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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:
Shaminon · 18/02/2020 21:26

I have felt the same in Bristol and Eastbourne

Honkingallthewaytothebank · 18/02/2020 21:30

Harrogate does nothing for me. I don’t think it’s quite ‘woo’ but whenever I’ve been I find I just want to leave again. It seems soulless.

WingingItSince1973 · 18/02/2020 21:31

My daughter has just moved back home after living in Bath for 6 years. She had really bad anxiety there and thought moving home would be better but now shes desperately missing Bath and will probably move back. The only time I felt weird about a place was Portland. Just felt so so weird even approaching it from the mainland. Could sense the atmosphere. No offence x

Howyoualldoworkme · 18/02/2020 21:34

We're in holiday on the IOW at the moment and it's very old fashioned but I like that.
Norwich is a very strange place though.

attatiti · 18/02/2020 21:36

I found Bath very disappointing, although not particularly weird. Ashburton though, I worked there for a while and definitely had the ‘life sucked out of me’ feeling. Nothing would persuade me to set foot in the place again.

CopperMugs · 18/02/2020 21:39

I'm of the very woo opinion, that we all resonate or conduct various things.

I used to work at a two thousand year old monument. Never felt a thing.
Worked in a Georgian mansion, and had to fight the urge to run screaming

Butterer · 18/02/2020 21:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsMoastyToasty · 18/02/2020 21:53

I have no problems with Bath. Some of the people through....... (I live between Bristol and Bath)....

The place that made me feel uneasy was the German underground hospital on Jersey.

ginandbearit · 18/02/2020 21:54

Yes ..to both Bath and Brighton . I have had happy and romantic times in both places and lived in Brighton for a while, but they both also have a sad and menacing edge and I think for me it's due to the Georgian architecture .The tall buildings look wonderful but its the backs that get to me and I just get a sense of unease and sadness, perhaps influenced by Hogarth prints of misery ..but definitely something 'off' about both towns...a lot of these spa and holiday towns have a sadness about them .

H0llie · 18/02/2020 22:04

Never felt weird in Bath. Glastonbury yes, but because of the druggies. Somerton made me feel scared though. Isle of Wight would feel very different if it wasn't an island. I think it's the fact you can't get off it easily that's the problem!

mintich · 18/02/2020 23:01

I feel like that about Avebury. I quite like it in the day but still feel uneasy. Cant drive through it at night though.

hammeringinmyhead · 18/02/2020 23:18

I lived in Bath for a year and then we gave up and moved about 10 miles away. It's... not very nice. Listed Georgian buildings mean mouldy windows and damp prevails. You go up the back streets north of Milsom Street and there are rows and rows of silent townhouses split into flats that you never see anyone come out of. There are some horrendously ugly metal bridges crossing the river. The nightlife is weird and aggressive - groups of drunks wandering about at night yet very few visible clubs or bars. And, of course, the tourists. You can't move from Easter to the Christmas Markets.

StripyHorse · 18/02/2020 23:20

I have never been to Glastonbury, but like most of the places mentioned here (including Bath).

I wonder if the radon map has something to do with it? I live, and grew up in a high radon area so perhaps I am not sensitive to it as some people are?

It is just big cities that get me. I hate London and Manchester. I was in a different city as a student and found it ok but when I came home (semi rural location) I felt so much more relaxed seeing fields and open spaces. Nothing woo though.

megletthesecond · 18/02/2020 23:30

Tavistock gave me the willies.
Brighton wasn't great either. Forced fun but a huge undercurrent of miserable drug use.

CalmYoBadSelf · 18/02/2020 23:44

Glastonbury disliker here. So excited to go. Couldn't wait to leave. At first just felt a strong feeling of anticipation. Something going to happen. Turned into oppressive menace.
This sums up my visit to Glastonbury perfectly. I love woo so was really excited but left feeling quite scared

Coffeeisnecessary · 18/02/2020 23:44

This is really interesting, I loved both Bath and Glastonbury when I visited, but I felt incredibly peaceful in Wells when we visited, I don't really believe in all the woo stuff but I felt like it was my spiritual home!

littleyikes · 18/02/2020 23:52

Yes! Lived there four years, a string of constant bad luck whilst there, I was so depressed and anxious I couldn't leave the house! Moved somewhere different (so wasn't homesickness) and I was fine in months.

RhubarbBikini · 18/02/2020 23:54

I love Bath and have very happy memories of spending school holidays there visiting my glorious grandparents. I try and visit with own kids at least once a year. We're going tomorrow infact

MrsBrentford · 18/02/2020 23:55

Omg this is the weirdest post?

I grew up in Bath and became a humougous smack head.

Because there is a huge drug problem in Bath.

I moved away 20 odd years ago and have been fine since.

I still visit my parents there and am still fine 👍🏻

Lovesabadboy · 19/02/2020 00:36

Waddesdon - a village near Aylesbury. shudder
When I was a child we used to drive through there frequently, on the way to visit an elderly aunt.
Even from 6,7,8, years old the place gave me the willies. We never stopped, only ever drove through, but the place just had a bad vibe.
It was always grim and dull, never sunny or bright, the architecture is gothic (a style I usually like), but so dark and oppressive.
I have only driven through a couple of times since being an adult and I couldn't wait to get out of it.
Oh, and I have never once seen anybody walking around the place either.
Horrid, horrid place.
Picture is an example of the buildings there - I was even shuddering when Googling to get an image (which must have been photo-shopped as there is never blue sky there!)!!

To ask for your experiences with Bath/strange atmospheres
Wingedharpy · 19/02/2020 01:38

I love Bath and though I've never lived there, I visit regularly.
Glen Coe, however, makes me feel thoroughly depressed.

RupertBear15 · 19/02/2020 02:04

Jane Austen didn’t like Bath! I read that she found it so depressing she couldn’t work there. She said it always rained and she couldn’t wait to get away. So OP you’re in good company. I’ve only been once for the day and enjoyed my visit but that was years ago so can’t comment much.

I can’t stand Plymouth. It’s me, I know! I just find the city a concrete, fugly, depressing post war eastern block style splat. I don’t care about the Barbican or the Hoe which aren’t too bad I suppose. But the grey, drab and dreary wasteland of the rest of the city fills me with eternal horror! I used to visit very frequently as a child due to having relatives there, close family are buried in the main cemetery and my relatives live in Mutley Plain so I still visit quite often. I hate it. Last place God made, except perhaps Morden, Surry

TakemedowntoPotatoCity · 19/02/2020 02:17

Strange quite a few people have mentioned Hastings. I spent three months there in a move that was meant to be long term but I couldn't hack it. I just felt so isolated, probably due to lack of motorway nearby which I wasn't used to. Also the job I had gone to do didn't suit me at all. But I just couldn't imagine settling there long term and was relieved to leave the place (apologies to anyone from Hastings) .

TheoriginalLEM · 19/02/2020 02:38

Canterbury- it's my closest city and I like it, however I cannot go there on my own. I am fine with DP but if im on my own I get an overpowering urge to leave, NOW and have actually run to the bus station before. I do however suffer from anxiety but i had never considered this before. I dn't get it anywhere else.

GiGi18 · 19/02/2020 02:41

I visited Windermere in the Lake District and had an overwhelming sense of doom there. Was the strangest thing. The surrounding villages and towns were fine but I almost felt physically sick in Windermere itself. Very odd. My mother had a similar thing when she was young about a small Scottish island to the point that she was sick every time they visited so they had to stop going. Something in the water maybe HmmShock