Songfacts®:

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt Berninger, the lead singer of The National, faced burnout and depression. His bandmates' unwavering support, along with the love of his wife, Carin Besser, provided the strength he needed to overcome these challenges.
  
  "This Isn't Helping" is a slow, melancholic song about his emotional turmoil. Berninger is in a pit of despair and feels like he's drowning. His friend or loved one is trying to help him, but their efforts seem to only make him feel worse.
• Phoebe Bridgers joins Berninger on the piano-and-strings ballad. Her vocals intensify the heartache of the song.
• One day Berninger received a text from Phoebe Bridgers asking if she could show him some songs. "The musicians whose lyrics I care about who are not in my bands, they're rare to me and dear to me," Bridgers explained to Uncut magazine. "So, I thought it would be a cool experiment."
  
  To her surprise, when Berninger arrived at Bridgers' house in Los Angeles, he showed her the songs he was working on for The National's ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Later, he asked her to appear on "This Isn't Helping."
• Berninger took a great deal from their conversation and Bridgers' approach to lyrics. "She knows she's good at defining what she hates about herself," he said. Berninger kept the idea close. "Because I was deep in a self-hating zone and I thought, 'Well, alright, that's what you're supposed to write about.'"
• Bridgers also contributes to another First Two Pages Of Frankenstein song, "Your Mind Is Not Your Friend."
• The First Two Pages of Frankenstein comprises 11 tracks produced by The National at guitarist Aaron Dessner's Long Pond studio in Hudson Valley, New York.