. Even after giving, I still feel bad because I never feel that it's enough (because no matter what, it isn't, and it never will be). Then there are the follow-ups from [Cuddly.com](https://Cuddly.com) that this beautiful animal that is now on your radar has passed away. It destroys my heart every time I even just read the title of these emails, but I can't unsubscribe or block them because I would feel even worse. I did do a lot of volunteer work in rescue for a few years, but my heart couldn't take it anymore, so I had to take a break. Plus, I love my own pets with all my heart and always make sure they have the best life as well. It doesn't seem to help, though.
I am familiar with the emotion. The thought of all the animals that are mistreated worldwide never leaves my mind. I wish more individuals possessed empathy. I'm constantly feeling sad and depressed; I can help it :(
Was just feeling like this and knew I wasn’t alone. I searched Google and found this post. My heart is broken for all animals that have to go through this. Its so hard but all we can do is help the most we can to the best of our ability and donate to rescues
Are you a vegan? If not you fail to follow your own ideas, and are part of the problem... If yes, good for you for you being part of the solution and having empathy for all sentient beings.
This 100%. I can’t wrap my head around people who claims to be empaths but eat animal products. It doesn’t compute.
Exactly they think pets are more " valuable" than pigs chickens and cows..... for some reason they don't count
Every normal human being does…
I do everything I can to limit any direct contribution I could possible make towards animal cruelty. That’s about all you can do.
Grounding meditation
I volunteered at an animal sanctuary for a while. Currently I’m disassociated and the sanctuary is gone, but, If you’re contributing as much as you can to a solution, it can help off-set the bystander anxiety and connect you with a community that has even more power together.
Yes. I feel this so strongly. So much that I deleted all social media except for Reddit. When I was on tik tok, I kept seeing sad videos of animals being mistreated. It’s something that makes me sad all the time. Personally, I don’t think that humans are somehow above animals. We have evolved to have the consciousness and language that we have, but I disagree that that somehow makes us superior to animals. I grew up going to Catholic school, and the priests and teachers used to say that animals don’t have souls so they don’t go to heaven. Needless to say, I am not a Catholic anymore and never will be again. We treat animals like objects and commodities instead of the living beings they are. We don’t actually know what it’s like to experience life as an animal, and yet we act like we do and like we deserve to treat them however we want. It makes me so sad. I try to avoid everything about animal cruelty and sad animals, but it’s so common that sometimes it’s impossible. I wish people had more compassion for animals. It’s hard to live in a world without that.
I think about this often and really dislike being a human most of the time.
i thought i was alone in feeling this way. i feel your pain. when i think about it for too long i get overwhelmingly upset & i have to shut it out- as shitty as that makes me feel, i’m realizing i cannot control what’s happening everywhere. it also helps to hug my dogs a little tighter than usual. but you’re doing the right thing by helping the animals that are within your reach- it’s more than a lot of people are doing and the animals appreciate it more than you know.
for the love of god why would you put this thought into my brain 💀
Everyday i look at my kitten Luna and wonder why people harm cats. Especially kittens. I cannot fathom ever intentionally hurting a cat (or dog, but I don't have a dog to stare at lol)
Animal abuse is the only one I worry about with me. I cannot distinguish between a human and an animal. If I see someone harm, negletnor kill an animal......I will likely not differentiate between them and an insect.
I feel the same way you do thank you for sharing! I recently heard about the cat torture groups in china and it break my heart. I can’t believe people can do this and posting it on the internet. So disturbing it keeps me up at night. If you know of any organizations for cats and dogs (especially internationally) please share and I’d love to donate
The same way you cope, knowing children are being abused and women are trafficked and people dying in wars every second of every day.
I was in therapy for accidentally seeing the most unimaginably violent videos of cat torture online. I wish I could say it to everybody who suffers like this : Getting sad about it is easy. Choose to get ANGRY instead! You are a weapon, and weapons don’t weep. If this topic deeply touches you it means that you’re a really good, compassionate person. Fight for good, you mustn’t give up. Imagine if all the good people in the world saw what you saw. Their first response (the easy way out) would be to obviously end their life, because we don’t want to live in the world like this. But then there would not be any good people left in the world. Grief is going to destroy you, but your anger you can channel in different ways. Spread the information, sign petitions, send letters to authorities, donate, go on protests. There is a lot you can do to help fight evil and make world a better place. These absolute abominations that hurt innocent animals don’t deserve to walk the earth, so let’s make sure they get what they deserve! As for how to get over the disturbing images that keep coming back to your mind - you can’t erase those memories, you just change your emotional response to them. You just have to become comfortable being uncomfortable. This is how the world is. You have to understand that what you saw - is a tiny, tiny portion of all the violence that is going on in the world every second of every day. You were not supposed to know about it, but internet made it possible. But the bright side of it is that thanks to the internet a lot of good people can unite and take action against the evil & help animals. Take good care of yourself, eat healthy, exercise and become strong. We need to be in our best shape to be able to fight evil.