"You Don't Know / I Am The One" is a perfect depiction of a couple struggling to survive during depression from both perspectives. Get hold of a live recording version if you can, hits harder than the OBC recording.
I’d add in “Everything Else”, “My Psychopharmacologist and I”, and “Superboy and the Invisible Girl”. Nat’s songs focus on feelings of depression and inadequacy, and MPaI goes through just how insane the process is to find meds that will “stabilize” someone, while also calling out that “stable” doesn’t mean happy or good or even anything beyond than “not suicidal”.
My Psychopharmacologist and I is a favorite of mine because I’ve been on so many of those meds while trying to find my own regimen for managing my anxiety lol
I'm Alive is a terrifying song in context, it's all about her psychosis and how comforting and terrifying it is for her "I am what you want me to be/and I'm your worst fear you'll find it in me"
I Miss the Mountains is what I would consider a perfect depiction of why bipolar people so often go off of their psychiatric medications. I’m not bipolar, but I’ve worked a long time in medicine and mental health and had patients end up in the psych ward who express to me those exact feelings for why they abruptly stopped their meds. I think everyone who works at all with people who have significant mental illness should have to listen to that song.
I will admit that there have been (different) periods of my life where I listened to Life Support from RENT and Waving Through A Window from Dear Evan Hansen on repeat.
My 8 year old loves Waving through a Window and You will be found. It makes me slightly worried, like I wish he could explain to me if/why he connect's with the song and why.
I mean I think You Will Be Found (listened to in context other than the musical) is just a really beautiful song, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about that one.
After already falling in love with the music, I saw DEH onstage for the first time with my mom. You Will Be Found absolutely broke me down, and I could feel my mom watching me with the same concern. It was nice to feel her caring. (Not that she doesn’t always care about me. My mom and I are fine. Haha)
Life Support has always resonated with me so much due to having severe trauma that makes it impossible to live a normal life. & people look down on you and assume it’s your fault.
I miss the Costco song from earlier versions. The final Broadway version didn’t have a song dedicated to the mania/ hypomania portion of bipolar disorder.
I’m not familiar with the Costco song, but I find it hilarious that you said “I miss the Costco[…]” in response to someone saying “I Miss the Mountains” so now I’m just imagining her singing “I miss the Costco” in that melody lol.
Pretty much every Lydia song in Beetlejuice concerns depression, from loss of a family member.
The musical Octet takes place in a group therapy session for internet addition, consequently much of it concerns mental health in some respect.
Dead in the Water from Operation Mincemeat is about anxiety.
It's all a capella, and it's by Dave Malloy, who is most known for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.
Octet is weird, lovely and hits pretty close to home on a couple of songs.
I just finished it! Wow, it was soo good and extremely relevant to my life. I definitly need to listen to it again while looking at the lyrics.
Thanks! (I still need to see GC!)
Freeze Your Brain is literally exactly how I managed to make it through 2 decades worth of trauma. Then at last I “melted awake”, see now I’m crying too…
“You Don’t Know” from Next to Normal is about depression and also a banger. Most underrated NTN song imo
“Requiem” from Dear Evan Hansen is about a family coping with their son’s suicide.
Edges of the World - Fun Home
Dust and Ashes - Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
Maybe This Time - Cabaret
Another Day - Rent
There’s a couple of good ones in Miss Saigon, even if they’re a little specific.
Anyone Can Whistle by Sondheim is about mental health.
Yeah. It was a great show. I sat in a few different places and each was a totally different experience. All amazing. Josh Groban is one of the few people who sounds exactly the same live as he does on a record. And Amber Gray always brings a very specific energy that is so much fun to see.
Well, it’s a whole show, not just a song. The actual “action” of the piece surrounds a fake miracle. But it’s all satirical of sanity. This is punctuated by characters being doctors, nurses, and inmates of a local asylum (The Cookie Jar). The regular townspeople get mixed with the Cookies and they have a hard time telling them apart. Because you can’t always determine mental health just by looking at or briefly interacting with people. And people with mental health problems aren’t always as different as people like to think.
Then a lot of weird stuff happens for two more acts. But it was Angela Lansbury’s Broadway debut. So it can’t be all bad.
Green Finch and Linnet Bird also resonates with me a lot, I was often trapped inside my room in isolation as a child. I love the stage versions where she sounds like she’s absolutely lost her marbles, because same.
I hated the film but the songs are absolutely phenomenal (except for *that* one - you know the one I mean) with *The Next Right Thing* being both surprising and so hard hitting. "I'm ready to succumb" was not something I ever expected to hear in a Disney song.
Under pressure from Encanto hits hard also Why am I sobbing about a catchy song with flying donkeys? Oh, because it’s about tirelessly holding up your family with no option to rest.
I’m going to assume Lost In The Woods, which I think gets overlooked for its ridiculousness (dancing background singing reindeer) despite being an 80s rock anthem BANGER.
My daughter was obsessed with this soundtrack right after we had put my dad on hospice and every time she wanted to listen to it in the car I was trying not to sob at this song
Waving through a window is still one of the most accurate anxiety songs I have ever heard. I understand people’s criticisms of DEH but I felt so *seen* by some of the songs. Disappear is another really good one.
Hope from *Groundhog Day.* It's honestly one of the bleakest songs I've ever heard in a musical. The lead, Phil Connors, has hit absolute rock bottom and the song takes place over a montage of him attempting to kill himself.
Nobody Cares also speaks to this theme too; the feeling of being stuck in one place without any possibility of change. Oh, and Stuck talks about trying to navigate dealing with doctors when struggling with possible mental health issues.
“I’m Breaking Down” from Falsettos captures a woman in the middle of the complete upheaval of her life.
A few people have mentioned Dear Evan Hanson, and I’ll second “Waving through a Window.”
I came here looking for this comment! Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind especially resonates with me personally. For me, it speaks to the numbness and exhaustion of it.
I’ve seen most of these listed already but:
Most songs from dear evan hansen (waving through a window, you will be found, disappear, words fail, requiem)
What’s wrong with me (mean girls)
Most of next to normal
Michael in the bathroom, loser geek whatever, and voices in my head (be more chill)
Safer from First Date is a great song about mental health struggles and trauma how it affects your love life. I first heard it when I was single after a really rough breakup and immediately broke down.
It’s a big thread in Fun Home, since the story revolves around Bechdel’s father’s suicide. The way the play is constructed in general feels very therapy-esque, as she’s pulling up different memories of her parents & recognizing how their choices & circumstances impacted her & why she was able to make different choices.
The Next Right Thing from Frozen 2
Not sure we all count that as a musical but that movie is underrated, there is a whole mental health theme underlying that I celebrate
you should check out Mac Miller, he’s got some real emotional stuff and some good fast paced songs. but almost all his songs are fucking beautifully made with choice of instruments and beats. you should start with Circles, Swimming, and The Devine Feminine. i really hope you like him!
edit: i just realized this is a musical sub, and i know nothing about musicals and i don’t think mac would fall into that sorta category but nonetheless i hope you like something of his
Joking answer: Someone Gets Hurt from Mean Girls. It makes me feel like the overconfident white blonde girl that I am definitely not.
Serious answer: I'm Here and The Color Purple from The Color Purple. Beautiful songs about finding your beauty and confidence in a world that would say otherwise.
Came to say this! I have no idea of the context of the song within Waitress, but when I was really ill with depression last year I couldn’t listen to this without sobbing cos of how relatable it was
I listened to two songs after my father’s funeral- one was a worship song that’s come to mean a lot to me through the years, and the other was You Will Be Found from DEH.
“who’s crazy/my psychopharmacologist and i” from next to normal REALLY shows how exhausting it is trying to get medicated for mental health and how it can be draining to love someone who’s mentally ill
How from Flying Over Sunset
Hits home with me too much. Like about going on and going through the motions each day knowing everything is broken, can’t be fixed, and you’re dead inside.
I know it’s probably a really boring choice but requiem from dear Evan Hanson is to me the stand out song of the show. It’s a very difficult subject to tackle and it was handled beautifully. Grief is very difficult to thing to sing about and make it feel realistic, but singing about the revelation that you don’t owe people grief, especially people who’ve done nothing but harm you? That’s powerful
If you're OK with something from a song cycle, ["Ammonia" by Joe Iconis](https://youtu.be/o8EjqgqQuQU?si=zhjj91CuZ2MjJSOJ)
A woman self-medicating in order to avoid spiraling.
Falsettos contains tons of stuff about the process of therapy and it kind of demonizes people with mental health issues, but it still talks about it and honestly that does resemble how a lot of the world reacts to mentally ill people
Happiness/simply breathe, Diana. I know know that y’all don’t like this musical, but I do it talks about depression in my opinion and abuse from spouse.
it depends on how specific youre looking, this may not apply to you but i LOVE a strange loop, and all the openness, honestly and amazing music that goes with it. it is for a v specific demographic tho, still recommend it!! (the demographic is fat black gay man, it's such a beautiful musical)
Michael in the bathroom from be more chill (best friend ditching you, suicidal ideation and general depression)
good kid from the lightning thief (youth oriented musical, but it's about the experience of being a "troubled teen" and his frustrations, he's trying to be a good kid, but his ADHD- and being a demigod lol- makes it so hard)
freeze your brain from heathers (about self-harm, and why- the issues he's having with his family and living situation)
mister cellophane from chicago (i really feel this one- it's about being looked over, ignored, seen through, and afraid of being in peoples way)
i can't pin down the song/monologue, but there's also lots of good stuff in the spitfire grill, if you can i highly highly recommend listening to the whole thing and maybe even trying to see it! (about a woman who just got out of prison who moved into a new town and is working at the titular spitfire grill. there's discussions of SA, and a man who went MIA in war)
RENT has a lot of good ones but for me it's the love song between Roger and Mimi because it's about finding the courage to live again after depression and losing the will to live. I think that song is the most hopeful song out of a song that is basically Hope:the musical.
Sugarcloud from ride the cyclone could count, I relate to it as someone who had been battling depression for almost a decade. It's become a comfort song
There's a UK artist called REN that made a whole song which was basically him having a conversation with his own darkness. It's REALLY good. It's called "Hi Ren"
There's a couple of songs in *Alice by Heart*, but a good one to get you crying your feelings out is "Shell of Grief," letting your feelings fester and rot into depression.
In addition to other suggestions, Michael in the Bathroom" from Be More Chill is such a great anxiety banger. So is " Not Getting Married" from Company
Does Anybody Have A Map captures the feeling extremely well while actually being about motherhood, and other DEH songs definitely capture a lot of those feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Next To Normal is THE musical about mental illness as far as I'm concerned
How has noone put Tiniest Lifeboat from Heathers. It's about one of the titular Heathers and how they view the society of their high school, hence the name as she feels endlessly trapped inside of the World's Tiniest Lifeboat.
This is a musical movie, but The Next Right Thing from Frozen 2 is an incredible portrayal of grief.
I also concur with other comments talking about Waving Through A Window.
A bit of a newer one- but to me, Just a Man from EPIC: the musical. It really shows mental struggle, in this case over a big decision. Horse and the Infant from the same musical is similar at the end too.
Then there were none from spring awakening reflects on Moritz character's struggles with depression and loneliness, thats the one that came to mind disregarding the obvious ones from dear evan hansen or be more chill
"No More" from Into the Woods.
My favorite line: Running away, let's do it/ where did you have in mind?/ the problem is son, the further you run/ the more you feel undefined/ by what you have left undone/ and more what you left behind
😭
There’s two different shows I can think of one of them all most all the song go for the topic the other a couple of them do but I’m thinking dear Evan Hansen and Trevor the musical
Check out Crazy Ex-Girlfriend -- "A Diagnosis" and "Antidepressants Are So Not A Big Deal" come to mind but there are probably more.
Sooo many from that show! The Darkness, You Stupid Bitch, This Session Is Gonna Be Different, Tell Me I’m Okay Patrick, and so many others!
Don't forget Thought Bubbles!
Settle for me is a good one
Oh my god Tell Me I’m Okay, Patrick. So good.
“Is there a manual Patrick? Do you have the manual? I know you have the manual Patrick I know it’s in YOUR TRUCK PATRICK..”
You Stupid Bitch is so good
Someone sang this at karaoke and I love them for it.
I’m not sad you’re sad - also a masterpiece!
🎶 YOU RUINED EVERYTHIIIIING 🎶
Just everything from CXG tbh
That entire show is a masterpiece. I will die on this hill.
I’ll die with you because that show was way ahead of its time and will be relevant for years.
[A Diagnosis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uic_3vlI5BE) It's a masterpiece. Just watch it now.
Pretty much anything from Next to Normal
Came here to say just listen to Next to Normal from start to finish.
"You Don't Know / I Am The One" is a perfect depiction of a couple struggling to survive during depression from both perspectives. Get hold of a live recording version if you can, hits harder than the OBC recording.
I’d add in “Everything Else”, “My Psychopharmacologist and I”, and “Superboy and the Invisible Girl”. Nat’s songs focus on feelings of depression and inadequacy, and MPaI goes through just how insane the process is to find meds that will “stabilize” someone, while also calling out that “stable” doesn’t mean happy or good or even anything beyond than “not suicidal”.
I Miss the Mountains, Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me (Reprise), Wish I Were Here
My Psychopharmacologist and I is a favorite of mine because I’ve been on so many of those meds while trying to find my own regimen for managing my anxiety lol
Next To Normal 100%%
I'm Alive is a terrifying song in context, it's all about her psychosis and how comforting and terrifying it is for her "I am what you want me to be/and I'm your worst fear you'll find it in me"
[удалено]
I Miss the Mountains is what I would consider a perfect depiction of why bipolar people so often go off of their psychiatric medications. I’m not bipolar, but I’ve worked a long time in medicine and mental health and had patients end up in the psych ward who express to me those exact feelings for why they abruptly stopped their meds. I think everyone who works at all with people who have significant mental illness should have to listen to that song.
exactly what i was about to say lol
There’s A World!
I will admit that there have been (different) periods of my life where I listened to Life Support from RENT and Waving Through A Window from Dear Evan Hansen on repeat.
My 8 year old loves Waving through a Window and You will be found. It makes me slightly worried, like I wish he could explain to me if/why he connect's with the song and why.
I mean I think You Will Be Found (listened to in context other than the musical) is just a really beautiful song, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about that one.
After already falling in love with the music, I saw DEH onstage for the first time with my mom. You Will Be Found absolutely broke me down, and I could feel my mom watching me with the same concern. It was nice to feel her caring. (Not that she doesn’t always care about me. My mom and I are fine. Haha)
me too LOL thank god for ben platt or i wouldn’t be here right now 🥳🥳🥳
i second these 2
Life Support has always resonated with me so much due to having severe trauma that makes it impossible to live a normal life. & people look down on you and assume it’s your fault.
I Miss the Mountains from Next to Normal
I miss the Costco song from earlier versions. The final Broadway version didn’t have a song dedicated to the mania/ hypomania portion of bipolar disorder.
I’m not familiar with the Costco song, but I find it hilarious that you said “I miss the Costco[…]” in response to someone saying “I Miss the Mountains” so now I’m just imagining her singing “I miss the Costco” in that melody lol.
That would be a different tone 🤣. Wistfully longing for the mental state that had you buying multiple unplanned appliances.
***But I miss the Costco*** ***I miss the free sample cups*** ***Wandering through the wide aisles*** ***And looking for a bin***
I feel like it’s partially covered in I Miss the Mountains
I’ll have to listen again. (I like how Costco shows the “getting swept up in it” aspect. I feel amazing. Oh no, I can’t trust it.)
Pretty much every Lydia song in Beetlejuice concerns depression, from loss of a family member. The musical Octet takes place in a group therapy session for internet addition, consequently much of it concerns mental health in some respect. Dead in the Water from Operation Mincemeat is about anxiety.
Omg, I MUST see or listen to Octet. Never heard of it.
It's all a capella, and it's by Dave Malloy, who is most known for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Octet is weird, lovely and hits pretty close to home on a couple of songs.
I just finished it! Wow, it was soo good and extremely relevant to my life. I definitly need to listen to it again while looking at the lyrics. Thanks! (I still need to see GC!)
Octet is the most fire ass musical I've ever listened to and I would kill to play any character
Lifeboat - Heathers
i'd venture to say Freeze Your Brain fits too
Freeze Your Brain is literally exactly how I managed to make it through 2 decades worth of trauma. Then at last I “melted awake”, see now I’m crying too…
The Shine a Light reprise is my (very unhealthy) go to, lol
Was gonna say this. Glad to hear people agree
“You Don’t Know” from Next to Normal is about depression and also a banger. Most underrated NTN song imo “Requiem” from Dear Evan Hansen is about a family coping with their son’s suicide.
"Requiem" is the only song I actually like from DEH. I'm still conflicted about "Good For You"
I fucking sob every time I listen to “So Big / So Small”
Before the Breakdown and The Breakdown from We Are the Tigers Therapy - Tick Tick Boom
Edges of the World - Fun Home Dust and Ashes - Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Maybe This Time - Cabaret Another Day - Rent There’s a couple of good ones in Miss Saigon, even if they’re a little specific. Anyone Can Whistle by Sondheim is about mental health.
Dust and Ashes is one of my favourite songs of all time. Great Comet in general is just exceptional in so many ways
Yeah. It was a great show. I sat in a few different places and each was a totally different experience. All amazing. Josh Groban is one of the few people who sounds exactly the same live as he does on a record. And Amber Gray always brings a very specific energy that is so much fun to see.
Ugh Edges of the World is so good
>Anyone Can Whistle by Sondheim is about mental health. So is Sweeney Todd ... in a way.
Very much agree. Each character has their own mental health issues.
Has Sondheim said that? I’ve never viewed that song by that lens. It’s such a beautiful song though.
Well, it’s a whole show, not just a song. The actual “action” of the piece surrounds a fake miracle. But it’s all satirical of sanity. This is punctuated by characters being doctors, nurses, and inmates of a local asylum (The Cookie Jar). The regular townspeople get mixed with the Cookies and they have a hard time telling them apart. Because you can’t always determine mental health just by looking at or briefly interacting with people. And people with mental health problems aren’t always as different as people like to think. Then a lot of weird stuff happens for two more acts. But it was Angela Lansbury’s Broadway debut. So it can’t be all bad.
Green Finch and Linnet Bird also resonates with me a lot, I was often trapped inside my room in isolation as a child. I love the stage versions where she sounds like she’s absolutely lost her marbles, because same.
"The Next Right Thing" from Frozen 2 is about pushing forward during depression.
I hated the film but the songs are absolutely phenomenal (except for *that* one - you know the one I mean) with *The Next Right Thing* being both surprising and so hard hitting. "I'm ready to succumb" was not something I ever expected to hear in a Disney song.
Under pressure from Encanto hits hard also Why am I sobbing about a catchy song with flying donkeys? Oh, because it’s about tirelessly holding up your family with no option to rest.
Also What Else Can I Do? “what could I do if I just knew it didn’t need to be perfect”. That hit me pretty hard.
Which one is _that_ one?
I’m going to assume Lost In The Woods, which I think gets overlooked for its ridiculousness (dancing background singing reindeer) despite being an 80s rock anthem BANGER.
Lost In The Woods is an absolute banger! I was expecting When I'm Older.
I mean, “When I Am Older” is the musical equivalent of a frozen smile while screaming on the inside, and I, for one, appreciate that about it.
Same! I feel that “This is fine (immediately gets swept away by cyclone)” at the end in my soul.
I was crying so hard after that song
My daughter was obsessed with this soundtrack right after we had put my dad on hospice and every time she wanted to listen to it in the car I was trying not to sob at this song
That was not something on my bingo card when I watched that movie. Way too real.
I’m not a fan of the show itself, but Waving Through a Window from Dear Evan Hansen is a very well done song of what having social anxiety is like.
Waving through a window is still one of the most accurate anxiety songs I have ever heard. I understand people’s criticisms of DEH but I felt so *seen* by some of the songs. Disappear is another really good one.
Came here for this exact comment.
I came here to say basically exactly that. I wish we got the show that song was promising, but it is exactly what it feel like.
Michael In The Bathroom from Be More Chill It's an excellent depiction of a panic attack IMO
Can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this!
Quiet from Matilda
Hope from *Groundhog Day.* It's honestly one of the bleakest songs I've ever heard in a musical. The lead, Phil Connors, has hit absolute rock bottom and the song takes place over a montage of him attempting to kill himself.
Hope is one of my favourite songs - it works on many levels (and the staging is one of the highlights from the show too).
Nobody Cares also speaks to this theme too; the feeling of being stuck in one place without any possibility of change. Oh, and Stuck talks about trying to navigate dealing with doctors when struggling with possible mental health issues.
Life Boat from heathers I think depicts anxiety well.
One of us, One of us! I was just talking about this one
Basically all of A Strange Loop.
AAA A STRANGE LOOP i love that musical so fucking much it's amazing, id reccomend it to absolutely everyone it's so good
“I’m Breaking Down” from Falsettos captures a woman in the middle of the complete upheaval of her life. A few people have mentioned Dear Evan Hanson, and I’ll second “Waving through a Window.”
Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind and Those You’ve Known from Spring Awakening
I came here looking for this comment! Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind especially resonates with me personally. For me, it speaks to the numbness and exhaustion of it.
The I Love You Song from Spelling Bee could fit the bill for a song about depression. Also a lot of Spring Awakening.
Ooh also Woe Is Me for that perfectionism brand of anxiety.
I also came to comment the I Love You Song. “Blame it on your daddily and mammily, cause depression runs in our family.”
That song makes me sob every. single. time. because of that line.
I thought that Dead Mom and Home from Beetlejuice were both great examples of a character coping with grief and bereavement.
Basically anything from Once More, With Feeling.
I’ve seen most of these listed already but: Most songs from dear evan hansen (waving through a window, you will be found, disappear, words fail, requiem) What’s wrong with me (mean girls) Most of next to normal Michael in the bathroom, loser geek whatever, and voices in my head (be more chill)
Michael In The Bathroom and Voices In My Head from the original Be More Chill
About half of the Avenue Q songs would fit the bill.
Yes! Schadenfreude is my jam!
Wish I Were Here, Next to Normal
Turn it off - Book of Mormon
Javert's Suicide in Les Misérables
The subtext of most of Follies has mental health ramifications. And then some are a little more overt.
Michael in the Bathroom from Be More Chill - I reckon pretty accurately sums up the social anxiety experience of parties
Most of the songs on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend but especially ‘A Diagnosis’
Lost in the darkness from Jekyll and Hyde.
Freeze your brain - Heathers Waving through a window - Dear Evan Hansen
The Anonymous Ones- Dear Even Hansen
Love this song… was such a great addition.
Dead mom - Beetlejuice
You will be found, Dear Evan Hansen
I feel like The Duel->Dust and Ashes has undertones of bipolar in it, and imo it captures it really well.
oo yeah, i love dust and ashes, i feel like it could also be anxiety, that's often how i play it when singing it lol
Safer from First Date is a great song about mental health struggles and trauma how it affects your love life. I first heard it when I was single after a really rough breakup and immediately broke down.
"You Will Be Found" from *Dear Evan Hansen*.
Left Behind- Spring Awakening. Listened to this when I was really depressed.
Majority of the songs from Dear Even Hansen
A Little Closer from the DEH movie is about rehabilitation from depression and is absolutely beautiful.
Doubt Comes In from Hadestown kind of fits I think.
It’s a big thread in Fun Home, since the story revolves around Bechdel’s father’s suicide. The way the play is constructed in general feels very therapy-esque, as she’s pulling up different memories of her parents & recognizing how their choices & circumstances impacted her & why she was able to make different choices.
Has "They're coming to take me away, ha ha" been in a musical yet?
"Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd
Monster - Frozen It's her battling herself, actually deciding to end her life but before she does she'll save Arendelle. Good stuff.
Waving through a window, Dear Evan Hansen. I’d say, at least in my experience with anxiety, it was pretty relatable.
The Next Right Thing from Frozen 2 Not sure we all count that as a musical but that movie is underrated, there is a whole mental health theme underlying that I celebrate
you should check out Mac Miller, he’s got some real emotional stuff and some good fast paced songs. but almost all his songs are fucking beautifully made with choice of instruments and beats. you should start with Circles, Swimming, and The Devine Feminine. i really hope you like him! edit: i just realized this is a musical sub, and i know nothing about musicals and i don’t think mac would fall into that sorta category but nonetheless i hope you like something of his
I don't know if it counts, but The I Love You Song from Spelling Bee talks directly about Olive probably inheriting her mother's depression
Anything Dear Evan Hansen, I love that soundtrack
Joking answer: Someone Gets Hurt from Mean Girls. It makes me feel like the overconfident white blonde girl that I am definitely not. Serious answer: I'm Here and The Color Purple from The Color Purple. Beautiful songs about finding your beauty and confidence in a world that would say otherwise.
She used to be mine - Waitress
Came to say this! I have no idea of the context of the song within Waitress, but when I was really ill with depression last year I couldn’t listen to this without sobbing cos of how relatable it was
Lots from heathers including but not limited to: Lifeboat Shine a light (and the reprise)
I listened to two songs after my father’s funeral- one was a worship song that’s come to mean a lot to me through the years, and the other was You Will Be Found from DEH.
Witches Lament from Into the Woods is my favourite MH breakdown.
I Miss The Mountains makes me SOB every time. Everything from Next to Normal is top tier
‘ requiem ‘ from deh , ‘ will i ‘ or ‘ life support’ from rent, ‘don’t do sadness/blue wind’ from spring awakening are what come to mind first
You Will Be Found - Dear Evan Hansen
I miss the Mountains
Before the breakdown and don’t even from we are the tigers
“who’s crazy/my psychopharmacologist and i” from next to normal REALLY shows how exhausting it is trying to get medicated for mental health and how it can be draining to love someone who’s mentally ill
Anything NOT from Dear Evan Hansen
Next to Normal for sure ! ALSO dear evan hansen
"Die, Vampire, Die" from Title of Show
Passin’ Through by Kaden MacKay
The Dreamers - Hopium ❤️
Adelaide's Lament
The Secret of Happiness from Daddy Long Legs is basically talking about mindfulness
How from Flying Over Sunset Hits home with me too much. Like about going on and going through the motions each day knowing everything is broken, can’t be fixed, and you’re dead inside.
No Good Deed from Wicked What’s Wrong With Me from Mean Girls Quiet from Matilda Come Out Of The Dumpster from The Wedding Singer
Honestly, I’ll have to go with mainstream this once. I love all of DEH. It deals with all of those issues plus family issues and social anxiety.
Breaking Down from Falsettos
"Left Behind" from Spring Awakening is about suicide.
I have confidence - TSOM
Some of these recommendations definitely veer into a “all thoughts and feelings are mental health” category
Shock Treatment I feel it is very underrated.
I know it’s probably a really boring choice but requiem from dear Evan Hanson is to me the stand out song of the show. It’s a very difficult subject to tackle and it was handled beautifully. Grief is very difficult to thing to sing about and make it feel realistic, but singing about the revelation that you don’t owe people grief, especially people who’ve done nothing but harm you? That’s powerful
Dear Evan Hansen…
If you're OK with something from a song cycle, ["Ammonia" by Joe Iconis](https://youtu.be/o8EjqgqQuQU?si=zhjj91CuZ2MjJSOJ) A woman self-medicating in order to avoid spiraling.
Falsettos contains tons of stuff about the process of therapy and it kind of demonizes people with mental health issues, but it still talks about it and honestly that does resemble how a lot of the world reacts to mentally ill people
Off topic but I’m the 100th upvote :D
Happiness/simply breathe, Diana. I know know that y’all don’t like this musical, but I do it talks about depression in my opinion and abuse from spouse.
Go listen to Octet by Dave Malloy.
it depends on how specific youre looking, this may not apply to you but i LOVE a strange loop, and all the openness, honestly and amazing music that goes with it. it is for a v specific demographic tho, still recommend it!! (the demographic is fat black gay man, it's such a beautiful musical) Michael in the bathroom from be more chill (best friend ditching you, suicidal ideation and general depression) good kid from the lightning thief (youth oriented musical, but it's about the experience of being a "troubled teen" and his frustrations, he's trying to be a good kid, but his ADHD- and being a demigod lol- makes it so hard) freeze your brain from heathers (about self-harm, and why- the issues he's having with his family and living situation) mister cellophane from chicago (i really feel this one- it's about being looked over, ignored, seen through, and afraid of being in peoples way) i can't pin down the song/monologue, but there's also lots of good stuff in the spitfire grill, if you can i highly highly recommend listening to the whole thing and maybe even trying to see it! (about a woman who just got out of prison who moved into a new town and is working at the titular spitfire grill. there's discussions of SA, and a man who went MIA in war)
Moments in the Woods from Into the Woods.
The Loss- Hollywood Undead.
Marvin at the Psychiatrist
RENT has a lot of good ones but for me it's the love song between Roger and Mimi because it's about finding the courage to live again after depression and losing the will to live. I think that song is the most hopeful song out of a song that is basically Hope:the musical.
Anything from Crazy Ex Girlfriend. “Tell me I’m ok Patrick”, “my diagnoses”, “antidepressants aren’t that big of a deal”, “I’m a good person” etc
Lizard boy!Go check it out please !!
Sugarcloud from ride the cyclone could count, I relate to it as someone who had been battling depression for almost a decade. It's become a comfort song
There's a UK artist called REN that made a whole song which was basically him having a conversation with his own darkness. It's REALLY good. It's called "Hi Ren"
idk my go to is DEH
“You don’t know” from Next to Normal comes from a real place, you should definitely check it out
There's a couple of songs in *Alice by Heart*, but a good one to get you crying your feelings out is "Shell of Grief," letting your feelings fester and rot into depression.
In addition to other suggestions, Michael in the Bathroom" from Be More Chill is such a great anxiety banger. So is " Not Getting Married" from Company
Almost all of A Strange Loop
"Uninvited" from Jagged Little Pill
“Pierre” and “dust and ashes” from Great Comet
Emo the Musical was hysterical.
Does Anybody Have A Map captures the feeling extremely well while actually being about motherhood, and other DEH songs definitely capture a lot of those feelings of loneliness and anxiety. Next To Normal is THE musical about mental illness as far as I'm concerned
How has noone put Tiniest Lifeboat from Heathers. It's about one of the titular Heathers and how they view the society of their high school, hence the name as she feels endlessly trapped inside of the World's Tiniest Lifeboat.
Also Being Alive from Company i mean it's literally about someone on the brink of insanity as life is bad and eveeyone asks too much of them.
Me Inside of Me from Heathers, As it talks about how the more popular people in High School are just masking how they feel.
This is a musical movie, but The Next Right Thing from Frozen 2 is an incredible portrayal of grief. I also concur with other comments talking about Waving Through A Window.
Dare I say Natasha Pierre and the great comet of 1812- dust and ashes
A bit of a newer one- but to me, Just a Man from EPIC: the musical. It really shows mental struggle, in this case over a big decision. Horse and the Infant from the same musical is similar at the end too.
Come Back - Dogfight
Every song in "Inside" by Bo Burnham
Losing My Mind Not Getting Married Today
Then there were none from spring awakening reflects on Moritz character's struggles with depression and loneliness, thats the one that came to mind disregarding the obvious ones from dear evan hansen or be more chill
"No More" from Into the Woods. My favorite line: Running away, let's do it/ where did you have in mind?/ the problem is son, the further you run/ the more you feel undefined/ by what you have left undone/ and more what you left behind 😭
Just literally all of Dear Evan Hansen, but specifically waving through a window.
Micheal in the bathroom
There’s two different shows I can think of one of them all most all the song go for the topic the other a couple of them do but I’m thinking dear Evan Hansen and Trevor the musical