Breaking The Habit Lyrics
I'm picking me apart again
You all assume
I'm safe here in my room
Unless I try to start again
I don't want to be the one the battles always choose
'cause inside I realize that I'm the one confused
Or why I have to scream
I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way
I know it's not alright
So I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit tonight
I tightly lock the door
I try to catch my breath again
I hurt much more than any time before
I have no options left again
I don't want to be the one the battles always choose
'cause inside I realize that I'm the one confused
Or why I have to scream
I don't know why I instigate
And say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way
I'll never be alright
So I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit tonight
'cause I'm the one at fault
I'll never fight again
And this is how it ends
Or why I have to scream
But now I have some clarity to show you what I mean
I don't know how I got this way
I'll never be alright
So I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit
I'm breaking the habit tonight
This is one of my favorite songs of all time. The song describes the thoughts/emotions of someone who is about to commit suicide. It also refers to what may have caused the person to become that way. The lyrics are very general and vague so almost can relate to it. They can refer to almost any great emotional/physical struggle life gives us. Lost love, unrequited love, abusive relationship, cheating spouse, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, sexual abuse, bullying, PTSD, war trauma, self-harm, self-image issue etc. The list goes on and on.
It’s such a beautiful song. It brings out the thoughts that someone who is suicidal more accurately, clearly and emotionally than any other song I have heard. If you want just a small idea of how horrible a person going through those experiences goes through, just listen to this song.
By the way, anyone who has previously post that this song is about “breaking the habit” of drug addiction or whatever someone’s problem might be should have a closer look at the lyrics. This is clearly NOT an inspirational song about getting over your problems. This is made clear towards the end with the lines:
“I will never fight again and this is how it ends” and “I don’t know how I got this way I’ll never be alright so I’m breaking the habit tonight” This is clearly saying that the person stopped fighting to fix their problem and has given up. He knows he will never get over his experience. It has made him so suicidal that he is going to kill himself tonight.
You should give a listen to VNV Nation Ghost, Blue October Into the Ocean, Elizabeth on the bathroom floor by the Eels to name a few ^^
You should give a listen to VNV Nation Ghost, Blue October Into the Ocean, Elizabeth on the bathroom floor by the Eels to name a few ^^
Maybe you have a pessimistic point of view. When I hear the refrain I understand that he's going to stop fighting to be normal,he's going to do what he wants,and that's what he means by breaking the habit.
Maybe you have a pessimistic point of view. When I hear the refrain I understand that he's going to stop fighting to be normal,he's going to do what he wants,and that's what he means by breaking the habit.
Oilblackstar: Based on the lyrics of this song I think there is only one meaning that makes sense when you look at every line in the song. I didn't want to make my meaning post overly long so I left some things out. The only meanings to a song that works are ones that make sense when you can tie that meaning to every line in the song.
Oilblackstar: Based on the lyrics of this song I think there is only one meaning that makes sense when you look at every line in the song. I didn't want to make my meaning post overly long so I left some things out. The only meanings to a song that works are ones that make sense when you can tie that meaning to every line in the song.
Your meaning of "he is going to start doing what he wants and stop trying to be normal" does make sense when you look at the refrain by itself. However, when you...
Your meaning of "he is going to start doing what he wants and stop trying to be normal" does make sense when you look at the refrain by itself. However, when you look at the second verse then the positive meaning doesn't work. In the second verse he is talking about "clutching his cure" and "I hurt much more then anytime before I have no options left again." So that tells you that he is breaking the habit by doing something physical. "Breaking the habit by trying to stop being normal" doesn't make sense when you look at that verse. Especially when you look at the rest of the verse "I have no options left again." Breaking the habit in the sense your talking about only requires a mental change. He is obviously talking about a physical change in "breaking the habit."
So we can establish that whatever his situation may be, its causing him unbearable pain and he has no options left but to break the habit. "Trying to stop being normal" can't take the pain he is describing away. Because its not being abnormal that's causing his pain, its whatever his problem is that's causing the pain. The only way he can stop that pain is through suicide.
I think it's about trying to get over serf-mutilation... He's thinking about everything that's wrong with him, all his problems and remembering how good it felt when he hurt himself... "memories consume, like opening the wound" "you all assume i'm safe here in my room, unless i try to start again".... he's family and friends all know he has a problem, and they think he's over it, little do they know he's continuously thinking about it.... He feels like he's the one with all the problems, that all the bad things go looking for him... clearly he's confused as to what to do, where to go with it all... which problems to fix and which problems to ignore... he's frustrated... he doesnt know what made him what to hurt himself, he knows it isn't a good thing and thats why he wants to stop... "Clutching my cure, tightly lock the door".... He's found his instrument with which he'll inflict his "medecin"... the locks the door 'cause he's ashamed, he doesnt want anyone to know that he's back to his old tricks... "I hurt much more, then any time before, i had no options left again".... judging by the last few words, saying "again" after he said he hurt more then anyother time makes me think that the feelings at that moment are just as bad as before, but he just thinks it's worse because he hurts so much... i'm not sure how to interpret "I'll paint it on the walls/'cause i'm the one at fault/i'll never fight again/and this is how it ends"...... perhaps he's blaming himself for making everone miserable, blaming himself for hurting himself and trying to make things alright again.... At the end of the song he figures out what to do... he knows he'll never be completely over his problem, he knows he needs help and his willing to fight it.... At least thats what it means to mean....... i really relate to this song.... it makes me feel like there are other people out there that have the same problem as me..... i know how it feels to struggle with the problem of self-harm..... this song really touched me....
Ok to start off before I give my opinion what this song means.. I'm just going to say a couple things about everyone's interpretation. This song is about a drug addiction yes, but what most people don't realize is that this song isn't just about that. It's about your own meaning of the song. You may think it means something about an unhealthy relationship, addiction to drugs, addiction to something else, but the real meaning is what you define it as. In Linkin Parks case they made this song about a drug addiction and learning to break that nasty habit of yours.
Bottom line is that: We as people all have problems in life. Some may say, we should fix them, but others may say we should let them go. Once you've overcame your problem you're always going to have another problem occur sometime in your life. You can either try to build up and learn from it(move on) or you can just choose the fact that you have that particular problem and than move on to not worrying about it.
If you think this song means something about an unhealthy relationship, that's what you're defining it as, not what the band or what the actual song is about.
If you think this song means something about an unhealthy relationship, that's what you're defining it as, not what the band or what the actual song is about.
to me, this song is about suicide. he has to deal with his past, he's confused about where his life's going, and the problems he has now, and he feels he's ruined his life already by lying to people about all these things, and he no longer really knows who he is, so he "breaks the habit", the habit being his life, ending the pain that hes felt for such a long time. so, thats just what it means to me. this and "numb" are my favorite songs on the album. btw, meteora is an ok album, but it, by no means, comes close to the mastery of the first album :D
I think it's quite sad that kids these days feel the need to hurt themselves. I mean sure it makes you feel like you may be feeling better but in reality you're just trying to fit in with the rest and show other people that you're a depressed, overly emotional little douche.
I think it's quite sad that kids these days feel the need to hurt themselves. I mean sure it makes you feel like you may be feeling better but in reality you're just trying to fit in with the rest and show other people that you're a depressed, overly emotional little douche.
Sometimes, the only thing keeping these kids alive is that. Have you ever thought of that? Don't judge what you don't know. It shows how unintelligent you are.
Sometimes, the only thing keeping these kids alive is that. Have you ever thought of that? Don't judge what you don't know. It shows how unintelligent you are.
Your wrong teens don't do that to fit in some teens do that because they feel as if they can't control any part of their life. This is the one thing they believe they can control. Others do it because their emotional pain is to much to bear and they need a physical outlet. These teens have alot of problems, both emotionally and mentally alright I will admit to that, but you cant go around judging people like that. Oh and by the way, it's about borderline personality disorder.
Your wrong teens don't do that to fit in some teens do that because they feel as if they can't control any part of their life. This is the one thing they believe they can control. Others do it because their emotional pain is to much to bear and they need a physical outlet. These teens have alot of problems, both emotionally and mentally alright I will admit to that, but you cant go around judging people like that. Oh and by the way, it's about borderline personality disorder.
Well to tell you the real meaning of the song ,it is about Chester's drug addiction and Mike wrote the song for him. The way I like to interpret it is self-harm because I'm a self harmer and whenever i listen to the song it helps me not self harm.
Nope. Mike wrote it about a friend of his, it's just that Chester could relate to it.
Nope. Mike wrote it about a friend of his, it's just that Chester could relate to it.
From listening to the song non-stop for the last hour, I've been able to grasp a view of what this song could represent. Yes, the song does talk about drug use, but if you watch the video clip, you can also see that it's describing the pain of a few other things;
- Being Cheated on
- Drug Use
- Depression
- Being told you're worthless
And so on, all these idea's link up to one thing depression for mostly everybody involved in the activities, talking about this makes up around 1/2 the song and also 1/2 for the video clip, but the Idea of the chorus, is that these patterns and these cycles can be broken out of "Breaking the habit", the song suggest's that we all know what we have to do, but sometimes we simpley don't do that i.e. "Clutching my cure I tightly lock the door" At the end of the video clip, everything is sent in reverse kind of implying that everything could be changed if we broke out of our cycles earlier, or had frequent changes of heart.
What I have said May not be right, but I thought I may as well share my thoughts..
When I first wrote my interpretation for this song I figured this song was inspired by some past events that was resolved. However, I remember an interview with LP in which Chester stated he always felt like breaking down and crying when he sang this song. Now with his passing it makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, what I thought this song meant makes perfect sense with Chester's passing. Almost every word from the lyrics describes what the poor guy must have been dealing with everyday of his life. Therefore, when he sung the song it made him more emotional then normal.
The lyrics literally must have mirrored the struggle he had internally everyday trying to fight to not "break the habit" through suicide. Sadly, he lost that battle in the end. RIP Chester, you will be deeply missed. I hope you find the peace in the next world that you never had in this world.
Beautiful explaination MethMeth, it's excatly what I thought... I know all about the struggle with SI too... and it hit home with me too
To me:
It reminds me of being in an unhealthy friendship to the point where it was just so painful being with that person. So I gave up on the friendship and terminated it.
"Breaking the habit" is breaking out of the unhealthy relationship and moving on from it.
Also: "I'll paint on the walls" - I interpret it as he is declaring it out loud to the public that he wants change and WILL change. Declaring it out openly is a technique people use when their resolution is to lose weight. By making it public, they are now stating their committed to the decision.
I think this song is talking about how a guy starts remembering all the problems he caused and arguments that arose form them, hence "Memories consume, like opening the wound." He talks about how he has a tendency to make problems, and tries to "break the habit" of causing them. "I paint it on the wall, 'cause I'm the one at fault " refers to how he tried to tell everyone that he understands what he did and realizes that HE was the problem, not someone else. Finally, he makes problems about the most random and insignificant thing, "I don't know what I'm fighting for, or why I have to scream."