Body-focused repetitive behaviors mentioned in the song, "High" by The Cure (2002)

You would've been as surprised as I was when I heard a song playing that mentioned different body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). It stopped me in my tracks. I had to look up the lyrics. Did I really just hear what I think I heard?

Listen for yourself and tell me if you hear it too!

Did you hear what I heard? Were you in fact as surprised as I was?

These are the lines that stood out to me:

"It makes me bite my fingers through"

"It makes me pull my hair all out"

It's quite obvious why they would, right? I mean, who else would relate to these lyrics besides people in the BFRB community. These are two behaviors we know so well.

Now, I'm not claiming that The Cure purposely included these lyrics because they have BFRBs and wanted to spread awareness—that would be silly of me. I can't diagnose other people! I can't guess or assume their intentions!

What makes the most sense to me is that someone in the band either witnessed these behaviors or engaged in them themselves, most likely unknowingly, and deemed these behaviors as part of the human experience—which they are.

Lyrics like this show that BFRBs are more common than people like to think. Humans find different ways to self-soothe. Millions of us engage in body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) and there is nothing wrong with that.