She dresses in black everyday
She keeps her hair simple and plain
She never wears make-up
But no one would care if she did anyway
She doesn't recall yesterday
Faces seem twisted and strange
But she always wakes up
Only to find she'd been miles away
Absence of awareness losing time
A lapse of perception losing time
Wanting to escape
She had created a way to survive
She learned to detach
From herself a behavior that kept her alive
Hope in the face of our human distress
Helps us to understand
The turbulence deep inside
That takes hold of our lives
Shame and disgrace over mental unrest
Keeps us from saving those we love
The grace within our hearts
And the sorrow in our souls
Deception of fame, vengeance of war
Lives torn apart, losing oneself
Spiralling down, feeling the walls closing in
A journey to find the answers inside our illusive mind
She keeps her hair simple and plain
She never wears make-up
But no one would care if she did anyway
She doesn't recall yesterday
Faces seem twisted and strange
But she always wakes up
Only to find she'd been miles away
Absence of awareness losing time
A lapse of perception losing time
Wanting to escape
She had created a way to survive
She learned to detach
From herself a behavior that kept her alive
Hope in the face of our human distress
Helps us to understand
The turbulence deep inside
That takes hold of our lives
Shame and disgrace over mental unrest
Keeps us from saving those we love
The grace within our hearts
And the sorrow in our souls
Deception of fame, vengeance of war
Lives torn apart, losing oneself
Spiralling down, feeling the walls closing in
A journey to find the answers inside our illusive mind
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"Wanting to escape
She had created a way to survive
She learned to detach from herself
A behavior that kept her alive"
This is what sometimes happens to children who are victims of terrible abuse. The alternate personality protects the true personality. When the original personality re-emerges, everything seems "twisted and strange" because the person does not know what took place while the alternate personality was dominant.
The last part describes (rather grimly) how we cope with mental illness in life, yet it still manages to end on a (strangely) positive note - namely that we must keep searching for cures.
"She doesn't recall yesterday
Faces seem twisted and strange
But she always wakes up
Only to find she'd been miles away"
When you've been warring with yourself for so long, things sort of run together, and you start to lose your sense of time and place. It's hard to describe, but it's a very disturbing feeling because you have little moments of reality when everything sinks in. When you realize "you've been miles away".
Wanting to escape
She had created a way to survive
She learned to detach from herself
A behavior that kept her alive
I dont see this line as creating a split personality. It's just in your distress you want to escape from yourself. And this verse is especially true for me. With all my anxiety problems, and my time with my psychiatrist, I indeed found a way to survive. I found a way to use what was bothering me to my advantage, thus taking the power out of my fears. "Detaching myself" from them in a sense. Without the fear powering my worries, I was able to not focus on them, and indeed detach myself from them.
It really was what made the difference. "kept me alive".
The last part of the song, is simply less about the girl and just about our mind in general. Hope in the face of our human distress" really resonated with me. Because, even when I was at my worst, I simply wanted a way out. And as thus, it really did help me learn more about myself and my "illusive mind".
And the part about shame keeping us from saving the ones we love, that is also very true. If my parents and friends hadn't of helped me through that time of my life, I don't know where I would be today. And indeed shame was a big part of my problem. I had a lot of troubles accepting that I had a mental disorder. And when I finally did I fell apart. It took several long months to see it wasn't so bad. But indeed, I felt like I was crazy. And because of my family and friends, I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
that is just my two cents.
But yes.
I could also see this song being about a girl with split personality.
That's what I love about music.
Interpretation.
Hence the line: "But she only wakes up to find she had been miles away."
My nursing school module is currently covering mental health and I've been listening to 6DoiT constantly. I am VERY HAPPY TO REPORT that DT has nailed it with 98% or better in terms of accuracy with regards to the pathophysiology and treatments of some of these illnesses. The "shock treatment" or Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) mentioned in "The TEst That Stumped Them All" is only used nowadays to treat depression and other depressive disorders not treatable by psychopharmacological means. However, it was used prior to the 1950's before Atypical Antipsychotic Medications became available to treat Schizophrenia and other associated disorders. I bring up TTTSTA because it was unclear as to what the "timeline" the individual suffering from Schizophrenia is living in. But the fact that the guy in TTTSTA "thinks" he's a rockstar tends to implicate the present times ('90's to present)?
bibliography:
Videbeck, S.L. (2008). PSYCHIATRIC-MENTAL HEALTH NURSING 4th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters
Kluwer/Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
I doubt the two songs have got anything to do with each other. They've done this on their 4 last albums, if you listen to scenes from a memory, it ends with the beginning of The Glass Prison, and train of thought ends with the beginning of The root of all evil on Octavarium.
"A journey to find
The answers inside
Our illusive mind"
Is it "illusive" or "elusive"? Elusive makes a lot of sense too...