AvengingSpirit12 July 13th, 2007 11:47PM  
Actually, this song represents a dilemma. Amy [though not in real life] is in a dilemma: should she stay in the comforts of sorrow, or should she take the pill and be happy. The water is a symbol of her sorrow, which is why, at the end, she is walking away from it [referencing the lithium music video]

anonymous July 20th, 2007 06:15PM  
I think that this song is directed at the drug itself, rather than at a person or past boyfriends. In cases of addictions, people come to personify the object of their addictions as a sort of "frienemy", especially when the drug is perceived to bring comfort and calm. The song is about the feeling of abivalence over the artificially induced happiness of the Lithium and depression and emptiness that has to be endured without the drug. This can be glimpsed in the lines of the song "darling I forgive you afterall" "anything is better than to be alone" "and in the end I guess I had to fall". She seems to be negotiating with herself about the impending depression of going off the drug and continuing on it but being a shadow of herself. As a philosophy student, this song led be to think whether life is truely an unqualified good. Is it enough just to have life or is the quality of the life also a crucial factor to living?

anonymous August 10th, 2007 04:01PM  
It's about medication and a guy.

anonymous August 13th, 2007 10:08AM  
The song is about the battle between being happy and staying in her sadness. She is some what afraid of being happy because she feels she will lose herself because being unhappy and feeling numb is what makes her her. She realizes that she can be happy without losing herself.

anonymous September 16th, 2007 03:42AM  
For Gods sake how dumb are you?????????????
This song is about her husband shaun morgan ((you didn't drink enough to say you loved me)) She's sorry about her previous song call me when you're sober because she still loves shaun morgan.
DUH!!!!!!

Ashlynn313 October 31st, 2007 02:42PM  
Maybe by beginning the line with lithium, it almost sounds as if she is singing to her lithium. Saying that she'd rather be without something that would end her depression. From personal experience, depression is addicting, and quite often drives you to live your life because of it. Sadness is something that motivates and drives people. Most of my success has been related to the fact that I THRIVE off of the tragic abusive events in my past.

Saying:
Lithium - don't wanna lock me up inside
not wanting to cover up who she is with meds
Lithium - don't wanna forget how it feels without
not wanting to forget her pain and live as someone other than herself
Lithium - I wanna stay in love with my sorrow

Basically, I feel that she is saying she doesn't want something such as Lithium to take away her pain and sorrow, causing her to forget who she actually is.

I am who I am because of my struggle.. and drive myself to succeed each and every day because my pain is the biggest factor in my motivation

anonymous November 28th, 2007 07:16PM  
I would like to say that listening to this song I had no idea what it meant and I had no idea what lithium was. (I am singing it a a karaoke at school soon.) I actually had to look it up on dictionary.com to find out what it was and I was surprised by the answer. Because I did not understand what the lyrics meant I looked up interpretations and found this site.

All I know is that I was attracted to this song because it is so emotionally powerful no matter how you look at it. I hope the focus is not put on the fact that she used Lithium as a metaphor in the song, but more towards the sadness she portrays. Not to say that it did not help those dealing with depression. I am happy that she accomplished that and people can relate to her lyrics.

icky_nicki December 10th, 2007 03:32PM  
Lithium is a drug to help your mind. not necessarily bipolar, yes it is used to that, but not only that. It is used for people who believer that they see 'things' and for people who have ''messed up minds''. It could just be that whoevers point its from is just saying that they don't want to live without the drug but also that they know that they should get off of it too.

anonymous December 19th, 2007 06:06AM  
I tried to find the words to explain this song but I can only FEEL them. I'm sure everyone has a song like that out there.

Let me put it simply. If you have Bipolar/manic depression (I do), whether you take lithium or another similar drug, you can relate to the highs and lows of this song. I'm not saying that's what it was written about.

Personally, I'm especially drawn to "Drown my will to fly." (as it keeps you from the mania) and "I can't hold on to me, wonder what's wrong with me." (pretty much always)

The first time I heard this song I was at work. I had VH1 on in the waiting room so I could listen to music(I work at night). I was drawn out of my chair and stood there fixated on the tv. There was a chill through my body as I felt her singing my emotions for the world to hear.

Like I said, if you have it, you know.

anonymous December 19th, 2007 08:48PM  
First of all, lithium is not an ingredient in mood stabilizers or antidepressants. Actually it is an anti manic agent and mood stabilizer. whether or not the writer of these lyrics meant to describe the feelings of a bipolar, I do not know, but the lyrics do describe the typical feelings of a bipolar individual. Feeling "locked inside" while on lithium is very common. Many people feel that their emotions are dulled and they loose their creativity when their mood is stabilized. The entire song just sounds like a person with bipolar disorder and how you struggle against yourself.

anonymous April 1st, 2008 01:39PM  
The song is definitely linked to being bi-polar. It is quite evident in the video. amy has two "personalities" one is the regular her and the other is the lithium...this is shown in the video in a very subtle way. and like others have said lithium is found in mood stabilizers ....blah blah.

Basically Amy Lee is a crazy lithium-fiend. LMFAO [jokes]

Gotta love the song though.

anonymous April 22nd, 2008 02:29PM  
This song was about Amy Lee and her sister. Her sister had died and Amy Lee was then put on lithium for her depression, Amy then wanted to stop the medication for the fact that she didn't like how it made her forget and not care about her sister no more, but she didn't want to feel all the pain that she when she wasn't on it.

iiXRaveXii May 9th, 2008 08:20AM  
"always find my place among the ashes" I think that line clearly links the song to the death of her sister. And the fact that she was on lithium explains the rest of the song. She doesn't want to be numbed by anti-depressents.

If it means anything, Lithium, as a material, is highly reactive.

anonymous June 3rd, 2008 07:54PM  
It's the major component in depression pills. Depression is a part of you, a part of your soul. She doesn't want to know what it forget what it feels with out it because she will never be her elf again. She wants to still have her sorrow but there is too much dealing with someone that only says they love her when they hurt her. She just wants to let it go, and at the end of the song she says finally she'll let it go.

anonymous September 20th, 2008 03:54AM  
Lithium is a mood stabilizer and a medication for bipolar disorder-manic episode.. This is a sad song but beautiful.

anonymous September 21st, 2008 10:37PM  
This song, at least to me, describes someone's feels about being bipolar. I am bipolar, but it wasn't caught for a long time, so I learned how to cope with it (granted, they were not healthy methods,) and my disease became who I was. I started showing signs of being bipolar during my high school years, the time when we all really try to figure out who we are. So, Bipolar became my identity. Now that I am getting treatment, I have come to the horrible realization that I have no idea who I am. That terrifies me. To a real degree, I want to be bipolar again, because that is all I have known of myself. Now, I feel like I am in a strangers body. I have no idea where the disease ends and where I begin. A lot of people have that problem. So I think the song is about the duality of feelings, wanting to be well and also wanted the sucurity and safety of the illness.

ladynugget October 24th, 2008 03:45PM  
This song is not about her taking Lithium, she's said that several times!!

karinamoonflow November 6th, 2008 11:40PM  
When you listen to the song over and over, you can feel the speaker of the song is dwelling in her past...

"Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone.
Couldn't hide the emptiness, you let it show.
Never wanted it to be so cold.
Just didn't drink enough to say you love me."

It's as if she is feeling like she is losing herself or can't quite put her hands on this feeling of frozen heartbeats and speechless emotions:

"I can't hold on to me,
Wonder what's wrong with me."

It's like unable to cry and cry so silently painful:
"I don't want to let it lay me down this time.
Drown my will to fly."

There's is always a clash of man versus man, and man versus nature but in this song, it's protagonist versus herself. It is continuous and repetitive that she runs back to this
pain even though she doesn't intentionally want to and trying to get away from it in a manner where it's painfully a little wreckless as if it's not dealt with in the best way possible. It's like unfinished business:

"Here in the darkness I know myself.
Can't break free until I let it go.
Let me go."

The emotions she had before was held back and kept inside for so long that this emotion bursted as ifshe was in the moment feeling in such a way disregarding everything else:

"Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside.
Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without...
Lithium, I want to stay in love with my sorrow.
Oh, but God, I want to let it go."

continuously dwelling in it, leads to a point just certain emotions with no deep ponder on if this is what I want. The protagonist of the song is in the moment:

"Darling, I forgive you after all.
Anything is better than to be alone.
And in the end I guess I had to fall.
Always find my place among the ashes."

in the end she still feels incomplete just wanting to end it but just the thought to...wanting to resolve it. The opening of the song she dwells in her pain and the ending of the song, she holds on to it but says she wanted to let go even though it was pain.:

"Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside.
Lithium, don't want to forget how it feels without...
Lithium, I want to stay in love with you.
I'm gonna let it go."

although this is not the best source to use but it makes a point. As human beings, we dwell in pain and it couldn't be helped. we're alive and I find that lithium is needed and not needed. for example the simple source of element like iodine is needed in very little portions for our bodies. In the music video amy lee was drowning in a pond or something:

"Trace amounts of lithium are present in the oceans and in some organisms, though the element serves no apparent biological function in humans. Nevertheless, the neurological effect of the lithium ion Li+ makes some lithium salts useful as a class of mood stabilizing drugs" (wikipedia.com).

anonymous January 5th, 2009 02:09PM  
Lithium made me start using lithium pills because I wanna be soooo much like amy lee! OMG like this totally relates to my lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock and roll! Like totally relates to me dudes! you have no idea how many times guys look at me....oh wait its not about guys is it?????LMFAO.

eddypolockski April 2nd, 2009 03:23PM  
I've researched this topic extensively and I'm sorry to say that every review here is way off. Firstly the song is literally about Lithium and specifically it's widespread inclusion in commercial beverages prior to the 1950's. Secondarily it is a statement about the continued power abuse of our corporate run society. Hundreds of soft drinks included lithium salts or lithia water (naturally occurring mineral waters with higher lithium amounts). An early version of Coca Cola available in pharmacies' soda fountains called "Lithia Coke" was a mixture of Coca Cola syrup and lithia water. The soft drink 7 Up, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", contained lithium citrate until it was reformulated in 1950. Additionally, Lithia light beer was brewed at the West Bend Lithia Company in Wisconsin. No, this is not made up . . . Google it for yourself. The song is Amy Lee's interpretation of life as a numb-lemming member of a materialistic consumer society run by an elite group who seek to exploit the masses and dumb us down with chemicals injected into our goodies. It's a statement against the establishment. You'll notice the symbolism in the video centers around liquid, the pool, the "drowning" even the snow and the falling flakes of whatever are symbolic of carbonation. This pop song (no pun intended) is clearly related to the beverages and the continued practice of corporate America to exploit the masses.