Shawn Mendes - Stitches Lyrics

From start to finish this song sounds like a heroin addiction. From my own personal experience, the start of the sounds like he had an OD. After that every line perfectly describes withdrawls and the cravings you experience to the T, and how heroin is a cold heartless bitch. The person who left a post about it being about depression and shit, i dont agree with you your trying to connect two dots that are too far apart. You think being depressed and cutting yourself is a dark place, try having a heroin addiction that will make you fell hella stupid about what you were doing and give you a whole appreciation about your situation. But for any addict out there that hears this song in a split second your brain recognizes those feelings and instantly knows those feelings.

I personally think this song relates to an abusive relationship. If you have ever been in an abusive relationship--even though you know it's bad for you, many people stay. However, if you stay in that relationship--its very bad and for some people it ends in death. He didn't know what what he was getting into when he got into the relationship but now is trying to get out of it--but its very hard.

To me, I took this song as a depression/suicidal meaning. The line /your words cut deeper than a knife/ for someone with depression words feel like a razor on your wrist. /Breathe me back to life/ perhaps means that he tried to commit suicide after he could take bullying(words cut deeper) anymore. Felling like drowning is a symptom of depression, and the /lover/, lyric could be a shoutout to a blade. Needing sitches is what most people who try to cut their wrist get if they do not die. Tripping/ shaking are signs of blood loss, and kisses would be from blades, as he would be in the hospital and not able to cut. The next verse is all about how cutting distracts and makes you forget the pain with pleasure from the blood. Most people with depression also have very low self confidence, which plays into the line/your bitter heart cold to the touch/. this could be a self hate line. /Reap what i sew/ kill the stitches. /Left seeing red on my own is an obvious medfore to being angry and self harming.The bridge is about how most people get stitches and then try again until they succeed in killing themselves.

Does anyone think that a ten year old girl should be signing this song in fifth grade talent show?? I don't think so and cannot believe the teachers said yes to this song and not Christian songs.

Listening to this song makes me think of my ex who let his addiction over take him and destroyed our relationship

To all that have a heroin addiction, do not be ashamed. What put you into this position, likely wasn't your fault. What you can is outside stresser's, maybe it wasn't outside stresser's. Maybe you were young and dumb, I've never tried heroin. But I've definitely been young a dumb, it's a right of passage everyone goes through regardless of gender. The thing is your willing to go down a healthier path, but you have to be 100% ready and willing to give it up for good. Because the stakes are high when revisiting heroin....Good luck and Godspeed

I think this song can be interpreted in different ways, one being that after this relationship he was "addicted to" or using as a coping skill ended and he turned to other coping skills, like self harm. He could have turned to drugs, abuse, anything, and it harmed him and he needed professional help, like a doctor who gives stitches, to stop or at least recover. The other way it could be interpreted is he has a shattered heart and needs stitches to put it back together, still implying that he needs help. Whatever it means, its says that whatever relationship he had, he needed help to heal after it ended. Maybe it was kisses from a lady and now its kisses from a razor blade to cut, kisses from the motherland of drugs, the painful kiss of abuse or fighting, to get over the relationship.

When I heard a female singer do an acoustic version of this song I wondered whether the song is about leaving a good partner for an abusive one, and the good partner doesn't care anymore.

My children and myself have been devastated by whom I was sure was my soul mate. We just learned that he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder and is a Pathological Liar. He has ruined our lives and continues to cause terrible things to happen to us. We were together for 9 yrs. My kids and I adored him. Ive lost nearly 40 lbs in a few months time. He made sure my kids were separated from me and each other, then made me homeless without an income, just a few months after back surgery. This song hits it right on the nose. Many victims of this type of abuse never recover fully or it can take more than a decade to heal. I have wanted to die from the pain. Not your average breakup at all. Imagine living 9 yrs as a lie with your 4 children. And then hoping you didnt get a nasty std. Our whole futures changed/ruined.....devastated. These people cause you to become addicted to them. Using sex, emotions, mental and sometimes physical abuse.

It's interesting how many different ways a song can be interpreted. For me... this is the song of breaking up with a narcissistic or otherwise viciously abusive partner. A sadistic person who got off on watching the other person slowly die in their presence. The stitches are needed to mend the horrible scars left after the breakup, because the denial that the person was actually trying to kill them during the relationship, has worn off.