Image C/O UMG, Top Dog Entertainment, and Doechii

So, Doechii finally did it. After years of fans begging, Anxiety is here in its full solo version. If you’ve been following since the Coven Music Sessions on YouTube, you know this song has had a long, weird journey—first teased in 2019, then sampled by Sleepy Hallow in his 2023 track ANXIETY, and now, after all the viral TikTok clips and streaming confusion, we’re getting the real thing. And let me tell you, it was worth the wait.

Doechii taps into something raw and universal with Anxiety, taking listeners deep into the overwhelming, inescapable nature of fear and self-doubt. The song loops and repeats in a way that mimics anxious thoughts, making you feel like you’re stuck in your own head right along with her.

[embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=egemoVK0IKY&si=iHLE5nQ0LarChq5I[/embed]

And as someone with a background in English literature and creative writing, I couldn’t help but hear echoes of classic poetry in her lyrics. These are just my own takeaways, but I think it’s worth stretching the literary comparisons and seeing how writers like Claude McKay, Georg Trakl, and Federico García Lorca explored these same themes of paranoia, loss of control, and emotional suffocation. Let’s break it all down and see how Anxiety fits into a much bigger artistic tradition.

Anxiety Doechii Lyrics

Anxiety Doechii Meaning

“Somebody’s watchin’ me.”

One of the first things Doechii makes clear in this song is that she feels like she’s being watched. The way she repeats this line makes it feel more and more real, like paranoia building up in her mind. She doesn’t say exactly who’s watching—maybe it’s authority figures, maybe it’s the internet, or maybe it’s just the feeling that she can’t escape judgment. That’s what makes this line so powerful—it taps into something a lot of people experience but can’t always put into words.

Claude McKay wrote about this same kind of fear in his poem Outcast. He said:

“My spirit wails a lonely thing / Among strange men, a weakling and a prey.”

McKay’s words describe feeling hunted, like he’s not just being watched—he’s being judged and controlled by people around him. Doechii’s lyrics reflect that same fear. The world is looking at her, and there’s nothing she can do to stop it.

And this isn’t just paranoia—it’s real. We live in a time where cameras are everywhere, social media watches everything, and certain people—especially Black women in the public eye—are judged more harshly than others. Doechii’s words hit hard because they aren’t just thoughts in her head. They’re part of a bigger reality.

“Anxiety / Keep on tryin’ me.”

Anxiety in this song isn’t just a feeling—it’s like a living thing that keeps coming back, pushing Doechii to her limit. The way she says, “keep on tryin’ me” makes it sound like anxiety has its own mind, like it won’t stop attacking her. That’s what makes this song so powerful—she’s not just describing stress or sadness, she’s in a battle with something that won’t let go.

Georg Trakl describes this same feeling in his poem De Profundis. He writes:

“Black snow drives through the night, / And the sky weeps softly.”

The image of “black snow” falling at night makes it feel like the world itself is closing in, just like how Doechii’s anxiety keeps pushing against her. Trakl’s words show how depression and fear can feel like something outside of you, something you can’t control—just like the way Doechii describes her own mind working against her.

What makes this line so effective is that it repeats, over and over again. It makes you feel stuck, like there’s no way out. And for people who deal with real anxiety, that’s exactly how it feels—you try to fight it, but it keeps coming back.

“Gotta keep it off of me / Can’t shake it off of me.”

Here, Doechii is trying to fight back, but she’s losing. She’s telling herself she has control, but then the next line shows that she really doesn’t. That struggle—to push anxiety away but realizing it won’t leave—is one of the most relatable parts of the song.

Federico García Lorca talked about this same feeling in Sleepwalking Ballad. He wrote:

“The city is asleep, / and the chains that keep the night tied down / will soon break.”

Lorca’s words paint a picture of something being trapped, just waiting to break free. That’s exactly what Doechii is dealing with—her anxiety is locked inside her, but no matter how much she tries, she can’t get rid of it.

This part of the song is so strong because it feels real. If you’ve ever tried to calm yourself down and realized it’s not working, you know this feeling. The way Doechii repeats these lines makes the struggle even clearer—she wants to shake it off, but it’s stuck.

“Quiet on the set, please / Rolling anxiety / In three, two, one.”

One of the most interesting moments in the song is when Doechii describes her life like it’s a movie. Instead of being in control, it’s like she’s just playing a role, while the world watches her. It’s another way of showing how anxiety makes you feel disconnected, like you’re outside your own body watching yourself go through the motions.

Lorca captures this same feeling in Sleepwalking Ballad when he writes:

“Through the sky goes the moon, / Holding a child’s fingers in her teeth.”

This strange, haunting image makes it feel like something innocent is being taken away, like there’s a loss of control. That’s exactly what Doechii’s words describe—she’s not the one calling the shots, she’s just following the script.

What makes this part of the song so strong is that it shifts the focus from fear to numbness. At the beginning, she’s trying to fight anxiety. By this point, she’s just letting it happen. That’s what makes anxiety so dangerous—it wears you down until you stop fighting back.

Bringing It All Home

Anxiety is about feeling stuck—trapped in your own head, boxed in by outside judgment, and watched by a world that never lets up. Doechii makes that clear right away with lines like “Anxiety / Keep on tryin’ me” and “I feel it quietly / Tryna silence me.” That repetition isn’t just there for the hook—it mirrors the way anxiety actually works. Thoughts loop over and over, getting louder even when you try to push them down. It’s like being stuck in a cycle you can’t escape.

Georg Trakl captured this same relentless pressure in his poem De Profundis, writing, “Black snow drives through the night, / And the sky weeps softly.” That image—darkness falling, the world itself pressing in—feels just like Doechii’s lyrics, where anxiety isn’t just a thought but something hovering over her, pushing down, making it harder to breathe.

But Anxiety isn’t just about what’s happening inside Doechii’s head—it’s also about how outside forces fuel that pressure. There’s a moment in the song where paranoia turns outward: “Somebody’s watchin’ me.” That unease, that sense of always being under a microscope, whether from the internet, the music industry, or authority figures, is a fear that’s real for a lot of people—especially Black women in the public eye. Claude McKay explored this same feeling in Outcast, where he wrote about existing in a world that views him as an outsider.

He describes feeling like an “alien” in his own life, stuck in a system that won’t let him in.

That same inescapable anxiety runs through Doechii’s lyrics. And even the way this song was released—originally freestyled in her Coven Music Sessions back in 2019, later sampled in Sleepy Hallow’s 2023 track ANXIETY, and finally dropped as a full solo version after fans begged for it—reflects that fight for ownership and control. Doechii’s Anxiety isn’t just about personal struggles; it’s about reclaiming space, finding her voice, and refusing to let anyone else define her narrative.

Then there’s the feeling of dissociation—that sense of floating outside yourself, watching your life unfold like it belongs to someone else. One of the most striking lines in the song captures this exactly: “Quiet on the set, please / Rolling anxiety / In three, two, one.” It’s as if she’s performing her own life, like she’s going through the motions but isn’t fully there.

That moment ties directly to Federico García Lorca’s Sleepwalking Ballad, where dreamlike, surreal images make reality feel blurred. He writes, “Through the sky goes the moon, / Holding a child’s fingers in her teeth.” It’s eerie, unsettling—like something innocent is being pulled away, just out of reach. Doechii’s lyrics hit on that same feeling: anxiety pulling her out of the moment, leaving her detached from herself. And by the time the song ends, nothing is resolved.

The cycle hasn’t broken. The thoughts haven’t stopped. Anxiety is still right there, circling back, just as strong as before.

The post Anxiety Doechii Lyrics And Meaning: How This Song Captures Mental Battles appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.