Olivia Rodrigo’s album, Guts, has risen to become one of the most popular albums among teens in 2024. Romance, heartbreak, and personal journeys characterize the album, and in some songs this can be seen in more ways than one.
As the sixth track on Guts, “Making the Bed” explores feelings of paranoia and helplessness. While this song doesn’t explicitly mention OCD, many lyrics can be interpreted as symptomatic of the disorder. As someone who has struggled with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder especially over the past few years, I recognize that although “Making the Bed” isn’t specifically about the disorder, many of the themes developed in the song resonate with experiences that are widely shared by people with OCD.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition that is mainly identifiable through the paranoia that it causes people. The condition compels individuals to act on unnecessary and sometimes harmful compulsions, oftentimes being repetitive behaviors. These behaviors quickly become tedious tasks that said individuals feel obligated to complete, due to the belief that if the task is not completed, something bad will happen.
This disorder relates to Rodrigo’s “Making the Bed,” as demonstrated by the line, “Another perfect moment that doesn’t feel like mine, Another thing I forced to be a sign.” This shows a connection to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder because through this lyric, Rodrigo expresses the feeling of a struggle for control in one’s own mind- a trait often possessed by individuals with OCD. This line also shows another connection, because the disorder often convinces individuals that meaningless things have significance in their lives (forcing something to be a sign).
Another example of how the lyricism in “Making the Bed” relates to OCD is through the lines, “Another thing I ruined I used to do for fun, Another piece of plastic I could just throw away.” Through these lines, Rodrigo creates a metaphor where she states that she feels unable to throw away a piece of plastic that has no real significance to her life, which is similar to how individuals with OCD often feel tied to obsolete and unimportant objects.
Finally, Rodrigo repeats the phrase, “But it’s me who’s been making the bed” multiple times over the course of this song. This lyric is a reference to the common saying, “you made your bed, now lie in it,” which essentially means “you brought this upon yourself.” By admitting that she’s the one who’s been “making the bed,” Rodrigo implies that the struggles depicted in this song are her own fault. This relates to OCD in the sense that the disorder is an internal struggle, not the fault of one’s surroundings. This phrase evokes a sense of helplessness in the listener, as Rodrigo expresses that she knows it’s her own actions (or, in the case of OCD, her own mind) that’s making her feel this way, but she’s unable to help herself.
With all this being said, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Making the Bed” can be connected to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder because of the feelings of paranoia and helplessness that both the song and the disorder foster.
