Is there anyone out there who hates his/her town/city so much that he feels uncomfortable walking round?

Yes. I feel that way about the town I grew up in from ages 9–17. It’s a little backwards ass town that although is in Southern/Central California, feels more like a depressed Midwest town that time forgot. No offense to any midwesterners that live in shitty little towns. This strange sense of dread overtakes me when I enter the city limits…it’s a very odd feeling. Leaving town feels like I’ve cleansed myself. No kidding.

@FutureMemory Are your parents still there? Just wondering why you go back?

I grew up in the suburbs around Portland, Oregon. There’s pretty much only a few blocks that I actually like. The rest of Portland drives me nuts. My sister always drives for me when we visit because of that.

Sometimes when I walk around certain parts of Orange County, I have this anxiety that can only best be described as claustrophobia. Not in the sense of being inside a enclosed space, but the inability to remove myself from a particular space.

It’s all in my head though. I am actually moving. It’s just the perception that it’s all the same (strip malls and tract homes).

Sometimes it gets so bad that I just get in the car and drive until I hit the ocean.

I feel that way when I go back to the suburb I was raised in. Hated it when I was growing up, too.

@JLeslie My mother and sister still live there. They come to where I live to visit, though… I haven’t been there for 10 years or more.

There are a lot of rednecks in this little burgh so I really don’t go into the “town” very often, The whole almost square mile of it. I’m fairly certain they are pods.

Yes. That would be when I lived in Roanoke, VA. Horrid. I’m sure it’s a lovely place if you’re straight, white, racist, homophobic, and Christian. And old, too, seeing how the population is like 60% geriatric. My friend, Al, is black and he refused to drive or go to certain parts on the outskirts of town because there was serious Klan (or whatever) activity. Apparently, black people got into heaps of trouble with the country rednecks, like dangerous, violent, killin’ kind of trouble. That blows and frankly, should not be happening in this day and age.

I felt like such a freak there. I would dumb down my vocabulary to fly under the radar and they would STILL stare at me like I had three heads. The people at work were fairly nice to my face, but apparently gay slurs were said about me (and other insulting things) behind my back. It felt like a really, really bad version of high school. (My real high school was a million times more awesome)

What a hell-hole and a total pit of despair for me. So glad I no longer live there and I never, ever, EVER plan to go back. Well, maybe I’d go back to visit my buddy, Jon, but I’d be all ‘God, I f*cking hate this place’ the whole time.

@FutureMemory You can’t say no offense, then shitty little town in the same sentence. :P

I’ve lived in many towns across the US, and I can honestly say I’ve never hated any of them. Especially the little Midwestern town that time forgot that I live in now. It’s my favorite of them all.

Happiness is in the mind, not in the location you live.

Why would anyone live in a place they hate that much? I’ve lived in many places across the U.S. and around the world. I liked them all. I’ve found it’s not where you are but what you make of it.

@rts486 Because they’re underage and don’t have a choice? Because they’re part of the military, and got sent there, and going AWOL has some pretty serious consequences? Because their spouse got transfered, and despite how much they hate the town, they love the spouse more? Because it was the only place they could get a job, and the other option of being homeless seemed worse? Because a family member who’s dying lives there? Because they live in a country that restricts freedom, and they aren’t legally allowed to leave?

I live in the Memphis, TN, US area where local crime is usually the top news story. I don’t hate the city for it, but it does prevent me from going downtown more often than I’d like. Even in the daytime, I am constantly on the alert.

@MissAnthrope That’s interesting about Roanoke. I lived in the area for several years while attending college, but was pretty much sequestered to the campus and exposed to very few locals. After hearing your experience, I’m glad that I was oblivious to that mentality.

@rts486 – I moved there to support my then-girlfriend, who was having an extremely difficult time with her psych internship at the VA in Salem (right next to Roanoke). It was heartbreaking to be 5 hours away from her and hear her so low and suffering. So, I moved to be with her, then I got stuck there due to finances. After all of that, we split amicably, and she freakin’ abandoned me there. So.. not only did I have to nurse the heartbreak of the end of a 2½ year relationship by myself in a horrendous place where I had almost no social support, I lived in a really depressing ghetto apartment, so I’d just come home and hole up and try not to look or go outside. Dark times, dark times.

@Pied_Pfeffer – I imagine Blacksburg is a bit more fun, young, and happening. I know that’s where the people I knew would go to party and such. Be glad you missed all that Roanoke has to offer.

@MissAnthrope I attended Roanoke College in Salem.

Yes.
The last time I walked around my neighborhood, I was honked at every time I walked down a street, and I don’t even live in a big city.
Also, when I was younger I was walking down my street and a clown in a car pulled up and asked me for directions.
I truly hate it here.