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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask for your experiences with Bath/strange atmospheres

543 replies

AliceInBlunderland13 · 18/02/2020 13:11

Semi-regular poster but I’ve name changed for this as the details could be quite outing. Also not really an AIBU but posting for traffic and all that…
There have been two periods in my life when I have lived and/or worked in the city of Bath, Somerset and I’ve experienced problems with my mental health on both occasions. The first was right after I finished by undergraduate degree in London and I moved to Bath to do a Masters at the university. I started in the October and by Christmas I was experiencing terrible panic attacks and depression. I did manage to complete the course but as soon as I finished I ended the tenancy on my flat early and moved back home. I then worked in my home town for a few years, during which time I had no problems with my mental health. Then I decided to do a PhD and took a position again at the uni in Bath. This time I didn’t move there but instead moved to a nearby town and commuted in. Yet again within a couple of months of being there I began experiencing daily panic attacks, terrible anxiety and feelings of dissociation, and depression. I tried to stick it out (had counselling, on meds etc) but I still felt utterly miserable so I recently quit the course and found a new job in another town.
Even after having counselling, I’ve never truly got to the bottom of what triggers these episodes. Logically, it could be stress related as both a Masters and a PhD are obviously a lot of work but then I dealt with the stresses of my undergraduate course just fine, and the job I had between my Masters and PhD was high-stress and I loved it – in fact I used to think I worked best with a bit of pressure.
Then the other day, I was reading an old thread on here (bored while I wait to start my new job Grin ) about places people found creepy. Several people mentioned that they didn’t like Bath or that it had an odd atmosphere – I think one poster described it as ‘melancholy’. Now normally I’m very rational and logical (except when the anxiety takes over Confused ) and wouldn’t give it a second thought, but I couldn’t help wondering if anyone has any experience of feeling anxious/down in a particular place, or if anyone else has felt this ‘atmosphere’ in Bath? I know some will say it’s a load of pish but I guess I’m just interested in other people’s experiences really…

OP posts:
NameChange84 · 14/05/2020 14:54

@ChristmasFluff OMG! I didn’t leave my hotel room in LA either! Hated the place. Also love Edinburgh and fine in London and Harrogate. Yes it’s that whole area of North Wales coastline I felt uncomfortable in too. How weird!

SleepOhHowIMissYou · 17/05/2020 15:36

Los Angeles is a shock the first time you go there. It's the Hollywood lie debunked. If you watch American TV you see massive, gorgeously furnished homes as the norm for quite ordinary people. Even Al Bundy in Married with Children who worked in a ladies shoe shop (not as a manager) and was presented as one of life's losers, had a sizeable detached house. The reality is an eye-opener. I have never seen more homeless rough sleepers in my life and the place is filthy, even the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It's dangerous too and so easy to walk into an area you really shouldn't be.

ohlookthisisjustdaftnow · 17/05/2020 15:59

I feel oddly uneasy whenever I go to Malvern. It's a sinister place. Perhaps it's something to do with the waters, what with them both being a spa town.

tarasmalatarocks · 17/05/2020 20:58

I live in Bath and I’ve lived in Bristol too. Much prefer Bath, Bristol has one or two attractive bits but a lot of it is a scruffy mess, has tons of houses with damp and it takes forever to get anywhere , and driving- forget it. If you are a weed smoking under 40 with ‘a bit of a job’ then maybe it’s fine , but wasn’t for us - despite my H being from the area. I don’t get the issue in Bath , it’s my favourite place I’ve lived , when people say about not much for under 40s - what exactly are they after? It’s got music venues, great pubs, trendy bars, a couple of clubs , good universities, good sports stuff, nice restaurants - good cinemas including art house- I’m not sure what this random ‘stuff for young people is’ they are looking at , that I am not aware of. It’s not London - it’s a large town effectively of 80,000 people and if you don’t like it, no big deal as lots and lots do .

Porridgeoat · 17/05/2020 21:11

I find Bath strange too but it’s more to do with the monied and superficial feel of the place making it less attractive

usernameusrnme · 18/05/2020 12:31

Bath is superficial. You cant find less genuine people anywhere else in the country.

usernameusrnme · 18/05/2020 12:43

I find it strange how insincere and arrogant people are here. How cliquey they are. The way they behave as though they are so refined or cool when they are just so insular and shallow. How petrified they are of Bristol and London because "theres so may people there!"

How bizarre they are in manners of communication. How puzzled they are when someone speaks to them. How they speak AT people rather than with them. Never met people so clicquey and so fake and so proud of their own frankly disgusting attitudes.

usernameusrnme · 18/05/2020 13:15

Ultimately Bath is filled with people who's behaviour and arrogance makes them not seem like being worthy of trust. Monied or not, its more about principles. They do not come across and decent and dependable people. Being in an environment with people who cannot be trusted, however pretty the scenery, isnt worth it.

MulticolourMophead · 18/05/2020 13:16

SleepOhHowIMissYou I was in LA in the mid 1980s, and it was bad then. Once got lost in Inglewood, was a bit scary that night.

Mucklowe · 18/05/2020 13:28

@usernameusrnme you really have it in for the place! Your posts are making you out to be slightly unhinged. Are you ok?

usernameusrnme · 18/05/2020 14:44

I'm great thanks.

But yes, the basic manoeuvre. "He's crazy"

I just get tired of the attitudes while everyone says "lookey lookey how pretty" while they step over hordes of homeless people amongst other seriously messed up things. Should anyone say anything about these things then the clicquey mobs form like voltron and its " oh they're crazy' and point the finger at the one acknowledging problems. So fake, so pretentious, so Bath.

usernameusrnme · 18/05/2020 14:46

The OP and another person in this thread said they had mental breakdowns while in Bath. I wonder how many people levelled the same attitudes at them.

usernameusrnme · 20/05/2020 21:13

twitter.com/kikibaby79/status/1086036579829858305

usernameusrnme · 20/05/2020 21:14

colinpantall.blogspot.com/2018/03/dont-talk-about-black-kid-in-bath-who.html

Comments say alot dont they... Bathonians.

Mucklowe · 20/05/2020 22:24

@usernameusrnme I've reported your posts to MNHQ as your vendetta is getting tiresome.

usernameusrnme · 20/05/2020 22:56

Ive posted situations that other people have noted. Call it tiresome but Bath has a racism problem it won't acknowledge. Im sure you find it boring, probably doesn't affect you. So yes run to the mods.

usernameusrnme · 20/05/2020 23:06

Nothing but real posts with real situations with real reported journalism being delivered here but you need to call me unhinged and call the mods. Tiresome. You know you sound like Laurence fox.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 21/05/2020 01:50

Boils down to whether or not you like the feeling or atmosphere of a place. I love the Lakes, North Wales, Cornwall, Brighton (except the rubbish shingle beach), and the vast majority of other places people have said make them feel unwell or ill at ease. The issue with Bath and Brighton is similar as far as I can see. The lovely areas are really gorgeous with compelling histories but both towns are compact, and not too far out of the centre (such as the area of Bath where most hotels are) are dirty, feels threatening, and there's evidence of homeless and substance abuse everywhere. Half a mile down the road there's a Norland Nannies HQ and a tourist industry that thinks it invented Jane Austen. It's quite a contrast. Paris isn't dissimilar.

Miami is as intimidating as cities get: it (and FLA in general) are notoriously violent areas of America and I felt uncomfortable the whole time there too. As for Withernsea, it's one of the most horribly impoverished coastal regions in the UK and a waiting-for-God type place. It's impossible to imagine it as a resort, or tourists crowding into it for a fun holiday either now or in the past. It's stuck out on a limb and very isolated, which usually makes for quite an insular community. The only worse seaside area I've ever seen was Jaywick.

There's one place I found truly oppressive and slightly frightening and that's Beachy Head. The reason may seem obvious, but although it's a notorious suicide spot there's one of those not three miles from where I live and another 40 miles up the road, and I feel quite happy and at peace at them both. But this place made me feel practically vertiginous: for one thing I don't suffer with vertigo, and for another I wouldn't be idiotic enough to go anywhere near the edge of those cliffs. That jagged, sharp sea-facing edge is immediately and extremely physically dangerous but also has a really freaky feel about it - almost as if it's inviting you to step too close to its crumbling precipice and peer over it. And that's aside from the fact that it's dotted with memorials and rotting flowers everywhere. But whilst many memorial grounds are peaceful, that place just seems to exude sadness and despair. It's oppressive, eerie, and I have no desire ever to go back.

Odd how places seem to have the power to affect us. Atmosphere can be powerful - as can suggestion.

ceilihouse · 21/05/2020 02:37

Would love to hear more about Betws Y Coed if anyone has any more Info! It's been mentioned several times now!

JeSuisPoulet · 21/05/2020 02:46

Yes to The High Rocks - what is the rock there that has an inscription along the lines of if you toll here you will summon the devil? My mum jokingly hit it with a large log when I was about 7 and I cried for the rest of the day. Weirdly my only recurring dream was about that sandstone rock trapping her in a room of a shop in Hastings and water filling up until she drowned. I have funny feelings about both of those places too!