This Poet Wrote an Ode to the Drug She's Not Ashamed to Take

It started with poetry about everyday objects that often go unnoticed. But soon, poet and singer-songwriter Shira Erlichman found herself fixated on one object in particular that certainly doesn’t get a lot of public affection — lithium.

“When I finally found lithium (See? Doesn’t this already sound like a love story?) it was as if my head was emptied of fog and an internal gentleness/clarity ensued,” Erlichman told The Huffington Post.

Now, her “Ode to Lithium” series attempts to destigmatize mental health issues, lifting the shame that sometimes covers those who use medication to treat mental illnesses.

“Stigma creates a climate of silence, shame, and death. When I say death I mean death,” she told HuffPost. “People suffer alone until they can’t bear it, and then they break. Stigma perpetuates a cycle of private struggle and risk.”

Watch the first poem in her series, “Ode to Lithium #1,” below: