Anyone ever felt depressed driving through somewhere?

[beddingwedding]

It was so odd!

I drove through the centre of somewhere yesterday at around 7.30pm.

I got this strange feeling, like a strong depressive state and low mood. It just felt really off! I have never felt like this anywhere in my life. The whole place 'just felt wrong'. And do you know what? I can't tell you why, I've no idea

I use to live in a rough part of east London. It's nothing like that. It just felt eerie

Perky =Pervy

Driving just north-west of Sao Paulo, we arrived at a small market town by a series of lakes.

This part of Brazil is heavily deforested and populated. At an intersection on the side of a hill, we stopped for the lights to let coaches and car loads of people down from Sao Paulo for their weekend of boating and steak barbeques by the waterside. It happens every weekend almost - like a public weekend here in the UK. We looked at across at the landscape and realised that the undulating hillocks right into the distance was once virgin rainforest, now covered in sickly agricultural crops, not thick and lush like the UK or France, and cattle. As we watched coachloads of weekenders consolidating on this...change. In a flash I saw these silhouettes of people like skeletons, I was seeing skeletons in coaches and cars driving to starvation. That's what it felt like, in those few seconds.

Reno, Nevada. Although admittedly it's not at its best in the daylight.

Somerset. I did not like it at all. Just felt weird.

The whole of the Stroud Valley - all the way from Chalford to Stonehouse. Grim, suffocating, oppressive, hemmed in, depressing in the extreme. Despite its green credentials and popularity with 'luvvies' and arty types it is a shit hole of a place and, despite having been born there, nothing, but nothing, would induce me to return!

Some of the surrounding villages are stunning though, as are Minchinhampton and Selsley Commons - just the opposite, wide open wild spaces which give one a sense of freedom and liberty...

We stayed in Scotland for a few days. Beautiful place but drove through one particular town on the way there and I felt strangely anxious and panicky the whole time. Was so glad to get to the other side. No idea why but the feeling sticks with me when I think back to it.

Cinderford and Port Talbot do this for me. They might be lovely if I stopped. Cinderford just looks so concrete and miserable. I don't think I need to explain Port Talbot.

Likewise. I like Devon and Cornwall, and areas around Bristol (as well as Bristol itself) but there's something about a lot of Somerset that doesn't feel right.
Went on a caravan trip there and didn't like it. Hated driving around, even though it was green and rural. Just felt sad. Cheddar was a dull place (and amazingly devoid of cheese shops!) though the gorge and caves were nice.
Hated Glastonbury, too.
The only place I liked was Wells.

There’s a place called Harthill about half way between Edinburgh and Glasgow, off the M8. I haven’t gone off the motor way through it, just driving past, my mood lowers. I think my soul would give up and die if I moved there. Strong sense of gloom.

I actually think this is weird of me, because it's not a horrid place, but Walsingham in North Norfolk just felt odd.

My late aunt and uncle used to live in a Madrid suburb and I never got on with it. I can’t quite pin down why, other than that it was rather dull and featureless. Wasn’t too keen on the city either, other than the Retiro. Too many sleazy men perving on me as a teenager (I’m sure I would be left alone these days).

As soon as I saw the thread title I automatically thought to myself Dagenham and some parts of Becontree

Clapton is quite chi-chi now 😁

“Cheddar was a dull place (and amazingly devoid of cheese shops!) though the gorge and caves were nice.“

It’s tiny and has nothing there. Tourists and ramblers and that’s the lot.

Totally love Glencoe but get why people get a weird vibe driving through it - really dramatic and atmospheric whatever the weather but can feel quite oppressive.

@Lesperance I am not sure the 'concrete' description fits Cinderford. It's not concrete quite in the way that Croydon or Coventry is or were. But it has something over-developed about it, but in small ways. Like some builders' firm came in and erected breeze block walls everywhere and painted over them to save the town. Various parts of the Forest of Dean feel like that. As if once it was descended on by wealthy Victorian property developers, but since then the weather and decay has rotted the fabric of the houses and it cannot keep up with the repairs. History in decay.

Parts of central Devon, where tourists never go, feel like that also. Real poverty too.

@Lonelycrab
Yup - Croydon I totally agree. One travelled from Dullwich to Croydon by tram as the trains were out, and never again! The train station always has me on edge too.

Yes the concrete slab on m25 def doesn't help, but it's more than that for me - it's as if some sadness lingers there, just a real sense of loneliness. It's really weird. But it's v concrete and built up and bleak feeling there, whereas much more nature and trees before and after that point, so it may just be that.

Yes! There’s a city abroad which gives me a dreadful feeling whenever I’m near it. Not surprisingly it’s high on the list of most deprived and poor places in Europe.

Not related to driving, but I have had the strongest feelings of doom and misery though in former concentration camp Auschwitz and when visiting an area where an awful lot of people were brutally executed (beheaded, crucified) in the past.

Won’t most people feel gloomy and miserable visiting Auschwitz? It’ a terrifying place. Unless you are a bit ignorant, that’d be a bit hard to avoid.

@onitlikeacarbonnet - that is really interesting- the 'ghosts' of the soldiers - or that places have memories of emotions - or something.

On the opposite emotion - there's a place in Corsica which just has the most magical lovely feeling. So calm and positive. It was a prehistoric settlement and the first time I went there 20 or so years ago it rained, so DH and I just sat on rounded rocks in an old dug out cave with huge rock as a roof, and you could just imagine being a prehistoric woman looking out at the rain.

We went back in 2019 with DS - and it still has a lovely vibe. It's much more touristy and developed now, and for me that's a bit of a shame - but it's still got that amazing lovely feeling there for me.

Yes, Plymouth always give me strange vibes.

Yes @midsomermurderess but apart from knowing it’s history, there was something about this place, which left me feeling really awful and gave me nightmares for weeks after. I have also visited other former concentration camps, WW1 battlefields, some places with awful history and a lot of death, but none of it left me feeling so miserable as Auschwitz. There was some kind of horrific energy lingering there, I can’t really describe it but really got under my skin.

You would think so, wouldn’t you, but DP and I went to Dachau maybe five years ago and witnessed some really terrible behaviour. We found it a very somber, sad place, but there were people smiling and taking selfies (including one man in a wholly inappropriate place) and one woman screaming in rage at her friend. We could hear her from well over 100m away, and I was about to go and have a word, but she quietened down. Honestly, if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Sorry, that was in response to @midsomermurderess

I’ve been to Koh Samet and I felt exactly the same!! I felt so weird that we ended up moving accommodation to see if that helped. It did sort of. But I don’t ever want to go back there.