Posted by Difficult is a song released by the American singer Gracie Abrams on October 2022. A very personal track with an interesting meaning that triggers fans’ curiosities. In this article, we will analyze the song’s message, and you’ll also find the complete lyrics at the end.
You can find the official streaming of the song below.
Difficult: the lyrics and their meaning
Difficult is a song about the illusion of love. As the lyrics perfectly explain, when we fall in love, we often create expectations very early, hoping and assuming that our partner is the right one before having clear proof. In this song, Gracie Abrams describes our feelings when we realize the truth.
The first lines are a poetic description of the way Gracie sees herself in front of this situation:
My double vision
Is only amplifyin’ everythin’ he isn’t
‘Til I feel less attached and bored to death, but listen
It’s no one’s fault, it’s just my terrible condition
The fact that she sees (and amplifies) something he isn’t proves that a part of herself created an illusion when she started falling in love. That’s a typical psychological mechanism we all tend to have: we need love, we wish to have the perfect partner next to us, and we want it so badly that we instinctively want to believe it is there already. Sometimes the illusion is easier than the objective analysis of what we have in front of our eyes: because the truth could prove us wrong, and we will have to deal again with disappointment.
However, as the song explains, illusions don’t save us. At some point, if the reality is different than what we expected and wanted, it always comes up, forcing us to evaluate the next steps. And the following steps could be complicated, especially if, meanwhile, we took decisions based on those expectations, like living together:
And I’ve been thinkin’
If I move out this year, I’ll feel my parents slippin’
Away and also, I’m just scared of that commitment
I really think sometimes there’s somethin’ that I’m missin’
That’s the unsettling feeling Gracie Abrams describes in the lyrics: the situation requires a firm decision, which also implies the awareness that she made a mistake. All this is quite hard, primarily if you base many other choices on that illusion.
Oh, I know
Spiralin’ is miserable
I should probably go back home
Why does that feel difficult, difficult?
And oh, I hope
I wake up invisible
I’d be someone no one knows
I guess I’m just difficult
Rationally, this is the honest answer to the question: allowing illusions at the beginning looks easier but makes things very complicated afterward; on the other hand, being objective at the beginning, analyzing the truth with attention, looking for clear signs that support the chances that they can be good partners, all this could lead to an early disappointment, but it would be easier to accept and manage the consequences of it. Simply because you haven’t invested much of your life and your decisions in it. “Only” emotions will get disappointed. That can hurt, obviously, but emotions have a crucial characteristic: they have a limited timespan, and with a bit of patience, they will settle to normal levels.
Those are the situations where we may need help, and Gracie mentions a therapist she talks with. Processing and managing emotions is a crucial life skill, and it’s worth investing your time and energy in this. This way, you also avoid these situations affecting your self-esteem or making you believe that something in you is wrong, as the lines below hint:
So I’ve been speakin’
To my therapist, I call her every weekend, mm
I meant to tell you
How I’ve hated how we left things when it fell through
‘Cause you were everythin’ to me, where did you run to?
Was it somethin’ that I said that colored you blue? Mm
After all, this is the real meaning of the lyrics inside Difficult: when I fell in love, I saw in you things that didn’t really exist; now I need to face this truth, and it hurts, making my choices very complicated. The feeling of failure and the complexity of the decisions I have to make now overwhelm me. Much likely, writing this song was already a big self-help act for Gracie Abrams.
Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave
The complete lyrics
My double vision
Is only amplifyin’ everythin’ he isn’t
‘Til I feel less attached and bored to death, but listen
It’s no one’s fault, it’s just my terrible condition, mm
And I’ve been thinkin’
If I move out this year, I’ll feel my parents slippin’
Away and also, I’m just scared of that commitment
I really think sometimes there’s somethin’ that I’m missin’, mm
Oh, I know
Spiralin’ is miserable
I should probably go back home
Why does that feel difficult, difficult?
And oh, I hope
I wake up invisible
I’d be someone no one knows
I guess I’m just difficult
To name this feelin’
Would take a hundred thousand years, some kind of grievin’
But over what I never had, so I’ve been speakin’
To my therapist, I call her every weekend, mm
I meant to tell you
How I’ve hated how we left things when it fell through
‘Cause you were everythin’ to me, where did you run to?
Was it somethin’ that I said that colored you blue? Mm
Oh, I know
Spiralin’ is miserable
I should probably go back home
Why does that feel difficult, difficult?
And oh, I hope
I wake up invisible
I’d be someone no one knows
I guess I’m just difficult, difficult
Difficult
Difficult
I’ve been drinkin’
And stayin’ up too late, relivin’ bad decisions
I thought eventually, my ranting here would fix it
I really think sometimes there’s somethin’ that I’m missin’ (Mm)
Oh, I know
Spiralin’ is miserable
I should probably go back home
Why does that feel difficult, difficult?
And oh, I hope
I wake up invisible
I’d be someone no one knows
I guess I’m just difficult, difficult
Oh, I know
Spiralin’ is miserable
I should probably go back home
Why does that feel difficult, difficult?
And oh, I hope
I wake up invisible
I’d be someone no one knows
I guess I’m just difficult, difficult
