Addiction
Appears in 3 songs
“Ten months sober, I must admit Just because you're clean, don't mean you don't miss it”
The love relationship is framed as an addiction the speaker is recovering from, with 'clean' operating as recovery from substance abuse. The bridge makes this explicit with 'ten months sober' and the acknowledgment that sobriety doesn't eliminate the craving.
“Six weeks of breathin' clean air I still miss the smoke”
The recovery/addiction register, 'breathing clean air' as sobriety from the relationship, 'still miss the smoke' as craving the destructive relationship. The old habits that 'die screaming' are read as the compulsive behaviors of someone addicted to the relationship: checking his location, thinking about him, expecting his voice.
“Gave up on me like I was a bad drug”
The simile compares the speaker to a drug the partner kicked, framing the relationship as an addiction and the breakup as the partner getting clean of her, inverting the usual addiction metaphor where the speaker is addicted to the partner.