Listening to this one a few times, one word comes to mind, denial
Playground school bell rings again,
Rain clouds come to play again,
The bell rings, recess ends, everyone leaves. Rain clouds come, the weather is overcast and cloudy, the words dispirited & depressed come to mind.
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Pretty self explanatory, someone just passed away. This marks the event which this song revolves around. The way it is phrased though makes it sound like the person who this song is about, not the person who died, is shocked by the news. "Posttraumatic stress disorder (commonly referred to by its acronym, PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event which results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else...". I’d say Wikipedia agrees with me.
Hello, I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to,
Hello...
Now, again according to Wikipedia, one of the things PTSD is diagnosed by is “Significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning”. This means they isolate themselves and become loners. This line implies they have a second personality forming, which makes sense, because it keeps them company when no one else does.
If I smile and don't believe,
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream,
Don’t believe, “Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma”. Dreams, “Persistent reexperience”. According to a study done by Calvin S. Hall; “The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Other emotions include pain, abandonment, fear, etc. Negative emotions are much more common than positive ones.”
Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken
A description of how she's reacting to the way other people are acting towards her. This gives me the impression she was really close to the person who just died, that’s why people expect her to feel upset and treat her like she’s "broken". Don’t try to fix me: “avoidance”, “increased arousal…anger”, “impairment in social… areas of functioning”
Hello, I'm the lie, living for you so you can hide,
This and “Soon I know I'll wake from this dream” indicate that she knows she’s in denial and this implies that later on she will confront herself.
Don’t cry...
She’s crying. To cry is to shed tears as a response to an emotional state in humans. So she’s scared and sad. She’s scared of confronting herself about it. Again, she knows she’s in denial. She's sad for an obvious reason, but the fact that she is, indicates that she has become aware of what happened which gives her a reason to cry. However, she actually tells herself not to cry but at this point its not denial anymore. On some psychological level, she feels reassured.
Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping,
So she's awake and conscious. Conscious is defined as knowing and perceiving. So she knows what happened and is past being in shock (having PTSD).
Hello, I'm still here,
It’s her second personality again, it’s still there. Why? The second personality only came about because she was socially isolated, so why is it still there?
All that's left of yesterday...
What went away yesterday? The friend, so the voice is all that’s left of the friend.
Hello
So the friend who died, lives within her…
Wow, who would’ve thought such a seemingly depressing song would have such a happy ending.
The article about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder