H.R.S.A.

This is by far my favorite Blue October Song. I love the passion he can put in such simple words.

HRSA stands for High Risk of Self-Abuse

Thanks, I never knew what that meant. This one makes me cry everytime "they actually knelt down and prayed for me" comes on. Shows how he can't beleive someone else, who doesn't even know him, cares enough to have hope for him, when he has none for himself.

Then "Does self abuse extend your hospital stay? I think I'll lie a bit Lord I won't cry over anything Over anything at all Over anything at all Over anything at all

Like he'll do anyting and say whatever it takes just to get the heck out of there.

My daughter was confined for cutting when she was 14. They treated the kids there with toughlove. I thought it was horrible, like what they needed was compassion. She literally did and said whatever she knew they wanted just to get out of there as soon as possible. But strange thing was, it really worked well, as much as she hated being there, she came out stronger for it.

Favourite song in the whole entire world!! :] I

Interesting thing about this song. My wife's brother went to high school with Justin (HSPVA, High School for the Performing and Visual Arts). At the time, they both liked this girl. There was a friendly "competition" of sorts with each other the girl. Justin won the girl. She was a succubus, draining the life out of the kid. Eventually, he commited himself, wrote a song about her later. To think, it could have been my brother-in-law writing this kind of stuff.

Definitely one of my favorite songs as well!

HRSA? I didn't know that stood for "High Risk of Self Abuse" o.O I always thought it was just a nursing program.

Either way, that would make perfect sense in this scenario.

Basically, from the sound of things, he's been committed to a mental hospital, and he's hating it. He's witnessing the people there, such as his roommate, and realizing how alone they truly are in there; how miserable he is, and that in order to escape it, he's going to have to get himself on-track again, and keep himself under control (Hence the line about lying about his self-abusive nature, and the "I won't cry over anything at all"..) If he does that, he'll leave sooner.

Another side-note, the "walk into group for the show" makes me think of those old-time stories of doctors taking mental patients and doing "operations" on them to "cure them" in front of a group of on-lookers, and in this context, it's as if he's reminding the viewers to remember who these people are, and that some may only be there because they've been wronged, or had their "boundaries" breached.

i didn't understand this song back when i first heard it

but then i spent a week committed into a "behavioral center" (pretty much a mental hospital for minor cases)

where i was finally diagnosed as chronic depressive and slightly bi-polar

and then this song made perfect sense...

some lines more than others

i especially loved the part about the nurse with the lucky charms, and him having trouble focusing through the haze... sleepy? drugged? crying? who knows?

and the whole "walk into group for the show" part... basically heading into group therapy to be entertained by the problems of the fellow patients, looking back, it WAS quite a show at times...

the whole roommate part amused me, my first roommate did spend a lot of time sleeping, and only got up for meals

i find the angels part interesting, were they merely figments of his imagination, or was he referencing nurses or doctors or social workers? maybe images projected onto those trying to help him?

but yes, in order to get out of there, you really have to say and do what they want you to, whether you really feel that way ("changed") or not, which i did

though in a way, it did make me a better person, and now with medication and counseling, i have a much better hold on life

but i think that's one of the reasons i like blue october so much, i really have been through a similar sort of thing

all in all, an amazing song, with a lot of meaning :D

i can relate so much to every single song these guys do, every single one. but this hits really close to home, describes MY stay at a mental hospital perfectly.

I'm fairly certain that this line:

"My belly aches blue Lorazepam flu"

Should actually be:

"My belly aches blue Lorazepam blue"

It makes sense since the 2mg tablets of lorazepam are often round and blue. On all the other lyrics sites I've looked at and after hearing the live version I'm fairly certain that's what it is. The meaning behind the song is pretty obvious, it was written after Justin's girlfriend at the time Amanda left him and he was institutionalized and they wanted to basically put him on suicide watch. A great song :)

It's flu, as in feeling I'll from all the meds. nor would it be great writing to rhyme blue with blue...