Woman asks if she's wrong to tell sister that being vegan is not a 'disability.'
Having health problems that force you to restrict your diet can be really difficult to handle. It can be even worse when you feel like a family member is 'competing' with your health issue or trying to make it about them. When this woman struggling with multiple sclerosis and dietary restrictions gets mad at her vegan sister for 'stealing the spotlight,' she takes to the popular Reddit forum to ask:
'AITA for asking my sister to stop acting like being vegan is a disability?'
I (16F) and my sister (20F) haven't gotten along since she started high school. When she started college, she decided that she would like to be vegan. I didn't really care at the time because I thought that it wouldn't affect me. Last summer I had been experiencing some balance/memory issues and had a continuous numbing feeling in my legs.
Long story I had to be sent to the ER and was then diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Due to this I had to limit processed food and food high in sugar out of my diet which is surprisingly a lot. -autonim
Oh no. That sounds so difficult.
Anyone who knows me knows I really love food, so I really struggled when I first started this change and still do from time to time. My sister ALWAYS tells people she can't eat certain food or can't eat certain places because she's a vegan.
The only thing that bothers me with these statements is the word can't because it's her choice to be vegan and I don't really have a choice due to my disability.
Sounds like OP's sister is...kind of annoying.
I have told her multiple times that saying she can't eat these food feels unfair to me because to stop eating foods I've loved a lot like bread and bacon wasn't a choice.
I mean...fair point OP!
She normally glares at me and tells me something about how if she ate meat now it would make her sick because she had been a vegetarian for a while before being a vegan.
At this point I kind of hate the vegan sister. But maybe I'm wrong.
Today, she kept saying 'I can't eat this I can't eat that' at this point I was very annoyed because she was also starting to get rude with our grandparents, so I said...
'You choose not to eat meat. I've told you when you say you can't eat certain food it offends me, stop acting like being vegan is a disability or serious allergy, because my disability is actually serious. '
SHOTS FIRED.
After I said this, she was furious she started screaming about how she's privileged she gets to eat like this and that she was sooo sorry that she actually has morals and due to her morals, she can't eat animal products.
I don't feel like it was too much to ask for her to simply change her wording, but I may have done it the wrong way so, AITA? (P. S. I don't have anything against being vegan you do you I just don't appreciate it shoved down my throat).
Well, is OP the AH? Let's see what Reddit had to say.
YTA. I'm sorry about your situation. It really sucks. Yes, she chose to be vegan, which means if she is going to stick to her diet then she can't eat those foods. You getting 'offended' is you making herdiet about you. - dogsreadingbooks
Can confirm that eating meat after being vegetarian for a long time is distinctly unpleasant. I was accidentally served some, got nauseous before I realised what the little pink things were (the lesser known vegetables ham), and I threw up for hours. Definitely YTA. -jinshei
Then, this opposite take.
NTA only because as a vegan I agree she should be saying ‘I don’t eat animals’. Her decision isn’t a diet or an allergy, she doesn’t eat animals because she doesn’t want to. However vegan people commonly say ‘can’t eat’ because sometimes people don’t realise that it isn’t a diet you can ‘cheat on’. Whether it is can’t or won’t the outcome is still the same. -zukoloer87
YTA. You're getting caught up in semantics that don't matter. How about you stop using your disability to try and control other people? If she's vegan and has been avoiding animal products for a long time, then she's right, she CAN'T eat those things. -legitimateannual23