Music Was My Escape – Now It Feels Like a Cage

Article by Manuela Bittencourt – 08/04/2025

You started music to feel free.

To express yourself.

To escape the pain, pressure, fear, or silence.

Maybe it was therapy when therapy wasn’t available.

Maybe it was the one thing that made you feel understood.

But now…

Deadlines are choking your creativity.

Likes and numbers dictate your worth.

And the thing that once saved you feels like it’s slowly swallowing you.

The truth is:

It’s terrifying when your safe space starts to feel like a trap.

The Shift That No One Warns You About

When music becomes your job – or your brand – the joy can twist.

You start writing for algorithms, for approval, for playlist editors.

You stop making what you feel and start making what you think will work.

That sacred connection you once had?

It gets buried under strategy.

And worse – when you’re struggling emotionally, you can’t even lean on music anymore, because music is the thing causing the stress.

Why This Hurts So Much

Music is more than just a skill. It’s your identity. Your coping tool. Your language.

So when it starts to feel like work, or pressure, or pain – it feels like betrayal.

Like losing a best friend.

Like losing yourself.

Famous Artists Feel It Too

• Billie Eilish has said she “lost all joy in music” at one point, and had to re-learn how to love it.
• Adele admitted that after releasing 21, she was so frightened to do anything creative that she felt like she’d lost the ability to write a song.
• Halsey said she just wanted to release music without being turned into a product.

This isn’t just you.
This is a pattern.
And it means it’s time to protect your art—and your heart.

How to Reclaim the Joy

Make something no one will ever hear. No audience, no pressure—just you.

Flip the script. If you usually produce, sing. If you write, try sampling. Let curiosity lead.

Collaborate with zero agenda. No goals. No outcome. Just play.

Take a guilt-free break. Distance can be medicine.

Write about the cage. Let the pressure become the art—it might unlock something.

Final Thought

If music saved you once, it can save you again.

But the relationship has to change.

Let it breathe. Let you breathe.

Let it be raw, imperfect – yours again.

You’re not broken for needing space from what you love.

You’re not weak for feeling trapped by your escape.

You’re human – trying to stay whole in an industry that rarely lets you be.