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Hello,
Thank you for your letter and explaining how you are feeling. It doesnt sounds strange that youre a vegetarian. People become vegetarian for many different reasons. For example people might be vegetarian because:
Lots of people believe its wrong to kill animals for food and some think that the way that farm animals are treated is unkind. These are decisions that everyone can make for themselves. As you get older, you have more responsibility for the choices you make.
It might be helpful to think if there has ever been a time when you havent felt this strongly and been so disgusted by meat and think about what might have changed for you. It seems likely that you are going to be around people who eat meat sometimes and so it would be important to find a way of coping with this.
Its good that you have the support from the people you live with when you choose to eat in your room, but this feels like it might be quite lonely for you and doesnt seem to be getting to the bottom of the problem. Its not very practical for you to leave the room whenever someone is eating meat all of the time youre going to need a more permanent solution.
It sounds like coming to terms with the fact that most people eat meat is whats difficult for you and it might help to hear from other vegetarians about how they have learned to cope with feelings they have about seeing others eat meat. You could do this on the ChildLine message boards. There will also be other people who feel as strongly about eating animals as you feel about not eating them. Hearing different points of view and trying to understand them can help us to accept that everyone has a right to their own values and can help us to live alongside people who are different to us and their way of life.
I hope that helps. Thanks again for your letter. If you need to talk more then remember that ChildLine counsellors are always here for you.
Take care,
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.