Your words resonate with me Danny... I have only been vegan coming up to 3 years now. My old behaviour also seems crazy to me now, so yes it is kind of like waking up, most definitely looking at the world through a new paradigm.
Its the extent of our programming that still surprises me. I asked somebody the other day if they would rather drink human breast milk, or cows breast milk, they gagged at the thought of drinking human breast milk. How have we been led so far astray?