To think a place can cause depression?

[Kittycattenklump]

I am wondering whether I might need a change of scene.

Appreciate that I am ‘lucky’ to live in a lovely place, I live and work in Windermere, Lake District, and have done for the past 6 years. I am 2 yrs single and happy with that, have some nice friends and am happily self employed, but recently I am coming to feel that the place itself makes me feel this weird depression, like a hopelessness, that I don’t feel when I visit other places or stay with my longer distance friends.

I left for a year during the pandemic, and it doesn’t feel the same since coming back. Even the people coming here seem different somehow. But I can’t explain. There was previously a kind of nature lover/alternative vibe which is now missing.
I rent and the prices seem to have flown up in the past year -although that’s an issue everywhere, there’s a sadness to it here as what’s left of the market is dated or drab for a very high price. Local friends are depressed with the housing situation as many are sold off to airB&B.

I am comfortable financially but the manic switch of quiet grey gloom then heavy tourism has begun to put me on edge, something hard to explain.
Perhaps the balance has shifted and it’s no longer the right place for me, no matter the grandeur of the landscape. It feels like a giant commodity, bland and soulless recently.

other areas of my life are great, so i do suspect I might be up for a move. Would you consider it? Would you live here? Would love some thoughts on this as I haven’t discussed it with anyone yet.

I definitely think a place can contribute- at the very least- to depression. It sounds like you have fallen out of love with it. I grew up in a touristy place and I loved the quiet season, but not the summer. Which do you prefer? Or maybe you'd like to move somewhere without tourism? Is there anywhere that springs to mind? Is anything stopping you moving?

If I were you and it was possible to move I would. Good luck!

Could it be SAD (seasonal affective disorder)?

I can sort-of relate. We moved to what we thought was our dream location, access to countryside etc. but there’s a quiet sense of gloom and dread, that really goes up a notch when dusk kicks in. It’s tricky to explain, but your post comes close to describing the eerie unsettled feeling

I think your post is self-aware, insightful and well-expressed. I felt like that about a place once, but couldn’t leave due to family illness. If you are footloose, I’d move x

Yes I know what you mean!

There's an area I used to go on days out to with my parents when I was little and I just never used to enjoy going, it felt like there was a weight on me that lifted as we drove home!

I don't go often at all now but I get the exact same feeling on the odd occasion I've been as an adult too.

It's really strange but it really affects me for some reason, so I can imagine living somewhere that makes you feel like that could contribute towards depression.

You could well be right.

However, I fell deeply out of love with our house (rather than our area) and was desperate to move, but it was completely cured by sertraline. Basically I was depressed and focussed in blaming the house, if you see what I mean. Once the depression was treated, the house became completely fine again.

It can be really hard to tell whether your experience of your environment is affecting your mood, or vice versa.

I think it’s more complicated than that. I definitely get low when I drive to where my mum lives, which is in a socially deprived town, but also where we experienced some difficult times when my dad was ill and then dying. So it’s a mix of remembered bad experiences plus not a nice place.

So I don’t think a place can “cause depression” on its own, but I do think it can contribute to feeling depressed if there are other factors as well.

I don’t think moving will solve all your problems. Same shit, different location is not an uncommon experience. You need to be forensic about what’s making you unhappy. I doubt location is the whole of it.

The Lake District makes me feel very depressed. It’s like a hanging great doom. I can’t bear the dampness of it either. It’s like it has a weight always in the atmosphere. It’s like I can see it’s beautiful and the people are nice, but…it makes me depressed.

Look for the Glastonbury threads. There are fascinating discussions on here about people getting doom vibes from certain places in the UK.

I personally feel the same about the Lake District - only as a tourist though. I desperately wanted to love it but I just felt the same depressed feeling you describe. I have suffered from clinical depression in the past though so maybe I am just susceptible to it creeping up on me in specific situations.

Yes. I've lived in lots of different places, including several in the west country, often thought of as one of the nicest parts of England, but the reality of living there is very different from the DFLs ( down from London-ers) turning up for a couple of weeks in the summer. I also much prefer it in the off season when it's mainly people who actually live there or people visiting to hike and photograph and write and walk their dogs, not get drunk on the beach every night... I think all of the UK has changed though, hardly anywhere is what it was, as most people have changed and there's more of a sense of just going through the motions.

The pandemic is still very recent and the collective generational PTSD is just starting to show. Also doesn't help that spirituality has fallen out of fashion somewhat (I don't mean religion) as that could have helped some people a bit. Instead of which we're all medicated up to the eyeballs on antidepressants these days (not that I'd decry them, they really helped me).

If you're renting, self employed and your business can be done from anywhere, why not?
However you could find that in a new location you miss your friends and find it hard to create new networks.
You could move and find you have the same issues - but it might be an improvement. If its the former you can always move back again in the future.

Funny how we all feel differently, I holiday frequently in the Lake District and absolutely love it, makes me feel quite joyful and never ceases to make me catch my breath at the sheer beauty of the place, it makes me feel incredibly calm and gives me a sense of well-being, of course being on holiday helps and not actually living there, I do only see it’s good side.

I think the whole country is sinking into a collective depression, I went shopping in my what used to be my lovely little market town, there are so many boarded up shops now, lots of homeless people, others sat drinking on the pavement, vape shops, nail bars and barbers seem to be the only thriving businesses, it felt just so depressing.

Yes I agree 100%. I moved home to take of my father. To a house I hated. After he died I stuck it out miserable for two years. Until the stress was too much. I sold it and moved and it was a huge weight off my shoulders. Life is too short. Leave

Definitely.

I've always lived rurally. I moved with ex to the Midlands for a year and I was totally miserable.

Despite living in a supposedly desirable 'village', I've never been so down. Endless traffic & noise. Constant lorries. Dirty air, nowhere empty or peaceful to walk or run. No birdsong. Never dark. Having to drive 17 miles to find woodland. 🙁

Within 6 months, I was struggling, had been prescribed anti-depressants. If I hadn't left I honestly think I'd be drunk or have topped myself. Yet some people love it.

Everyone has somewhere they feel at home, and you just need to find yours.

I've always found the Lake District massively gloomy and oppressive. No idea why, its really beautiful hence why I had a couple of holidays there, but I won't be back.

I too found the Lake District very depressing on the odd occasions I was there, something about the landscape was quite overwhelming but I couldn't tell you what.

I agree with the comments about much of the country feeling like this. I do think places can have that feel but at the moment, there's a general hopelessness everywhere.

Thanks everyone, some really good stuff to think about here.
I feel the place has changed but can’t describe how, perhaps a very different crowd pouring in, that sets the rhythm of the place to something different. It feels so much more like a machine churning money than a place with any spirit whatsoever now, and it used to make my heart sing, too!

It just feels flat. It is beautiful of course but almost devoid of anything outside of tourism now, and local life sits uneasily beside the tourism. I’ve always liked both, but there sure is a sort of ‘bi-polarity’ about it - it’s either deathly still or filled with a manic, nerve frazzling energy. I think up until a few yrs ago it was more balanced out.

But yes, the properties are suddenly of poor quality, where they used to be quite sweet and characterful. It is like a cynical greed taking over everything, since there aren’t enough homes to go around, so lots of people competing for overpriced tenancies (which landlords use as an excuse to not bother decorating or repairing issues - and why should they, they know people are trapped into to paying around 12,000pcm to have kitchen cupboard doors hanging off)

Glad Im not alone though, I feel more and more attracted to heading south (not London, just maybe welsh border, maybe..).

Also, recently there’s a lot of stress regarding local work - there’s too much of it and many businesses can’t find the staff. One might at first glance see this as a positive sign, until you realise that most of the industry was previously employing overseas workers on low pay, most of them shoved into shared houses or basement studios. but they are largely gone now, and many local or uk residents can’t afford to live there.
I admit, I could only do it because if a good inheritance and I didn’t want to buy my own place. II can’t imagine how younger people cope with those prices.

It is like the success of tourism and holiday homes is actually choking itself to death.

I moved away from Keswick for the same reason. Time for a change.

Milton Keynes = depression

I think the tourism is all year around now and it's just too much. No true off peak season for locals to chill and enjoy the lack of traffic and local amenities. I know folk that have left Ambleside and gone to further out villages/hamlets such as Beetham

I live in Cornwall and understand what you mean. I find it pretty unbearable in the Summer. Everywhere used to be quiet out of Season, but it's so much busier now. Second home owners have decimated small communities, it makes me very sad. Locals are supposed to be grateful.

This is very relatable.

For me, Somerset and Newquay make me feel very heavy emotionally. I have no idea why. Somerset is particularly depressing for me, even the name just makes me think of brown and dark colours that make me feel trapped and sad.

It’s very odd!