Oftentimes people use different forms of art as therapeutic tools to aid in recovery from drug addiction. Discovering a love for films or painting can enrich your life. Different art forms can be able to help you connect with others over their feelings and experiences. This is especially true with songs about drug addiction and sobriety.
Songs about drug addiction can be songs written as a response to addiction, songs that discuss the situation of addiction, or songs about addiction and its aftermath. Songs about addiction recovery can unite people going through similar experiences and help them connect with what they are feeling. They can also be a huge cathartic release for people in recovery who may have spent much of their time suppressing certain feelings and emotions during active addiction.
Overall, music can do a lot for people trying to overcome addiction. Songs about drug addiction can drive home the reality of substance abuse and what it does to people. Songs about addiction recovery can help addicts feel understood, wanted, and supported when they may feel lost or alone.
How Do Songs About Drug Addiction and Sobriety Help People Recovering from Addiction?
Songs about addiction recovery can provide many benefits to someone trying to overcome a substance addiction. A few of the main benefits include the following:
It Helps Them Feel Less Alone
When someone is going through the ups and downs of addiction, it’s common to feel alone. This is partially because the behaviors associated with addiction can push away the people closest to an addict. Many songs about drug addiction let people trying to overcome addiction know that they’re not the only ones going through difficult times, though —that someone else has also struggled with a similar experience or emotion. This, in turn, helps people that are trying to overcome drug addictions feel less lonely.
It Helps Them Feel Understood
When talking to someone who has never experienced addiction, it’s easy to feel misunderstood. Many addicts find that their close friends or relatives fail to fully empathize with how they are feeling. Having never experienced the stress of addiction, it can be hard for others to understand.
Songs about drug addiction and recovery can prove that there are people out there who understand what an addict goes through. Hearing songs about drug addiction and recovery can also help ease the alienation that often comes with addiction. Additionally, addicts can show their loved ones songs about drug addiction and recovery that capture feelings about the matter they may have had difficulty expressing before.
It Helps Them Value Sobriety
Some songs about sobriety have lyrics about the things that the musicians decided to get sober for. These things could include the musicians’ health, families, and/or careers. Hearing about what makes life worth living through a song that a musician wrote about sobriety can help an addict keep in mind what his or her recovery is for.
It Helps Them Feel Empowered
Some songs about sobriety can help addicts feel empowered. This kind of music can even help addicts feel confident about staying sober during hard times. While songs about sobriety may not be songs that throw words like “power” around, they often have lyrics that suggest finding strength within oneself.
Examples of Songs About Drug Addiction and Sobriety
The list below contains songs from many genres, including rock, pop, and electronic music. These songs are meant to provide anyone struggling with substance addiction in his or her life with a feeling of understanding and empowerment.
Sober by P!nk
This pop ballad by the artist P!nk is about her desire to change her life by becoming sober. She lists behaviors that are a result of her addictions. These are things she wants to change about herself. Further, despite the way drugs or alcohol help her escape, she still feels that getting sober is the only way to improve her life.
This song can help you not feel alone in the complex feelings that come with addiction. While P!nk sings about how drugs help her feel emotionally safe, the high doesn’t last and leads to more problems. This is true for many addicts. Overall, this song focuses on the complex emotions that come with drug addiction and the desire to get clean to improve life.
Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind
Semi-Charmed Life is one of Third Eye Blind’s most popular songs. While the upbeat song is highly popular, many people don’t realize that the lyrics are darker than they first appear. The singer sings in the song that he wants something other than drugs to get him through life.
This song is about feeling lost amid drug addiction. Many people lose track of what gives life meaning when they are on drugs. Thus, at the end of the “Semi-Charmed Life” long, the lead singer, at the end of the song, lists things like music, the beach, and faith as things that can replace drugs and ultimately give life meaning.
Chandelier by Sia
On first listen, Chandelier comes across like a party girl anthem. A closer listen reveals dark lyrics about escaping from life through drugs and partying. In the lyrics, Sia claims that drinking is the only thing getting her through the night. Once the morning comes, she sings about the shame she feels at being unable to control her drinking.
While the song is beautiful and has an almost uplifting quality to it, it really is about how substance abuse can’t fix the problems that life brings us. Drugs can only provide a temporary escape. However, most people find that their problems become worse due to drug use.
This song captures the feelings that come with uncontrollable drug use to cope with feelings of depression and anxiety.
Say it Ain’t So by Weezer
This rock song by the band Weezer is a look into the emotions felt by the son of an alcoholic. The song is written by the band’s lead singer, River Cuomo, who saw his parent’s marriage fall apart due to his father’s drinking. Later in the song, Cuomo also reveals that his step-father was also an alcoholic.
Say it Ain’t So is a song that can help both the family of an addict and the addict him or herself. It can be frustrating to watch people you love lose themselves in drugs or alcohol. This rock song encapsulates those feelings of frustration while also showing addicts how their addictions affect others.
Ideal Husband by Father John Misty
Father John Misty describes anything but the “Ideal Husband” in this rock song. The tongue-in-cheek lyrics describe a man who is a bad friend and sibling because of how he behaves when on drugs. He says that he has said awful things and has even driven home under the influence while using drugs and alcohol.
While abusing drugs or alcohol, many people act in ways they normally wouldn’t. This song can help an addict feel less alone and more willing to acknowledge that his or her bad behavior is less than ideal though.
Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Under the Bridge is an autobiographical song about Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Keidis. In the lyrics, Keidis refers to a bridge. This is a place where he used to go to buy drugs while he was actively using. A place where he claimed he gave his life away in order to get high.
This song about addiction recovery describes feelings of isolation and loneliness that resulted from drug use. These are feelings that Keidis and many addicts feel as their addiction causes them to push people away. In recovery, these feelings are left behind though, as people build new habits and work to repair broken relationships.
It Ain’t Me by Kygo & Selena Gomez
This song about drug addiction is from the perspective of someone who is in love with an addict. In the electronic hit, Selena Gomez sings about a partner who stays out all night. While she outgrows getting high and going out, her partner chooses to stay in that lifestyle. The lyrics, therefore, represent how relationships are affected by substance abuse.
Often, relationships suffer as a result of the behaviors associated with drug or alcohol abuse. While you may not want to stop abusing substances, the toll it takes on the people around you can cause them to put themselves first and leave. Therefore, this song about drug addiction is a good reminder that healthy habits lead to healthy relationships and unhealthy habits lead to unhealthy relationships.
Recovery by James Arthur
Recovery is a song about James Arthur’s battles with addiction. This song encourages people in recovery to stick with it. It can be difficult to stay away from the things that cause problems, and sometimes you may feel like you are stuck in a cycle.
This song about addiction recovery is about James Arthur’s experience with getting and remaining sober and how he doesn’t want to go back to abusing substances. The lyrics of this song represent how addiction can change you as a person.
Many people who recover from substance addiction find that they prefer the healthier versions of themselves. This song can help push you to stay on the path toward sobriety or to quit drugs if you’re still using.
Recover from Addiction with The Owl’s Nest Recovery
These songs about drug addiction and sobriety can help move you towards recovery or help you stay sober if you are struggling while in recovery. However, if you are actively abusing substances, music alone won’t be enough to quit. Addiction requires specialized treatment. If you are struggling with substance addiction, don’t wait to reach out. Contact us today at The Owl’s Nest Recovery to start your journey towards recovery.
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