Does anyone else feel stressed at how busy/overcrowded everything is all the time?

[Walkyrie]

Just that really. Supermarkets, the roads, even what used to be fairly quiet dog walks. Pavements, beaches, bus stops, it just feels like everything is really busy and there are very few places you can go outside your home, even at off peak hours, that are peaceful and quiet. Even then our house is very overlooked with constant traffic and mopeds outside.

I totally appreciate I am also a person and therefore contributing to this by the way! It just feels like everything is so hectic. I’m having a tough time at the moment and just went out to what used to be a fairly quiet dog walking route, hoping for a bit of quiet, but nope - people everywhere. Just constant mental noise.

I'm retired now so tend to shop and run errands and attend appointments mid week when it's less busy.

If the dog wak that you take is crowded could you use another route instead?

Absolutely. I can't cope with crowds. We're fortunate to live rurally but I avoid the supermarket if it's busy. It just fries my brain and I can't think.

The other thing I avoid is shops with loud music on. It means I can't focus on what I want to buy and so I have to leave.

We live on the edge of a medium sized town in a rural county, so hardly a metropolis. But it is busy and you can always hear people. Wherever you go you will mostly see people even out in the countryside.

DH and I have just got back from a weekend away in the middle of nowhere. It was lovely to be so far away from others. Just the odd farm vehicle, sheep and birds. It was lovely. Though I might go a little crazy if I was there permanently.

I can’t say I’ve noticed.

I work so can’t pick and choose when I do things. Even the least popular routes seem busy. And all it takes on the road is 1 slightly slower driver and the congestion piles up. Joining the dual carriageway today felt like playing high speed jenga.

Yes it feels like even rural areas are now quite busy compared to how they were. It’s very difficult to ‘get away from things’.

no doubt, partly due to the UK population growing by 18% in the last 25 years....

Yes totally.

Even taking into account that over the last 10 years or so i've become extra sensitive to noise and crowds, i'm sure everything and everywhere is busier than 'before'.

Before when i don't know.

Whereas once you used to guaranteed a parking place for example, now you're cruising for ages. And then loads of rude pushy people. It's made me almost reclusive! I time outings to avoid crowded times and even those outings are very local.

When we go away on holls (uk) and it's going to be a sunny day, we are up at stupid o'clock and on the beach before most other holiday makers have even thought about a bacon sandwich. And we're off the beach at midday when the main crush is arriving.

I like the peace of home.

I’m probably just getting older and grumpier but between the screaming and crying of my kids, constant traffic noise and being bombarded with messages via tech, I was hoping for just 20 minutes in peace without having to interact with another living soul!

And yes why the fuck do they play rave volume music in supermarkets? It’s absolutely awful, does anyone actually enjoy it?

Yes it’s very busy

i noticed it was quieter on roads when schools are off

I've always had a day off in the week and now, say compared to 10 or 20 years ago I feel it is much busier, where I go anyway.

Supermarket for example, unless you go at 8 am or after 7 pm in the week, the car park will be full. I've noticed this moreso in the last 5 years to so.

I guess it could be that we are an aging society with more and more retired people, and obviously people living longer. Where I live the population demographics do skew on the older side.

This country is vastly overpopulated. The population should only be approx 3 million.

Yup, had to go to a health centre today for an x-ray. Car park absolutely rammed, so had to park on a residential street and hobble there. Inside, long queue for reception, hiddeously crowded waiting room, long wait for the x-ray, long queue for the loo, and everything was also so noisy - lots of people everywhere all talking loudly and radio blaring from the x-ray reception. Needed a lie down in a darkened room when I finally got home, after the journey back taking a long time due to traffic everywhere, traffic lights, road works, etc.

That was after going with DH to his oncology appointment last week, where we had to stand for 90 minutes in the waiting room which was rammed with cancer patients all waiting for consultations/appointments/treatments, with only the most seriously ill patients getting the chance of a seat.

I don't think it's all down to more people, though the population increase inevitably has an impact, it's also down to poor organisation, poor planning/layout etc where no thought seems to be given to the poor sods suffering being crowded, often unnecessarily, in pretty small spaces.

Northumberland is your answer. North Northumberland.

I'm the same, OP. It is one of the reasons why I wanted to move far away from where I grew up (a village that is being swallowed up by a nearby town because the town is having to spread out to keep up with housing demand)... and one of the reasons that I rarely go back. If I go, my dogs are walked very early in the morning or late at night.

I now live rurally. I work nearby. If I need to pop into town, it's again early in the morning or after 7pm when it's quiet (and in the evenings, you get a lot of reductions).

I went away to somewhere even more remote. If I could move there, I would, and I would try to avoid ever leaving! (I got off the plane, went to the nearest town to a car hire, and wondered if it was too late to turn back).

I live in a town in north east Scotland and every time I go to the south of England I cannot cope with how busy it is. I assume you get used to it but maybe not!

Too many people on a little island. This is what happens when have 70 million is it now?

Crazy numbers.

And before anyone starts.... I'm not being political. 🙄

I don’t have this experience. I live in central London in zone 1, and I find it quite easy to avoid crowds. I get a seat on the tube most mornings, I’m only going a couple of stops so I usually stand. I often have lunch in a quiet park. When I walk home, I avoid London Bridge and the millennium Bridge and cross at Blackfriars Bridge which is much quieter and then take the backstreets home. I do adjust my day so that I can avoid crowds, but it’s not difficult. I go to Borough Market at 10 o’clock every Saturday morning and it’s quiet enough, and I don’t have to queue for anything. Ditto the supermarkets.

This is why I love it when it rains. Less people.

3 million? There are more people than that in Ireland, where it is a lot smaller and the population numbers were ravaged by famine and large scale emmigration.

We don't go out as much as we used to. No shops at the weekend, no coastal areas unless it's the colder weather.

I live in South London and travel to central London on public transport most days.

I hate crowded environments and avoid them whenever possible and even living where I do I'd say I'm successful at this more than 85% of the time. I travel off peak, I'll walk down Wigmore St not Oxford St, I get buses not tubes when it's practical. Nothing would induce me to go into our local Tesco on a Saturday or Sunday. I've given up driving because the roads are so busy.

I’m the same as you OP. I tend to stay at home as often as I can. Never happier than when away from crowds

Indeed.

The overcrowding and the constant noise is one of the main reasons why I left London and moved to a small seaside town.

I notice everyday how people are less stressed, friendlier and frankly happier than in London.

I don't think all the rushing around and constant over-stimulation is healthy in the long run.