Meaning of “I Don’t Like My Mind” by Mitski

On “I Don’t Like My Mind”, Mitski makes it clear that she doesn’t like being alone with their thoughts. They work hard to distract themselves from their mind. Sometimes they eat a whole cake alone on Christmas to cope. But getting sick from the cake creates another bad memory that will haunt them later. They fear losing their job, which helps them avoid their thoughts.

Avoiding Thoughts

In the song’s first part, the singer doesn’t like to be alone. Being alone makes her think too much about her past actions. To avoid thinking, she listens to loud music. She keeps herself busy all the time. She mentions a sad Christmas memory where she eats a lot to feel better.

Finding Comfort in Food

The artist talks about eating a whole cake on her own during Christmas. This act of eating seems to be a way to deal with loneliness. The Christmas season is generally happy, but for her, it’s not. Eating a lot is her way of finding comfort.

The Cycle of Self-Harm

But eating too much makes her sick. She throws up, adding another bad memory to her list. The song shows a cycle where the artist harms herself to avoid her bad thoughts. She’s stuck in a cycle of doing things that give short-term joy but long-term pain.

Fear of Losing a Job

Later, she worries about losing her job. The job is more than work for her; it helps her avoid loneliness and bad thoughts. She is very afraid of losing this distraction. She doesn’t want to be left alone with her painful memories and regrets.

Conclusion

To conclude, the song shares the deep pain and fear of a person. She is running from bad memories and feelings of loneliness. She uses work and food to escape but ends up hurting herself more. The song tells us about the hard time she is having, asking for understanding and empathy from the listeners.

“A whole cake, so please don’t take
Take this job from me
A whole cake, so please don’t take
Take my job from me”

When was “I Don’t Like My Mind” released?

This is the fourth song released from Mitski’s 2023 album titled “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We”. The song officially hit the airways on 15th September 2023.

Writing & Production

Writing and production were respectively accomplished by Mitski and American record engineer Patrick Hyland.