What do you think Numb means?

Linkin Park: Numb Meaning

Album cover for Numb album cover

Song Released: 2003


Covered By: Dead By April (2017)


Numb Lyrics

Tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I...

  1. anonymous
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    Apr 9th 2012 !⃝

    I strongly agree with the second interpretation. This song is written in regards to someone who is "numb" or "automated" to the world around them. Being trapped in their own mind and no way to escape to experience reality. With no help or support from anyone, in the video she tries to find fulfillment or an answer by drawing and running into the church. This song reminds me of the dissociative disorder of Depersonalization and Derealization.

  2. nobodyyouknow
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    Mar 26th 2012 !⃝

    I believe that it is about someone feeling judged and like no matter what they do, they're never good enough. They just want to be free of all judgement.

  3. anonymous
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    Dec 1st 2011 !⃝

    I think this song expresses the frustration and pain and hurt of being a misfit. There are times when you just can't help resisting to be molded into something you are not. I think that it reflects the want to please someone, but also the oppression you feel in your heart at not being able to be FREE and be what you want. The girl has an amazing talent for drawing, because that's her only means of expressing that she is good at something. The rejection and criticism hurt her, and I think the song is called "numb" because of the shield she has put up to defend herself. She is afraid of feeling pain, so she can't open up easily to feel any support("I can't feel you there" Too long, but that is just my interpretation of the song.

  4. anonymous
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    Aug 20th 2011 !⃝

    It's not deep or hard to figureout
    Every one wants someoneto follow the crowd but that person just wants to 'be more like me and be less like you' it could be about absolutely anyone a geek a teen a tomboy. Its so easy to ifgureout its not confusing like Burning In The Skies or Waiting For The End

  5. anonymous
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    Aug 10th 2011 !⃝

    this song is about a father and son. the parent wants the child to be better than him. this song is my about my son he is a gifted child.i too was always told of being gifted but chose the wrong path.we fight all the time but it is like yelling into a mirror. i will play this song after a confrontation to tell myself i'm not right all the time and just accept him for who he wants to be, but as a parent who loves him so dearly i dont want him to fail also. as the cliche goes "i only want the best best for my child ". this interpretation is from the other side of the mirror,the evil side.

  6. dRip
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    Jun 5th 2011 !⃝

    Line by Line

    This song is most likely about a Kid with overprotected parents but here’s a religious approach to it that I think fits well…. About a person braking free from God and Religious beliefs; let me explain:

    Tired of being what you want me to be

    (God wants him to be good, helping others and Christ like but he’s tired of it)

    Feeling so faithless lost under the surface

    (As he goes through life he gets deeper into his own worldly views, causing him to lose faith in God)

    Don't know what you're expecting of me
    Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes

    (He’s so tired of trying to do right in Gods eyes he feels like confused in how to be perfect like God.)

    Every step that I take is another mistake to you

    (Because he’s not perfect everything he does is just a mistake no matter how hard he tries to be good)


    [Chorus]
    I've become so numb I can't feel you there

    (Now, the father away from God he gets, the more numb he is to God’s presence in his life.)

    I've become so tired so much more aware

    (He’s now becoming more aware of HIMSELF and his own wants then Gods)

    I'm becoming this (ME) all I want to do
    Is be more like me and be less like you
    (God or Christ-like)

    (Now that he realizes he’s happier being himself he wants to be less like God and more like who he want to be.)

    Can't you see that you're smothering me
    holding too tightly afraid to lose control
    Cause everything that you thought I would be
    Has fallen apart right in front of you

    (Now he's talking back to God stating that all the rules religion has, to keep control on him, is why he fled in the first place.

    Every step that I take is another mistake to you
    And every second I waste is more than I can take.

    (He’s just sick of trying and wants out now.)

    [Chorus]
    I've become so numb I can't feel you there
    I've become so tired so much more aware
    I'm becoming this all I want to do
    Is be more like me and be less like you

    And I know
    I may end up failing too
    But I know
    You were just like me with someone disappointed in you

    (I think here he’s relating himself to Jesus when God turned his back on him while on the cross with the sin of the world on. OR like I said in the beginning it could be about a kid with overprotected parents who he can never seem to live up to and in reality his parents were once kids with disappointed parents too.
    I feel it goes better with the Religious approach instead.)

  7. anonymous
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    Jun 2nd 2011 !⃝

    'be more like me and be less like you' represents that she want more control over her life and not have her life being controlled be people's such as parents's expectation

  8. anonymous
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    May 4th 2011 !⃝

    I see it as a story of my life, a life with Aspergers. it feels like almost nobody cares. Like nothing is good enough. Exactly how I think the girl feels in the music video.

  9. anonymous
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    Apr 29th 2011 !⃝

    it is about getting bullied by people so much that you are numb to the world and have no friends. it is also about feeling insecure that you cannot meet others expectations and so they beat you up.

    the line "feeling so faithless" is reffering to how when everything in your life seems to be falling apart, you forget about god because you don't believe that even prayers can bring you hope.

    so many people face this situation. it is very sad.

  10. anonymous
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    Apr 29th 2011 !⃝

    it is about getting bullied by people so much that you are numb to the world and have no friends. it is also about feeling insecure that you cannot meet others expectations and so they beat you up.

    the line "feeling so faithless" is reffering to how when everything in your life seems to be falling apart, you forget about god because you don't believe that even prayers can bring you hope.

    so many people face this situation. it is very sad.

  11. anonymous
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    Apr 11th 2011 !⃝

    its about being treated like a puppet having to do what others expect you to do not be yourself. and it ends in you slowly being turned and twisted by everyone that you become numb in the end

  12. anonymous
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    Jan 23rd 2011 !⃝

    This song is clearly about not meeting people's expectations, and the moment in life where you decide to be independent and follow your own dreams and what you want from your life. It's how people (or society) expect certain things from you and your life, but the rebellion of a personal choice or self-acceptance.

    It is likely to be of a parent, overbearing and authoritative, wanting "the best" for their child, and the disappointment that follows that. Anyone who has ever been out of the social norm; a homosexual person coming out, an artist in an academic world, an spiritualist in a religious family; would all be able to relate to the song, as it's the final "I give up, this is me, I like me, I want to be me, I can never be what you want me to be"

    It is sheer honesty. It is "I am different and always will be, deal with it"

  13. sparklnxdim0nd
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    Nov 4th 2010 !⃝

    This person is about dealing with a person who has narcissistic personality disorder. whether the lead singer actually dealt with it i don't know but its very clear in the things he says
    "I'm tired of being what you want me to be
    Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
    Don't know what you're expecting of me
    Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
    (Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
    Every step that I take is another mistake to you
    (Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)

    narcissists pick people they want to be an extension of themselves usually one child in the family. and no matter what these people (the extension) do they are ALWAYS wrong, and mistaken. narcissists are ALWAYS right. in their eyes.

    "I'm becoming this all I want to do
    Is be more like me and be less like you"

    they want to break away from the narcissists extension and become their own person.

    "Holding too tightly afraid to lose control
    Cause everything that you thought I would be
    Has fallen apart right in front of you"

    narcissists are incredibly controlling. and they freak out when you decide to break away and become your own person.

    "I'm tired of being what you want me to be"
    letting go of the narcissist.

  14. anonymous
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    Oct 20th 2010 !⃝

    It's a song about a girl with borderline syndrome, and she's driving her boyfriend nuts because he does everything for her but nothing is good enough.

  15. sweetlysarcastic
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    Oct 13th 2010 !⃝

    I think it could be about a parent and child, but it could also be about a girl and a boy. The boy falls for this girl,they are very different, an "opposites attract"couple. She has feelings for "him" too. The boy is too in love with her to realize whats going on, but she is slowly changing him, molding him into her type. He realizes what is happening, but by then he is in too far, hard to turn back. She keeps him on a tight leash,"holding too tightly, afraid to lose control". She sees he is falling apart, and is mad that her plan is failing"everything that you thought i would be, is falling apart, right in front of you". He grows used to this, numb, hurt and broken. He wants out, but knows this is impossible, because if he leaves her, she will do all in her power to make his life miserable, through either social or physical reasons.




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