The song's lyrics share similarities with those of the 2005 Nine Inch Nails song "Only", from the album "With Teeth". The opening verse of "Down in It" contains the lyric "Just then a tiny little dot caught my eye," while the second verse of "Only" opens with the lyric "Well, the tiniest little dot caught my eye." In "Only", Trent elaborates on what that dot was ("a scab trying to seal itself shut"), while both songs also include several references to personal growth and change: "fading away" from the kind of person the protagonist once assumed himself to be and an uncertainty as to who they will inevitably become.