Evanescence – Lithium

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  General Comment:I think that this song is about how she is addicted to sorrow. I, like a lot of people here, know the feeling; it's like you don't want to be happy. She could also be talking to an alternate self, since lithium is used to treat depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. "Come to bed, don't make me sleep alone/Just couldn't hide the emptiness, you let it show" could be referring to how she doesn't want the other person to leave, and how something was let slip while she was switched or something. The "I can't hold on to me" is pretty obviously about how she is trying to control the mental disorder or whatever is happening to her. The next line... well, when something's wrong with you, sometimes you don't know it or can't recognize what it is, and I know the feeling very well.
  
  "Always find my place among the ashes..." She's used to being on the bottom, or laying on top of the remnants of something (I have no idea what just said...)
  
  So, yeah. That's what I got.

  Flagged SpokenMindon March 25, 2012   Link

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• +3
  My Interpretation:To me, this song is much more than a ''metaphor for a realationship gone bad''. It represents the strugle with an illness (BPD). I am a bipolar musician. Before i was diagnosed and medicated, I would be easily inspired to write songs. Ever since I've been taken lithium, I feel like a different person, I can't write music, and I have developed a tendency to not care about anything. Sometimes, i'll stop taking my medication for a few days just to get to be myself. But then mood swings start catching up to me and things don't go too well (fighting with my best friends, missing work, etc...). For long I've wanted to drop the lithium completely, but I feel like I wouldn't be able to survive the consequences. This song represents my situation perfectly, someone who wants to ''stay in love with their sorrow'' or ''let it go'' but keeps calling back the lithium because she can't have a normal life without it.
  
  Yes, I know Amy isn't bipolar, but I got a feeling this is what happened to Ben.

  Flag moosnatoron October 30, 2011   Link

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    This is EXACTLY the meaning I got from this song. I don't have bipolar, but I've worked with many people with this condition during my Psych rotation. Sometimes, I've felt that we are doing them more harm with drugs than help. But then again, they need to lead a normal life as well. So I think I can understand what moosnator is saying. And I think that is what Amy is trying to say as well.

    Flag Kozon June 26, 2012  
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  General Comment:Bipolar Disorder is a bitch.
  
  And I couldn't think of two better music videos to show my wife to let her know how I feel sometimes.
  
  Thank you Amy Lee for writing Good Enough and Lithium.
  You are an Angel.

  Flag sixty9teaon September 28, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:Well, Lithium is actually an antidepressant in the world of pharmaceuticals. I feel like Amy uses the idea of lithium as a metaphor for her attempts to find happiness in the few good instances in relationship full of sadness and turmoil.
  
  Her "lithium" is the praise and love her significant other gives her on occasion. Thats what she clings to to justify being in such a relationship.
  
  "Lithium-Don't want to 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's battling with herself. She uses the good moments as the reason for staying but realizes that she's only punishing herself by staying in the relationship when she's just trapped anymore.
  
  
  That's just how I see it. :)
  
  I absolutely love this song. Beautifully written and beautifully done. Could listen to it forever!

  Flag missmarie229on September 25, 2011   Link

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    I don't think it's a metaphor, with all due respect.
    
    Lithium and Good Enough by Written by Amy Lee
    
    Bipolar Disorder is a bitch, trust me.

    Flag sixty9teaon September 28, 2011  
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  General Comment:Lythium is most commonly used to treat Bipolar disorder. Many people who have this disorder stop their medications because they like the manic high they get and they miss it. Judging by the lyrics I would say that she has some personal experience with the drug and disorder.

  Flag Targonon September 06, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:When I researched this song before, she was talking about how drugs messed you up.

  Flag Millieexoon August 22, 2011   Link

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• +2
  My Opinion:Emotional numbness is something that I've been dealing with for many many years. Spontaneously crying in a public place for no reason, with no real emotion behind it is disturbing and difficult to understand. That's how I've been while on Lithium. I've become numb to most (if not all) of my emotions, but the ghosts of those emotions still remain. I smile at inappropriate times, cry for no reason, etc.
  
  I've had long-lasting depression for many years with sporadic episodes of mania that don't last all that long. I've been like this for close to 10 years. So I definitely know how it feels to be depressed. You become locked into one way of thinking and it becomes comfortable. I fell in love with my sorrow and couldn't really love anything else. When I started finally seeking treatment, it was all very different and I went through many medication changes and many attempts at suicide.
  
  This song seriously strikes deep at my heart because I can relate so well. Waking up one day while medicated and thinking "I'd rather be miserable right now. I feel right when I'm miserable." I'm still in love with my sorrow and I cannot pull away no matter how hard I try with drugs, therapy...nothing really seems to work.
  
  The song goes from acoustic moments to parts that are very aggressive which symbolize the depressive and manic episodes that encompass bipolar disorder. I think that was a very nice touch.The chorus almost seems angry and stressed, while the verses are very depressed and speaking of depressing things, which is very fitting for this disease.
  
  I know I didn't cover everything but that's what this song means to me.

  Flag LithiumCarbonateon May 23, 2011   Link

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  Song Meaning:This song is about depression but in the song she definitely mentions another person multiple times, and in references that could also include suppression. "Come to be, don't make me sleep alone. Couldn't hide the emptiness, you let it show. Never wanted it to be so cold." Here she is saying that she feels disconnected from this person but needs his physical embodiment beside her, that his physical presence is what she's holding on to. "Just didn't drink enough to say you love me." Here she is revealing that she knows he doesn't truly love her, as his declarations come with intoxication, but she has grown to see that as normal. "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." Here she is saying that instead of standing up for herself she "forgives" him so he won't leave her. Ashes are what's left after a fire burns a material. This could symbolize a love that has consumed her life and left her. Yet she "finds her place among the ashes" because it shows that there was once an actual fire, or love. Lithium may represent the suppression of strong feelings, of her sense of self as seen with "I can't hold on to me. Wonder what's wrong with me?" "Lithium, don't wanna lock me up inside."

  Flag perception92on April 09, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I am changing my opinion on this song....
  
  I think this song runs very close with Bipolar disorder - regardless of what it was meant to express from Amy..you have to be there to understand....NOW, with that said...
  
  I do not believe that this song was written by Amy with any direct relation to Lithium or Bipolar disorder...the fact that it runs so close shows what a great musician can do and a great writer...but she wrote it because being afraid to be happy because sadness is all you know runs very close to bipolar fluctuations....when you are sad or numb, you cannot hurt anymore then you already are; however, if you are happy you are opening yourself up to the possibility of getting hurt and THAT is what the song was meant for...many many people are pessimistic about happiness and think if you are so far up with joy you have nowhere left to go but down...she wrote the chorus when she was 16 but the song came together after Shaun....

  Flag Jelleephishon December 29, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I'm pretty sure this is about the mood stabilizer, Lithium. It's a medication used in the treatment of Bi-polar Disorder.
  I have taken it before, I know how she feels I've been on meds since first grade for ADHD, OCD, Bi-polar, Depression,and Anxiety disorder. Mental Illness runs in my family and I was the offspring that got every single disorder in one lucky me. I'm now going into my sophomore year of College. So at times when I was on the medications I didn't even feel like myself because these medicines were almost controlling me (im not a schizophrenic im not paranoid) but they change the chemicals in your brain its science thats how they work but they changed me into someone who was not me. and half the time i just want to get off those damn pills and be who I am again. The real person is in me somewhere masked by all the chemicals and things being changed and messed up. but of course its been 14 years so alot of me is too far away to ever get back

  Flag snow7caton July 29, 2010   Link

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