Zoochosis – a form of psychosis that develops in animals held captive in zoos. It manifests as behaviours which are monotonous, obsessive, repetitive actions that serve no purpose.
Sound familiar?
Perhaps similar to what many people experience every day – we are in the midst of a crisis after all.
We sit comfortably behind our tvs after work, munching on the same microwave meals and frozen pizzas that we eat every evening, binge watching the same shows, doom-scrolling social media. Disassociated.
An endless cycle. Repetitive.
We watch the news – rent prices have increased yet again, the rates of mental illness in young people is as an all-time high, people are dying from being unable to heat their homes, nurses are using food banks. ‘What a shame’ we think. ‘At least it’s not me’.
We wake up – same time every day -of course. Same breakfast. Same routine. Work 8 hours sat behind a desk – caged – we hate every second. We wonder why we feel unfulfilled.
We get home, sleep, and repeat the cycle the next day. Repetitive.
It’s the weekend. Scrolling Instagram AGAIN. Reading self-help posts and deciding to turn our life around, it can’t be that hard, – right???
Where to start…
Go to the gym. Journal. Eat well. Go outside.
We try to do it all. Obsessive.
We buy all the right food, read books, write down our feelings every night (same time – of course) and still don’t feel better. Why?? I thought this was meant to help??
It’s been 2 days. Back to the old routine, of course nothing will have changed. We still feel stuck. Crushed. Moulded by the pressure of the system to become the exact replica of what society needs us to become.
We try again on Jan 1st. we become obsessed. It never lasts long. We’re too tired.
Too tired, too depressed to try to improve ourselves – just what the higher ups want. Not everyone can succeed -of course – prime ministers still need puppets to take their bins out.
There always needs to be slaves to the system, whether they know that’s what they are or not.
If only we weren’t so tired….
We doom scroll AGAIN.
We see girls who use filters to all look EXACTLY THE SAME
Because for some reason it’s not attractive to be unique.
The rat race has no time for imperfections.
‘Comparison is the thief of joy’ they say. Well, I'm happy! Or I am as long as I don’t think about it for too long.
A video pops up.
It compared capitalism to monopoly.
Hopefully we’ll reach the endgame soon, we think. – ‘it’s about time for a revolution’. We can’t do this much longer.
We send our children to school – safe in the knowledge that they’ll be the next generation of slaves to fuel the fires of the world we’ve created.
But what can we do? We have to go to the office. AGAIN.
Hiya Janet, how’s the dog doing? We ask. Like we care.
The kids come home and tell us what they’ve learned that day. What’s the point of calculus again?
The suns shining – if only we had the energy to go and play outside like the old days.
The kids are on the Xbox. AGAIN.
Dinners ready! Microwave mac and cheese. AGAIN.
Life is a loop. Why can’t we escape?? Why is it all the same, all the time??
Oh yeah. I know. Because we caged. Because we’re animals trapped in an environment that were not meant to live in. of course we feel depressed.
WE’RE NOT MEANT TO LIVE LIKE THIS
Big pharma companies create endless diagnoses to provide explanations of why we feel the way we do, they give us meds (we have to pay – of course), or they tell us to drink tea -or have a bath.
Like any of that would ever help.
Why don’t we stop to think, for even a second, that maybe it’s not us that’s the problem??
We don’t see animals pacing in zoos, trying to climb out of their cages, scratching at walls and think that its them that’s in the wrong.
we think the humans are wrong for putting them somewhere they’re not meant to be– superficially deprived from their natural environment.
Why do we not think it’s the same for us? Are we too good for this?
Why should we be any different?
Maybe its not anxiety, depression, OCD, anorexia, chronic stress, BPD, or any of the hundreds of other diagnoses.
Maybe it’s zoochosis. Maybe we just need to escape our cage.