Try to Make Friends

Why Selah Sue Turns Anxiety Into Dialogue

The meaning of Try to Make Friends Selah Sue centers on a hard but hopeful idea: anxiety may not fully disappear, so the healthier move is to understand it, name it, and live with it honestly.

That makes the song feel different from a simple empowerment anthem. Instead of promising a clean victory, Selah Sue presents mental struggle as ongoing inner work. In that sense, the track is less about defeating fear than building a workable peace with it.

A Chorus About Acceptance, Not Surrender

At the heart of the song is the repeated idea try to make friends. Paraphrased, the speaker is saying they have spent time resisting anxious thoughts, but resistance alone has not solved the problem.

That is why the next key phrase matters too: it’s part of me. The song does not glamorize anxiety, but it does reject fake perfection. Interpretation: the chorus suggests that healing begins when they stop treating anxiety as a shameful secret and start treating it as one part of a complicated self.

This reading fits Selah Sue’s public comments about mental health. In an American Songwriter profile, they spoke openly about depression, therapy, and medication, and described songwriting as a way to organize inner chaos.

Watch the official Try to Make Friends music video

The Mask Slips in the Opening Verse

The first verse asks whether other people were fooled by a strong front. Short questions like Did I have you fooled? make the song sound exposed and personal.

They are not only asking whether others misunderstood them. They are also confronting the gap between appearance and reality. The public version looks capable and calm, while the private version is still haunted by the past.

When the song mentions crying and blaming it on rain, it points to a familiar defense: hiding emotion behind an easy excuse. Interpretation: Selah Sue frames vulnerability as something many people perform around rather than express directly.

When the Mind Becomes a Car in Motion

One of the song’s strongest images is driving. The line taking turns at the wheel turns mental conflict into something physical and dangerous.

That metaphor does several jobs at once:

• It shows a loss of steady control.
• It suggests competing inner voices.
• It raises the stakes with the threat of a crash.

The image works because anxiety often feels like motion without safety. Thoughts speed up, attention splits, and every mistake feels costly. When the song talks about swerving, brakes, and almost crashing, it translates inner panic into a scene listeners can picture immediately.

The “personalities” line matters

The phrase my personalities is not necessarily a clinical claim. More likely, it describes conflicting moods or inner selves: the scared self, the self-critical self, the confident self, and the exhausted self.

That interpretation is supported by Selah Sue’s own description of later songs as portraits of different parts of themselves in the same American Songwriter interview. The song’s language is poetic, but the feeling is precise.

Artist Context Deepens the Meaning

Selah Sue, born Sanne Putseys, has long mixed soulful melody with candid writing. The same profile notes that they were open about adolescent depression and described music as a journal-like tool for making inner chaos visible.

That context matters for the meaning of Try to Make Friends Selah Sue because it makes the song feel less like abstract writing and more like lived reflection. The track’s honesty fits a broader pattern in their work: self-examination without self-pity.

The credited writers are Joachim Saerens, Matt Parad, and Sanne Putseys. Even without a full production breakdown here, the writing itself points toward Selah Sue’s usual strengths: emotional directness, conversational phrasing, and melody that softens difficult subject matter.

How the Sound Likely Supports the Message

Selah Sue’s music often balances neo-soul warmth with singer-songwriter intimacy. American Songwriter described the quieter Bedroom material as centered on emotional vocals, acoustic guitar, and restrained electronica.

That aesthetic helps explain why a song like this lands. Anxiety-themed lyrics can feel heavy on paper, but a warm arrangement can make them feel human rather than bleak. Interpretation: if the production stays intimate and rhythmic, it mirrors the song’s central move—holding distress gently instead of fighting it with force.

The Final Image: Connection at the Edge

Late in the song, the cliff image raises the emotional stakes again. Instead of ending with neat closure, the lyric imagines what happens if things still go wrong.

And if we end up driving off a cliff Won’t you fly with me

Paraphrased, this sounds like a plea for companionship in uncertainty. They are not asking for rescue by certainty; they are asking not to be abandoned in vulnerability. Interpretation: that is why the song feels moving rather than merely confessional. It turns private anxiety into a request for shared humanity.

Why the Song Resonates

What makes this track stand out is its refusal to offer a fake cure. It says anxiety can be irrational, repetitive, and dangerous, but still real enough to require compassion.

That is the core meaning: not “I conquered this,” but “I am learning how to live with this.” For many listeners, that may feel more truthful and more helpful.

Last takeaway

The meaning of Try to Make Friends Selah Sue is about accepting the mind in all its conflict. Through masks, driving imagery, and a chorus built on uneasy peace, the song argues that self-understanding can be stronger than denial.

Disclaimer: This interpretation is based on the lyrics, available artist context, and critical reading. Song meanings can remain open, and listeners may hear something different in the same lines.