50 Best Rock Songs About PTSD
Rock Songs That Echo the Weight of PTSD
There’s a strange silence that follows the noise. Long after the crowd fades or the fight ends or the drive home turns into nothing but road hum. That’s where these songs live. The riffs stumble a little, the vocals drag through something raw, and suddenly it’s not performance anymore. It’s the echo of what stays stuck in the mind when the adrenaline’s gone. Some of these tracks come from artists who’ve lived it, others only circle around the feeling, but they all hit that bruised nerve in some way that feels too familiar.
There’s a certain pulse that runs through the kind of rock that deals with aftermath. The kind that doesn’t flinch at the sound of breaking glass or the quiet right after. You can hear it in the way the drums don’t fully land or how a verse hesitates before the chorus takes over. It’s heavy in a way that doesn’t always sound loud. That tension’s what makes these songs sit next to pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that try to make sense of the same weight. They’re not all literal, but they line up under that shared shadow.
Sometimes the best tracks feel like they were made in the middle of the night when the mind won’t calm down. They catch the shake, the drift, the strange calm after panic. These songs don’t offer closure or comfort, they just exist in that space where memory loops and the noise never really stops. Here are the best rock songs for when PTSD turns the volume up inside your head.
Top 10 PTSD-Related Rock Songs
1. 'One' by Metallica
2. 'Numb' by Linkin Park
3. 'Lithium' by Nirvana
4. 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails
5. 'Rooster' by Alice In Chains
6. 'The Sound of Silence' by Disturbed
7. 'Mama' by My Chemical Romance
8. 'Unsteady' by X Ambassadors
9. 'Paranoid' by Black Sabbath
10. 'Zombie' by The Cranberries
Powerful Rock Songs About Emotional Struggle #11 to 20
11. 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones
12. 'Adam's Song' by Blink-182
13. 'War Pigs' by Black Sabbath
14. 'Everybody Hurts' by R.E.M.
15. 'The Unforgiven' by Metallica
16. 'Jumper' by Third Eye Blind
17. 'Crawling' by Linkin Park
18. 'Comfortably Numb' by Pink Floyd
19. 'Going Under' by Evanescence
20. 'Down In A Hole' by Alice In Chains
Songs Exploring Psychological Trauma in Rock Music #21 to 30
21. 'Fine Again' by Seether
22. 'Fade to Black' by Metallica
23. 'Shadow on the Sun' by Audioslave
24. 'Man in the Box' by Alice In Chains
25. 'Save Me' by Shinedown
26. 'Behind Blue Eyes' by The Who
27. 'Manic Depression' by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
28. 'Basket Case' by Green Day
29. 'Broken' by Seether featuring Amy Lee
30. 'The Kids Aren't Alright' by The Offspring
Rock and Metal Songs About War and PTSD #31 to 40
31. 'MIA' by Avenged Sevenfold
32. 'Disposable Heroes' by Metallica
33. '1916' by Motörhead
34. 'Sam Stone' by John Prine
35. 'Psychosocial' by Slipknot
36. 'Coming Undone' by Korn
37. 'Mad World' by Tears for Fears
38. 'The Tragic Truth' by Five Finger Death Punch
39. 'Pain' by Three Days Grace
40. 'Keep Breathing' by Ingrid Michaelson
Rock and Alternative Songs on Anxiety and Healing #41 to 50
41. 'Popular Monster' by Falling In Reverse
42. 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' by The Band
43. 'In My Blood' by Shawn Mendes
44. 'A Reason to Fight' by Disturbed
45. 'All These Things That I've Done' by The Killers
46. 'Hey You' by The Black Moods
47. 'Where Is Your God' by Three Days Grace
48. 'Letting the Cables Sleep' by Bush
49. 'She's Lost Control' by Joy Division
50. 'Headfirst for Halos' by My Chemical Romance
© 2025 Carson McQueen
