Playlist: Dear Facebook, I’m Sad

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Sometimes I’m really bummed out or heartbroken or anxious or kicking my own self over the edge into a depressive spiral and I don’t want to talk about it but I really want everyone to know. So thank Lesbian Jesus for Facebook. It’s the perfect way to alert people to your very-bad no-good state of mind without actually having to use your words.

There are three categories of these songs:

  • I feel sad and I want people to know it but not explicitly, like maybe I just felt like listening to Elliott Smith because I can’t get enough of his exquisite guitar licks OKAY?
  • I am very upset at a particular person and I really hope they see this status so they know they are the werewolf/shark in this song; I am literally bleeding.
  • I am so mad/sad/weird that I can’t even deal with myself at all. This is usually when I post mid-2000s emo/pop punk or hardcore with nothing but a lyric excerpt in all caps.

I want to be clear that I am not promoting this kind of passive aggressive weirdo behavior, you should probably text your best friend or pet a dog or go to therapy if you are feeling the need to externalize your woes. But as an extrovert with depression, sometimes I do it! I do. You probably do it sometimes to, gentle reader. Maybe instead of doing that we should just listen to this playlist! Almost all of these songs I have actually truly posted on Facebook, and let me tell you!! It didn’t make me feel better. But sometimes listening to them does.

Dear Facebook, I’m Sad

Ballad Of Big Nothing – Elliott Smith
I’m Not Part Of Me – Cloud Nothings
The Pros And Cons Of Breathing – Fall Out Boy
The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You – My Chemical Romance
Phoenix In Flight – Converge
Werewolf – Fiona Apple
The Moon – Cat Power
Olvídame – Thalía
Split, Splitting – Mal Blum
Train Under Water – Bright Eyes
Seven Swans – Sufjan Stevens
Get Lonely – The Mountain Goats
Luna – Zoé
It Is What It Is – Blood Orange
I Don’t Want to Let You Down – Sharon Van Etten
Seen How Things Are Hard – Elliott Smith
Mr. Pitiful – Otis Redding

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Adrian

Adrian is a writer, a Texan and a Presbyterian pastor. They write about bisexuality, gender, religion, politics, music and a whole lot of feelings at Autostraddle and wherever fine words are sold. They have a dog named after Alison Bechdel. Follow Adrian on Twitter @adrianwhitetx.

Adrian has written 153 articles for us.

18 Comments

  1. saving this in pocket for when I want to let the world know i’m sad but not LET the world know I’m sad

  2. I usually just obsessively share posts from the nihilism memes page because they also make me laugh

    Two Birds One Terrible Coping Mechanism

  3. I have the exact opposite of this problem, I let sad music tear my heart to pieces recreationally, but it’s OK facebook, I’m OK. Nothing is wrong, I’m just cleaning out the ole tear ducts.

  4. ouch! i feel you. adding “everybody hurts” by REM and “nothing compares 2 u” by sinead o’connor to this tearfest.

  5. When I’m in a bad/sad/anxious/etc mood and need to Facebook it out, I don’t post things. I just on my activity history and end up going through 5 years worth of posts/comments/likes and just erase it all piece by piece until I feel like enough of a hermit that I’m good again. This will probably be good to listen to while I do that.

  6. Interesting… Definitely sympathize, though I take a different path: I simply listen to one of my themed catharsis playlists, with songs dependent on just what it is that is getting me down.

    Though, I also have to admit deliberately inducing catharsis seems just a little cracked to me, even while I do so.

  7. I still remember when my mom first joined Facebook and I posted lots of song lyrics. I still do, but much more rarely now, and I often attach a video of the song in question so people know what the hell I’m talking about. Anyway, my mom would see these (often terribly mopey) lyrics in my status and go “What’s wrong? What’s wrong? Call me!” all the damn time. I know this is what moms do and I don’t begrudge her the worry, but I was deeply regretting having encouraged her to join Facebook. Anyhoo…

    We need to add to this list.

    Pretty much anything by Evanescence, but especially:

    Breathe No More
    Weight of the World
    Imaginary

    Pretty much anything by Breaking Benjamin, but especially:

    Failure
    Until the End
    Give Me a Sign

  9. You can just go ahead and keep being the best!

    Today I learned that I cannot access Autostraddle while connected to my new job’s VPN. So besides listening to display my post camp blues I’ll use this music to mourn all that time I should have been working but could have been on this magnificent site.

  10. OMG! I happened to have “It Is What It Is” stuck in my head as I came to this page. Fabulous recommendation. Somewhat bitter, resigned, yet knowing and strong. Dev Hynes is just the best.

Comments are closed.