What does Lithium mean?

Evanescence: Lithium Meaning

Album cover for Lithium album cover

Song Released: 2007


Lithium Lyrics

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.

Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone.
Couldn't hide the...

  1. anonymous
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    May 4th 2010 !⃝

    Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside
    Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without
    Lithium, I wanna stay in love with my sorrow
    Oh, but God I wanna let it go (she needs lithium to stay sane. She is basically dependent now on lithium so now she loves being sorrowful just to be able to take it)

    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 (her husband won't come to bed with her because she is bipolar. when she says...just didn't drink enough to say you love me...its her talking to herself...shes is also an alcohalic)

    I can't hold on to me
    Wonder what's wrong with me? (shes slowly losing grip because of life)

    Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside
    Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without
    Lithium, I wanna stay in love with my sorrow

    Don't wanna let it lay me down this time
    Drown my will to fly
    Here in the darkness I know myself
    Can't break free until I let it go, let me go (she wants the lithium to take everything away)

    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 (she forgives everyone.."darling" is everyone else. She is always sad)

    I can't hold on to me
    Wonder what's wrong with me?

    Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside
    Lithium, don't wanna forget how it feels without
    Lithium, stay in love with mmm
    I'm gonna let it go (she finally decides to let go of being messed up)

  2. anonymous
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    Sep 7th 2009 !⃝

    i thinks its about coming out of depression and how scary it is. because you start to love it and are scared of changing it. mental illness is the centre of my life and for someone to take that away leaves me thinking, well what will there be instead? being depressed is easy, im good at it, i know how to do it, so why change that?

    thats how it feels to me anyway

  3. nadae
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    Aug 7th 2009 !⃝

    She is diagnosed with either BIPOLAR or manic DEPRESSION. They're both the same thing cause I'm diagnosed with it too.. I'm only 17 and I take lithium. lithium helps you FEEL.. Happiness, emotion, alive. She's talking about herself and her MIND; you remember who you WERE but it feels like somebody else is taking over your body; almost as if you lost yourself, and the only person that you have left is your mind..(thoughts), sometimes they're suicidal thoughts.. makes you feel worthless & dead. Her song hello explains a lot ! I was listening to my ipod all day today and I never paid attention to her lyrics...but when I did, right away I knew her whole album was about depression/bipolar. It was deep

  4. anonymous
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    Jul 8th 2009 !⃝

    lithium is used in jet fighters as a propellant and also in super glue as a bonding agent.
    Both of these things are depressing and she is clearly stating this in her song, not in words but in the beat.
    If you listen to 2:12 and 2:37 on volume 10 you can literally feel her pain.
    the music video was offered as an interpretive ritualistic dance, much like the cherokee indians do. yes, as a cherokee of the smack a ho tribe i am one of the few who can interpret 3:19 for you.
    but it will cost you a dollar.

  5. CJ.Evanescence
    click a star to vote
    Jun 1st 2009 !⃝

    I love this one.

    Lithium is about how Amy has become attached to her depressing attitude. Its like it's become a part of her and she can't let it go even though she wants to. She wants to get out of this sorrow, but can't because she's been "in love with her sorrow" for so long. It's like she's trapped within herself. And Lithium is like energy. In this case, energy she needs, but doesn't have. Kinda like motivation. Get it?

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 29th 2009 !⃝


    Songs, to me, can mean many different things to many different people. To me, it could explain some things about the situations I go through,"Lithium, don't want to lock me up inside," to a shy person [Like myself] could mean to them not to want to lock the person that they truly are away from other people to see. "And in the end I guess I had to fall," My interpretation of that in my eyes would be to keep yourself locked up, to be something you don't want to be, to do so many things you wish not to do, and finally to "fall" in the end for it.

    "Can't break through until I let it go, let me go," could be in another person's eyes to wish to be let free, to be themself, and to try so desperately to do it. "I want to stay in love with my sorrow," To another person, it may mean that they find comfort in their tears and sorrow and don't want to let that go. Again, this was just an interpretation from my eyes.

  7. TCPetersonlovescats
    click a star to vote
    May 18th 2009 !⃝

    i think this song is all about how much u love someone and how far u r willing to go to love them, its all about loyalty. and learning to break free from ppl, and to take the feeling of not being loved sometimes.

  8. eddypolockski
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    Apr 2nd 2009 !⃝

    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.

  9. anonymous
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    Jan 5th 2009 !⃝

    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.

  10. karinamoonflow
    click a star to vote
    Nov 6th 2008 !⃝

    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).

  11. ladynugget
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    Oct 24th 2008 !⃝

    This song is not about her taking Lithium, she's said that several times!!

  12. anonymous
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    Sep 21st 2008 !⃝

    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.

  13. anonymous
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    Sep 20th 2008 !⃝

    Lithium is a mood stabilizer and a medication for bipolar disorder-manic episode.. This is a sad song but beautiful.

  14. anonymous
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    Jun 3rd 2008 !⃝

    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.

  15. iiXRaveXii
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    May 9th 2008 !⃝

    "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.




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