Cleo Sol's Secret Messages About Mental Health

Music Theory

Disclosure; everything I write here are made from theory accompanied with research to support my theory.

I know this all too well. I was friends with a girl who I thought was my best friend, I was just her best enabler and supply. I don’t have a PhD in physiology, but I am a very good research student and what I have found in this song may be Cleo Sol expressing how she struggles with Cluster B Personality Disorder. Let me explain.

When you first listen to the song, you may be inclined to believe she is speaking to someone else. Cleo is also speaking to herself.

Screen shot from an other song titled (Sweet Blue)

“Why don't you just let go

And quiet down your ego?”

(Issues with self-image)

A core part of Cluster B Borderline Personality Disorder is narcissism. People with this kind of personality disorder have a grandiose image of themselves or a grandiose image of the person they had constructed for you to like them. Deep down, they don’t like the real person they’ve become. They believe they must lie for you to like them because they believe you’ll never like the real person they are.

“Don't complain about finance, I know your daddy weren't a real man”

(Issues with childhood especially in the father department)

I don’t know anything about Cleo’s personal life but it I had to make an educated guess while using her this particular single, I’d say she didn’t have a grate childhood. According to a Cambridge University study in 2002, “Child abuse and neglect have repeatedly been shown to be risks for psychiatric and personality disorders.” …[they] report mental disorders assessed from early childhood to adulthood in those later identified as victims of abuse or neglect by official or self-report.” (Cohen, Brown, & Smailes, 2001)

“Go ahead and live your dreams To me you're stronger than a whole team”

(Self-encouragement)

This can be taken 2 ways.

• Here, I could be wrong but (playing devil’s advocate) people with Borderline tend to believe they are superior than everyone they encounter. If they believe you are superior, they will inject themselves into your life and seek validation at the expense of your self-love. This effectively makes them believe they are “Stronger than a whole team”

• Another (and more likely) spin to this line could be interpreted as Cleo expressing her strength to fight her Borderline tendencies wile pursuing her career and that very few people could endure the handicap is puts on her life especially her emotions. In other words, she’s emotionally “Stronger than a whole team”

“I know you can't relax And you don't want me to know that”

(Struggles with intense emotions)

People with Borderline feel intense feelings and for a longer time. The average person feels feelings on a slow curve. Borderlines feel intense emotions sooner and for a longer time. Their brains have not developed proper emotional regulation skills. Hence the line “I know you can’t relax”.

Thees feelings are so intense, they run from them by blame shifting, projecting or never taking responsibility for things they caused.

They don’t like resolving issues when they are at fault because it will support their life lingering thoughts of inner hate and low self-worth. In other words, a narcissistic injury depicted in #1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Whatever age they were abused is the age their emotions stopped developing. I know it’s a bit extra and will fly passed the average Genius user but, “they’d NEVER want anyone to know that."

“I see you work real hard; You wanna help your friends; But trust me baby; You don't owe them; Don't take on people’s problems”

This one needs a little unpacking and may seem like a stretch once explained at first read but if the conditions are right, I’m right. I assume the friends she use to hang around were also troubled people just like her. People with personality disorders tend to flock together (but constantly interchanging). Cleo works real hard to obtain self-love and wants to help her friends but because personality disorders are almost impossible to correct, she’s telling herself “You don’t owe them; Don’t take on people’s problems”.

Part 2 coming soon