Cyrus wrote this song following her 2018 The Good Cry Tour to illustrate the "terrible place" she was in mentally, according to an interview with Rolling Stone in May. After discussing her state of mind with her therapist, Cyrus realised what she was experiencing was a deep loneliness and the desire to be understood. "I couldn't look at myself in the mirror, I couldn't go to social things like my friends' birthdays," she said. "I'd get there and feel like I needed to throw up from social anxiety . . . Of course there are some bad days, but I've learned to speak up."