These 111 Songs About Depression Will Remind You That You're Not Alone

Nancy Henderson

July 16, 2024 at 11:47 PM·6 min read

Beyond feeling sad, depression can leave a person feeling hopeless, apathetic and worthless. Some people deal with major clinical depression all of their lives, while others suffer from situational depression after a major loss, such as the death of a loved one or the end of an important relationship. Some cope by self-medicating with substances that lead to addiction. It’s one of the most common mental health issues in the country, so it’s not surprising to find it reflected in songs about depression, no matter what type of music—pop, metal, rock, rap or country.

If you're dealing with depression, it's always important to seek the health of a trained mental health professional sooner rather than later. But in the meantime, We’ve collected this list of 110 songs that delve into every aspect of living with depression—from feeling isolated to coping with addiction to asking for help and fighting one's way out—based on explanations by the artists themselves, critics’ interpretations and, perhaps most importantly, discussions among those who live with depression and find solace in the lyrics.

111 Songs About Depression

1. "Breathe Me" — Sia

Ouch I have lost myself again/Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found/Yeah I think that I might break/Lost myself again and I feel unsafe

2. "Day ’N’ Nite" — Kid Cudi

Now look at this/ Madness to magnet keeps attracting me/I try to run but see I’m not that fast

3. "Fade to Black" — Metallica

Life it seems to fade away/Drifting further every day/Getting lost within myself/Nothing matters no one else

4. "Zero" — Imagine Dragons

Let me tell you what it’s like to be a zero, zero/Let me show you what it’s like to always feel/Like I’m empty and there’s nothing really real

5. "Be OK" — Ingrid Michaelson

Open me up and you will see/I’m a gallery of broken hearts/I’m beyond repair, let me be?/And give me back my broken parts

6. "Runaway Train" — Soul Asylum

It seems no one can help me now/I’m in too deep/There’s no way out/This time I have really led myself astray

7. "Lithium" — Evanescence

I can’t hold on to me/Wonder what’s wrong with me

8. "Fell on Black Days" — Soundgarden

Whatsoever I’ve feared has come to life/Whatsoever I’ve fought off became my life/Just when every day seemed to greet me with a smile/Sunspots have faded and now I’m doing time/Now I’m doing time?’Cause I fell on black days

9. "Lovely" — Billie Eilish and Khalid

Isn’t it lovely, all alone?/Heart made of glass, my mind of stone/Tear me to pieces, skin to bone/Hello, welcome home

10. "Car Radio" — Twenty One Pilots

My skin will scream reminding me of/Who I killed inside my dream

11. "Mad World" — Tears for Fears

And I find kinda funny, I find it kinda sad/That the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had

12. "I Should Have Known Better" — Sufjan Stevens

I should have known better/To see what I could see/My black shroud/Holding down my feelings/A pillar for my enemies

13. "Danko/Manuel" — Jason Isbell

I ain’t living like I should/A little rest might do me good/Got to sinking in the place where I once stood

14. "I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry" — Hank Williams

Hear that lonesome whipporwhill/He sounds too blue to fly/The midnight train is whining low/I’m so lonesome I could cry

15. "Telescope" — Cage the Elephant

I don’t think you understand/There’s nowhere left to turn

Related: Depression Quotes

16. "u" — Kendrick Lamar

And if those mirrors could talk it would say ‘you gotta go’

17. "Paint It Black" — Rolling Stones

I see a red door and I want to paint it black/No colors anymore I want them to turn black

18. "Dark Times" — The Wknd

In my dark times I’ve still got some problems I know/Driving too fast but just moving too slow/And I’ve got something I’ve been trying to let go/Pulling me back every time

19. "No Rain" — Blind Melon

And I don’t understand why I sleep all day/And I start to complain that there’s no rain/And all I can do is read a book to stay awake/And it rips my life away but it’s a great escape

20. "A Better Son/Better Daughter" — Rilo Kiley

But the lows are so extreme/That the good seems f-----g cheap/And it teases you for weeks in its absence

21. "This Depression" — Bruce Springsteen

Baby I’ve been down/But never this down/I’ve been lost/But never this lost

22. "Hurt" — Johnny Cash (originally by Nine Inch Nails)

Everyone I know/Goes away in the end

23. "Away From The Sun" — 3 Doors Down

I’m so tired of living in the dark/Can anyone see me down here

24. "Rain" — Patty Griffin

Strange how hard it rains now/Rows and rows of big dark clouds

25. "Gravity" — John Mayer

I’ll never know what makes this man/With all twelve that his heart can stand/Dream of ways to throw all away

26. "You Don't Know" — from the Broadway show Next to Normal, performed by Alice Ripley

Do you wake up in the morning and need help to lift your head?/Do you read obituaries and feel jealous of the dead?

27. "Mercy Street" — Peter Gabriel

She pictures the broken glass, she pictures the steam/She pictures a soul/With no leak at the seam

28. "Fire and Rain" — James Taylor

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain/I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end/I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

29. "Is That All There Is?" — Peggy Lee

Is that all there is, is that all there is?/ If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing

30. "Both Sides Now" — Joni Mitchell

I’ve looked at life from both sides now/From win and lose and still somehow/ It’s life’s illusions I recall/ I really don’t know life at all

31. "A Day Without Me" — U2

Started a landslide in my ego/Looked from the outside to the world I left behind

32. "Down in a Hole" — Alice in Chains

Down in a hole feelin’ so small/Down in a hole, losin’ my soul/ I’d like to fly, but my wings have been so denied

33. "Anxiety" — Julia Michaels and Selena Gomez

All my friends, they don’t know what it’s like/They don’t understand why I can’t sleep through the night/I’ve been told that I could take something to fix it/Damn, I wish it was that simple

34. "Diary of a Madman" — Ozzy Osbourne

Screaming at the window/Watch me die another day/Hopeless situation/Endless price I have to pay

35. "The Dark Side" — Muse

You’d be scared living with my despair/ And if you could feel the things I am able to feel

36. "Adam’s Song" — Blink 182

I never thought I’d die alone/Another six months I’ll be unknown

37. "Runaway" — Kanye West

And I always find, yeah I always find something wrong/You been putting up with my *** just way too long/I’m so gifted at finding what I don’t like most

38. "Million Years Ago" — Adele

Sometimes I just feel it’s only me/Who can’t stand the reflection that they see

39. "She’s Falling Apart" — Lisa Loeb

She gets home from school too early/And closes the door to her room/There’s nothing inside her/She weak and she’s tired of feeling like this

40. "Rainy Days and Mondays" — The Carpenters

Hangin’ around/Nothing to do but frown/Rainy days and Mondays always get me down

41. "Swim Good" — Frank Ocean

I’m about to drive in the ocean/I’ma try to swim from something bigger than me

42. "Under the Bridge" — Red Hot Chili Peppers

It’s hard to believe/That there’s nobody out there/It’s hard to believe/That I’m all alone

43. "Cough Syrup" — Young the Giant

Life’s too short to even care at all/I’m losing my mind losing control

44. "Lithium" — Nirvana

I’m so lonely but that’s OK I shaved my head/And I’m not sad

45. "Heavy" — Linkin Park

I keep dragging around what’s bringing me down

46. "Anything Worth Holding Onto" — Chrissy Metz and Matt Bloyd

It takes effort to fight/I don’t have the strength/I’m holding on to what’s still left of me

47. "Breaking Down" — Florence and the Machine

All alone on the edge of sleep/My old familiar friend/Comes and lies down next to me/And I can see it coming from the edge of the room/Smiling in the streetlight even with my eyes shut tight/I still see it coming now/ Ah I think I’m breaking down again

48. "Please Be Patient With Me" — Wilco

It doesn’t mean that I don’t care/It means I’m partially there

49. "New Dawn Fades" — Joy Division

Directionless so plain to see/A loaded gun won’t set you free/So you say

50. "Rainbow in the Dark" — Dio

When I see lightning/You know it always brings me down/‘Cause it’s free and I see that it’s me? Who’s lost and never found

51. "I’m Only Happy When It Rains" — Garbage

Pour your misery down on me

52. "I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times" — Beach Boys

Sometimes I feel very sad (Can’t find nothin’ I can put my heart and soul into)

53. "Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For a Woman Like Me To Have" — Lana Del Rey

Don’t ask if I’m happy, you know that I’m not/ But at best I can say I’m not sad/‘Cause hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have

54. "Here Comes The Rain Again" — Eurythmics

Here comes the rain again/Raining in my head like a tragedy/Tearing me apart like a new emotion

55. "I Go To Extremes" — Billy Joel

Sometimes I’m tired, sometimes I’m shot/Sometimes I don’t know how much more I’ve got

56. "Gasoline" — Halsey

I think there’s a flaw in my code/These voices won’t leave me alone

57. "You Don’t Know" — Katelyn Tarver

Let me just stop trying/Let me just stop fighting/I don’t want your good advice/Or reasons why I’m alright

58. "Something Vague" — Bright Eyes

Now and again it seems worse than it is/But mostly the view is accurate

59. "Irvine" — Kelly Clarkson

I don’t have much to go/Before I fade completely

60. "Behind Blue Eyes" — The Who

No one bites back as hard/On their anger/None of my pain and woe/Can show through

61. "Pretty Hurts" — Beyoncé

But you can’t fix what you don’t see/It’s the should that needs the surgery

62. "How Soon Is Now" — The Smiths

I am the son and heir/Of nothing in particular

63. "Nobody Knows" — Pink

It’s win or lose not how you play the game/And the road to darkness has a way/Of always knowing my name/But I think nobody knows

64. "Lucky" — Britney Spears

She’s so lucky, she’s a star/But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart, thinking/If there’s nothing missing in my life/Then why do these tears come at night?

65. "I Am a Rock" — Simon & Garfunkel

I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain/It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain

66. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" — Green Day

I walk a lonely road/The only one that I have ever known/Don’t know where it goes/But it’s only me and I walk alone

67. "Man of Constant Sorrow" — Dan Tyminski with Alison Krauss and Union Station

For six long years I’ve been in trouble/No pleasures here on earth I found/For in this world I’m bout to ramble/I have no friends to help me now

Related: Bible Verses for Depression

68. "Cry Pretty" — Carrie Underwood

You can pretty lie and say it’s OK/ You can pretty smile and just walk away/Pretty much fake your way through anything/But you can’t cry pretty

69. "Everybody Hates Me" — The Chainsmokers

I’m so defeated, I can’t get outside my head

70. "I Am I Said" — Neil Diamond

I am, I said/To no one there/And no one heard at all/Not even the chair

71. "People Are Strange" — The Doors

People are strange when you’re a stranger/Faces look ugly when you’re alone

72. "Woke Up Hurting" — Frightened Rabbit

I woke up hurting/Though I can’t quite say why

73. "Sober" — Demi Lovato

Sometimes I just wanna cave/And I don’t wanna fight

74. "Purpose for Pain" — Scott Stapp

I shut every door but the right one/I fought the devil and he won

75. "Whiskey Lullaby" — Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger/And finally drank away her memory/Life is short, but this it was bigger/Than the strength he had to get up off his knees

76. "The A Team" — Ed Sheeran

She’s stuck in her daydream/Been this way since eighteen/But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries

77. "Sound and Vision" — David Bowie

Pale blinds drawn all day/Nothing to do, nothing to say/Blue blue

78. "Waiting 'Round to Die" — Townes Van Zandt

I got me a friend at last/He don’t drink or steal or cheat or lie/His name’s codeine/He’s the nice thing I’ve seen/Together we’re gonna wait around and die

79. "It’s Been Awhile" — Staind

Why must I feel this way?/Just make this go away/Just one more peaceful day

80. "Torn" — Natalie Imbruglia

I’m all out of faith/This is how I feel/I’m cold and I am shamed/Lying naked on the floor

81. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" — BeeGees

How can you mend a broken heart?/ How can you stop the rain from falling down? How can you stop the sun from shining?

82. "When It Rains" — Eli Young Band

When it rains, some people get down/They’re sporting a frown so I fit right in

83. "The Lonely" — Christina Perri

I’m a ghost of a girl/That I want to be most/I’m the shell of a girl/That I used to know well

84. "Sorrow" — The National

I live in a city sorrow built/It’s in my honey, it’s in my milk

85. "It Makes No Difference" — The Band

And it makes no difference how far I go/Like a scar the pain will always show

86. "Everybody Hurts" — REM

If you’re on your own/In this life/The days and nights are long/When you think you’ve had too much/Of this life/To hang on

87. "Move Along" — The All-American Rejects

So a day when you’ve lost yourself completely/Could be a night when your life ends/ Such a heart that will lead you to deceiving/All the pain held in your/Hands are shaking cold/Your hands are mine to hold

88. "Rise Up" — Andra Day

When the silence isn’t quiet/And it feels like it’s getting hard to breathe/And I know you feel like dying/But I promise we’ll take the world to its feet

89. "1-800-273-8255" — Logic ft. Alessia Cara, Khalid

It’s holding on, though the road’s long/And seeing light in the darkest things/And when you stare at your reflection/Finally knowing who it is/I know that you’ll thank God you did

90. "How To Save a Life" — The Fray

Where did I go wrong?/I lost a fried/Somewhere along in the bitterness/And I would have stayed up with you all nit/Had I known how to save a life

91. "Lullaby" — Nickelback

Please let me take you/Out of the darkness and into the light

92. "Last Hope" — Paramore

Every night I try my best to dream tomorrow makes it better/And wake up to the cold reality and not a thing is changed

93. "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)" — Gary Allan

Every storm runs out of rain/Just like every dark night turns into day

94. "Creep" — Radiohead

I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo/What the hell am I doing here?/I don’t belong here

95. "Get Up" — Shinedown

If you were ever in doubt/Don’t sell yourself short, you might be bulletproof/Hard to move mountains when you’re paralyzed/But you gotta try

96. "Help" — The Beatles

Help me if you can I’m feeling down/And I do appreciate you being ‘round/Help me get my feet back on the ground

97. "Reason to Fight" — Disturbed

When the demon that’s inside you is ready to begin/And it feels like it’s a battle that you will never win/When you’re aching for the fire and begging for your sin/When there’s nothing left inside, there’s still a reason to fight

98. "Waving Through a Window" — from the musical Dear Evan Hansen, performed by Ben Platt

We start with stars in our eyes/We start believing that we belong/But every sun doesn't rise/And no one tells you where you went wrong

99. "Manhattan" — Sara Bareilles

And so it goes/One foot after the other/Till black and white begin to color in

100. "By The Grace of God" — Katy Perry

Thought I wasn’t enough and I wasn’t so tough/Laying on the bathroom floor

101. "I’m Movin' On" — Rascal Flatts

I’ve dealt with my ghosts and faced all my demons/Finally content with a past I regret/I’ve found you find you find strength in your moments of weakness/For once I’m at peace with myself

102. "There's No Place In This World for Me" — The Menzingers

When I'm here I want to be there/When I'm there I want to be anywhere else/What a tragedy, a catastrophe, feeling alone around so many

103. "I Feel Like Dying," Lil Wayne

Only once the drugs are done/That I feel like dying, I feel like dying

104. "Chemical" — Post Malone

Oxytocin makin' it all OK/When I come back down, it doesn't feel the same/Now I'm sittin' 'round, waitin' for the world to end all day

105. "Sad Forever" — Lauv

My mind whispers in the nighttime/Voices always keeping me up/Telling me that I should give up/'Cause lately, I've been in the backseat to my own life/Trying to take control, but I don't know how to/I don't wanna be sad forever/I don't wanna be sad no more/I don't wanna wake up and wonder/What the hell am I doing this for?/I don't wanna be medicated/I don't wanna go through that war/I don't wanna be sad, I don't wanna be sad/I don't wanna be sad anymore

106. "Help Me" — Alkaline Trio

Help me, help me, somebody help me/Save me from myself/Take me from this hell

107. "Normal Like You" — Everclear

Yeah, they said you called me maybe yesterday/I don't even have the strength to pick up the phone/You wouldn't even know me since you went away/The Prozac doesn't do it for me anymore

108. "This Can't Be Life" — JAY-Z feat. Beanie Sigel and Scarface

I'm goin through it, mom dukes too/Tears streamin down her pretty face, she got her palms to it/My life is gettin too wild/I need to bring some sort kinda calm to it/Bout to lose it; voices screamin "Don't do it!"

109. "So Many Tears" — 2Pac

I had my mind full of demons tryin' to break free/They planted seeds and they hatched, sparkin' the flame/Inside my brain like a match, such a dirty game/No memories, just a misery

110. "I Went Blind" — The Junior Varsity

Still everyone is so uptight/Concerned about the afterlife/Will it be what you want it to be?/Maybe God's just a nightlight/Who's there to help us sleep so tight/But that light's been turned off on me

111. "Something to Believe In" — Kesha

Mind's been racin' like a stallion/While I watch it all collapsing/Kill the chaos, find the balance/'Round we go, around we go/Greatness, just a shade of madness/Ego, just a face of sadness/Pain is just part of the package/'Round we go, around we go/I sit and watch the pieces fall and I don't know who I am at all

Next, 75 Happy Songs to Lift Your Spirits

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