to think my friend is right and I do actually attract all the weirdos on the bus?

[OwlLady]

as it's happening here now :( . I have posted on several threads in my limited time here in the last few weeks and a fair few have been deleted as they were started by frogs, badgers and hares

is this an affliction that only I have been blessed with?

[SPsCliffingAllOverMN]

Sugar That's completely different and you know it. This is not about you!

[OwlLady]

sugarmouse, I don't want to go into a spiel about myself, but my daughter is severely disabled and I really am not being personal about sections of society. It was honestly meant in a lighthearted manner. I had a womans offload to me in the Drs surgery yesterday, she was lovely, but it does get a bit draining when it's everyone. The weirdos was more an observation about the threads that i have posted on here that have been deleted! I am sorry i do think that is weird that people would make up whole family scenarios that strangers could post on for their own pleasure

[Loulybelle]

Luckily i dont have the weirdo curse, i just suffer from twatitis, ie attract masses twats!!!

[SummerRainIsADistantMemory]

Sugar, did you take things waaaay to seriously at uni too? Possibly rounding on people and getting aggressive for imagined slights where none were intended?

Whilst your course mates were wrong to mock you, your demeanour on this thread does somewhat suggest you might be a leeetle hard to get on with

Owl.... I think they recognise a sucker who won't tell them to f-off. I used to get crazies and drunks homing in on me all the time but since I've started being more assertive and telling them to bog off I seem to get less of them approaching in the first place.... I must be exuding 'Don't mess with me' vibes

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

In all honesty to many I'm
Probably the weirdo on the bus. :o

I don't feel picked on

[flippinada]

I don't think anything offensive was meant by the term weirdo.

I'd class myself as a weirdo, personally, and its a label I'm happy to have! Weirdos are great.

[OwlLady]

:)

I am most probably the weirdo aswell, as wheremy says like attract like

My son asked me the day why deer can all be together in a space, such as a park but they will only stand with their own breed. I had no answer to this question

[SugarMouse1]

SummerRain-

No, not at all!

I was nice to these people and had a bit of general chitchat conversations with them, such as 'Hi', 'how was your weekend', etc, etc

I was quiet but I am just a shy person, I guess

I am not eccentric, don't have an outlandish dress sense, any interest in alternative culture, unusual tastes in music etc, not a member of a strange religion, or a political activist

Besides, even if I had been 'too serious', how exactly would that make me a freak? It would just make me 'too serious', right?

Have you ever been bullied SummerRain?

[EuroShaggleton]

I used to be a weirdo magnet. I seem to have grown out of it. Or maybe got better at giving off "don't fvk with my" vibes.

[EuroShaggleton]

sugar this thread is not about you and the fact that you think it is, is rather odd.

[EldritchCleavage]

I really didn't read this thread as being about stigmatising people or encouraging unkindness or bullying. Op is just asking whether other people find they tend to be the ones approached by unusual people or those in distress. She is not encouraging people to laugh at them for being unusual or in distress.

And yes, it used to be me, but now I've got children and have too many chores and don't get enough sleep I am tired and grumpy by the time I get the bus or train home from work, so I don't get picked as the one to talk to any more.

[SugarMouse1]

Owl-

Lets hope nobody ever treats your daughter like a pariah then, for being severely disabled.

[SummerRainIsADistantMemory]

herd instinct.... to blend in to a crowd of similar animals so each individuals chance of being picked off and eaten is diminished. They recognise their own species and form a herd with those animals they feel affinity to.

[OwlLady]

she is treated like a pariah

[SPsCliffingAllOverMN]

Sugar Wtf? There was no need for that. The thread is about random nutters not fucking disabilities. Stop trying to make it about you.

I'm always attracting nutters and weirdos. When I'm out having a drink I only seem to pull the nutters too. Its like I an aura

[Weegiemum]

Ok sugar mouse ill defend my post.

I used "weirdos" as it was in the OP.

I've suffered recurrent chronic depression for many years, including a suicide attempt that put me in intensive care and an episode of PND o bad that I was air ambulanced to a mother and baby unit.

Even now I see a psychiatrist 6- monthly for a general mental-health checkup as I have a personality disorder (under control) and need objective opinions.

The woman I spoke to on the bus (that I took to a&e in a taxi and waited until her dp arrived) may well have been a "weirdo" to many people. I was able to see through it - I've been there.

I suppose I use the term loosely (maybe I'm wrong) as I've got a group of friends, all of whom are/have been mentally ill and we call ourselves the "Weird Sisters", which reflects what society thinks of us!

[SugarMouse1]

Then, why not just say 'unusual' or 'distressed' people?

Instead of the lovely word 'weirdo'

Incidentally, some severely disabled people call themselves 'spastics' or 'retards' and are proud to be

Does this make the terms okay?

[flippinada]

Owllady as a result of this thread I'm seriously considering changing my user name to "that weirdo on the bus" .

[ThreeDudesOnABus]

If you can't spot the weirdo on the bus, you are the weirdo. Hth.

[OwlLady]

sugarmouse, for someone who doesn't like being bullied yourself you are being quite unpleasant

[SummerRainIsADistantMemory]

yes, chronically Sugar.

And unsurprisingly it was my own behaviour which triggered it. Not that the ones bullying should have reacted as they did, but I am capable of realising the impact my own behaviour had.... and unfortunately kids/young adults can be vicious in their desperation to 'fit in', which often includes targeting those who more obviously 'don't fit it' and ridiculing them.

It's not right, but it is extremely common.

You're all grown up now though, and it's probably time you let it go and looked forwards instead of dwelling on past events.

This thread wasn't about you, or in any way related to what happened to you.

[SugarMouse1]

What is unpleasant about what I've said?

I was pointing out that this isn't the nicest term or the most respectful way to treat people

[AlexReidsLonelyBraincell]

I once got shown a bag of toys by some drunk guy who went on to say that my grand children would love them. I was 21 ffs didnt even have kids and the bus driver had to come and rescue me

This ^ just made me snort.
I too must have one of those faces, I've heard more 'interesting' life stories than I've had hot dinners.
They always single me out in bars, the harmless weirdos, and I'm too polite to do anything but stand there and smile and nod.

Sugarmouse that comment was out of order. No need.

[JesusInTheCabbageVan]

Sugarmouse OK, a different take on things.

I was bullied for a long time - horrendously so. If I got called 'weird', it was a good day (Not going in for competitive victimhood or anything, just saying).

I wasn't offended by the OP. I interpreted it as a reference to the sort of exuberant eccentrics you see occasionally - not a rallying call to attack anyone who wants badly to fit in but can't, for whatever reason. In fact, it's just these kinds of threads (well-meant but with something in there that leaves them open to attack, and with a few deleted skeletons in the closet) that are far more likely to end up with the OP getting a pasting. Would you feel better if that happened?