Music can be a powerful tool, helping people feel seen and understood, connecting them with others who share similar experiences, and evoking strong emotions. Many songs have been written about struggles with alcohol and drug use and the impact it has on the individual and their loved ones. These songs can help people feel empowered in their own recovery and can serve as reminders of the reasons to overcome addiction.
This post includes a selection of songs about addiction and recovery. These songs encompass a diverse range of music genres, serving as a starting point or inspiration for individuals seeking to create a personalized recovery playlist.
Songs that capture the struggle
1. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
Under the Bridge is a song about Anthony Kiedis’ own experiences with substance use, particularly heroin, which he would buy and use under a bridge in LA. The song reflects on his feelings of loneliness and disconnection from others, which he experienced during his struggles with addiction and during periods of sobriety.
2. Kendrick Lamar – Swimming Pools (Drank)
This song is about becoming addicted to alcohol and the temptation to drink more and more. Lamar mentions his grandfather being an alcoholic and the influences of his environment growing up, along with the impact of peer pressure and social dynamics. The ‘swimming pool full of liquor’ is a metaphor for how easy it is to dive in and drink too much, experiencing the negative consequences of alcohol.
3. Fleetwood Mac – Gold Dust Woman
This song is written about Stevie Nicks’ experience dealing with relationship issues and the pressures of fame, using drugs to cope with her emotional turmoil. The lyrics depict the darkness she faces and her struggle to persevere, with ‘gold dust’ referring to cocaine use.
4. Macklemore – Otherside
This song is about Macklemore’s friend, who lost his life to drug use, as well as his own struggles with addiction. He talks about the glorification of drug use among his idols within the music industry and the pressure to join in. The song is a poignant message about the negative impact of substances and how quickly prescription and illicit drugs can lead to addiction and fatal consequences.
5. Metallica – Master of Puppets
This song is about drug addiction taking hold of a person’s life and controlling them like a puppet master. The lyrics are from the point of view of the drugs and focus on the addicted person being powerless and manipulated by their drug use, and the negative consequences of this self-destruction.
Relapse and resilience
6. Demi Lovato – Sober
Demi Lovato wrote this song about her own drug use and relapse. In the song, Lovato apologizes for relapsing after several years sober and promises to get help again. The piano ballad is a powerful recognition of the impact of relapse.
7. Amy Winehouse – Rehab
Much of Winehouse’s album, Back to Black, details her heartbreak and alcohol use as a means to cope with her pain. Rehab is about her management team telling her to go to rehab and overcome her alcohol addiction, which she refuses, believing she can manage without professional help. The song is catchy and fun, but serves as a reminder of the tragic reality of Winehouse’s difficulties and issues.
8. Joe Walsh – One Day At A Time
This song is about learning how to overcome addiction after recognizing and admitting that there is a problem. The lyrics talk about Walsh’s experience with alcohol and years of blaming others for his shortcomings, before finally recognizing that he wanted to change. It is about becoming sober and taking recovery one day at a time.
9. Eminem – Déjà vu
In this honest and dark song, Eminem talks about repeatedly turning to drugs, relapsing even after long periods of sobriety. He mentions how this impacts his children when they notice he is ‘acting strange again’ and the reasons he gives himself for taking another pill. It is about the cyclical nature of relapse and the desire to get sober again.
10. Three Days Grace – Over and Over
This song captures the feelings of frustration and hopelessness of an individual struggling with their addiction. The lyrics describe the intense and persistent draw of using drugs, even when trying to overcome addiction, and the internal conflict this causes.
Family and friends
11. NF – How Could You Leave Us
This song is about a child witnessing his mother’s addiction and ultimate death caused by substance use. It addresses the impact of addiction on the children involved and the range of emotions it causes; the anger he feels by being let down, along with the sadness of losing his mother and not understanding her choices.
12. Tom Walker – Leave a Light On
This song is written about a friend of Walker’s who struggles with substance use issues. He speaks to his friend, offering him a place of comfort and safety, to support him in overcoming his addiction. Walker writes that he doesn’t want to lose another friend to addiction, addressing the impact it has had on him and his loved ones in the past.
13. Weezer – Say It Ain’t So
This song is about a child finding a bottle of beer in the fridge, fearing that it means his stepfather is an alcoholic and will leave the family, as his biological father had done. It details the fear and frustration of a young boy who has witnessed the impact of alcoholism on the family.
14. Neil Young – Needle and the Damage Done
This song is about the impact of heroin addiction and was written about Young’s friends, particularly his friend Danny Whitten, who died of a heroin overdose. It is a haunting depiction of the pain caused by losing a loved one to addiction.
15. John Prine – Sam Stone
Sam Stone is a story of a war veteran who returns home with physical and mental harm and uses drugs to manage his pain. It is a beautiful but harrowing tale of the impact of war and addiction, a sadly common occurrence among veterans.
Hope and redemption
16. Eminem – Not Afraid
Not Afraid is about Eminem’s personal recovery journey, including his relapses and his emotional struggles with addiction. The song focuses on his sobriety, making the decision to get clean and make positive changes in his life, and how strong he feels now.
17. Brandi Carlile – That Wasn’t Me
This song is about the difference between the sober person and the addicted person, inspired by a friend of Carlile’s who experienced addiction. The lyrics address the impact addiction has on loved ones, admitting to the pain it causes others, while focusing on recovery and positive changes that happen with forgiveness and reconciliation.
18. Florence + The Machine – Shake It Out
While not specifically about addiction, this song offers a powerful and positive message about confronting and letting go of ‘demons’ and burdens of the past, moving forward into positivity. The lyrics include encouraging messages and metaphors that can serve as inspiration to embrace positive changes and new strength.
19. Sia – Never Give Up
This song is a message of hope and resilience. Sia has publicly spoken about her own struggles with addiction, her rehab and recovery process, and her many years of sobriety. This song is about having the strength to keep going and persevere through challenges and demons.
20. James Arthur – Recovery
Arthur sings about his own struggles with mental health concerns, issues, and addiction. This song talks about the strength to enter recovery and feeling empowered in this journey after hitting rock bottom.
How to build a healing playlist
Creating a playlist for your recovery and healing journey can help to keep you motivated and inspired. The stories told in these songs, and others of similar themes, can serve as reminders of the impact of addiction and the motivation to continue with recovery.
Studies show that music, including music therapy and music-based interventions, can be a beneficial tool in substance use disorder treatment. Music can have a positive impact on mood, stress, and self-esteem, and can improve motivation for recovery and treatment readiness and engagement. [1][2]
Music can be used to help recognize and process emotions. For example, building a healing playlist for recovery can focus on songs that tap into feelings of sadness and loneliness, which can be used as a positive outlet for these emotions. Conversely, a playlist could be built around feeling hopeful and happy, with uplifting and encouraging songs.
A healing playlist, as with all other aspects of recovery, can be personal, with meaning and purpose that focuses on the individual and their own emotions and experiences. This can be one of many powerful tools someone can turn to as they work toward recovery.
