definitely about eating disorders. "mia" and "ana" are slang terms used by people with eating disorders to refer to "buliMIA" and "ANorexiA". Then there's the stuff about seeing the person's spine, hunger strikes, doctor's...also, the mindset of an anorexic is that they just want to disappear, i.e. "won't anybody here just let you disappear?" great song.

i agree its about an eating disorder but i think you really can interperate it in any way before i looked up this site i thought i was about wanting something really badly and working for it really hard but then you cant do it but you really have passion for this thing and it helps you survive whether it be singing painting acting something along those lines
any thoughts?

Lots of people have commented on the line, "it was Ego who was flying the banner," but everybody has remarked on the line in terms of Ego being a person's feeling of importance and self-worth. One thing which I found fairly interesting is that in the actual song, "Ego" is capitalized, and the phrase used is not "the ego," simply "Ego" -- it is being used as a proper noun. When used this way, "Ego" no longer means a person's level of self-esteem, but it is a Freudian term for the conscious mind. The verse is saying (I think) that the eating disorders had started as simply a determined effort to follow a Grand Tradition, to be the youngest, most recent generation to continue the custom of starving oneself for beauty. Eventually, though, they found that it was "Ego who was flying the banner" -- it had become a fight led by the conscious mind, a fight in which they were fully aware of what they were doing, to become and remain thin.

Also, another interpretation which I haven't yet seen here: when I first heard the song, I took the last line, "and even the nights, they could get better," as a defense, on the part of the person with the eating disorder, for not stopping. I thought it was saying that even though the nights suck now, that life in general sucks now, it could get better once the targe weight was reached, once the goal was accomplished, as long as you just keep trying. (For the record, I know it sounds like I'm an advocate of eating disorders -- I'm not. This is just how I happened to interpret the song.) Also, in the lines before that one, Ted Leo sounds angry about the continuation of eating disorders, so the last line, if taken from Ted Leo's point of view (if he's speaking to someone else, not of himself), could seem almost sarcastic and mocking, sort of like it's saying "Yeah, it'll get better, as long as you just keep trying, keep losing weight -- psh, yeah, right. Dude, it's always gonna suck."

These are just a few of my thoughts on the meaning of the song which I haven't yet seen posted here. Hope they make sense!

yeah i agree with the first person that commented this and said mia refers to bulimia and ann and anna refer to anorexia. i don't think they are supposed to be friends as that fionar person said. either way, it's an amazing song.

Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive.

i always looked at that as they've forgotten what its like to eat junk food, and the anorexia might be eating the person alive, but it's preventing suicide or something.

Fighting for the smallest goal: to get a little self-control.

Oh Ted Leo. You know me so well.

holy shit, you always know that a song is good if it can spark so much disscussion, so many different views. Ted Leo is amazing, i'm going to listen to all his songs a bit more carefully in the future.

well i doubt this song needs to be torn apart any further, but regardless...

it strikes me not as being about a person dealing with an eating disorder head-on and struggling with the ramifications in that sense; rather, it seems to concern someone who denies that his/her behavior is indicative of any kind of "condition," preferring instead to see it as a grand, self-sacrificing act that will lead to personal growth.

there is a distinction here:
a friend of mine once claimed that she had read up on modes of altering consciousness or whathave you and found that starving oneself can lead to "mind-expanding" hallucinations. so she attempted doing this, all the while assuring everyone that it wasn't a ploy to get thin, but rather some kind of psychological experiment to obtain clarity and/or perspective. clearly, though, it was an eating disorder, even if she refused to see it that way. hence, "fighting food to find transcendence," "fighting for the smallest goal: to get a little self-control" (note that "self control" IS the goal in itself, not getting thin. losing weight is the means to the end here), and the clincher: "don't forget what it really means to / hunger strike when you don't really need to." this last line is basically saying, look, despite whatever pretenses you're going about this on, at the end of the day you've got an eating disorder.

also, to those who think ted leo is speaking from experience... i'm not at all familiar with the slightest details of his personal life, but i would venture to say that the inclusion of "me" serves a primarily literary purpose, if any. "me and mia, ann and ana" - it has a nicer cadence than "mark and mia," or something else along those lines.

I hate to admit it but this was how I discovered Ted Leo. I was bulimic for 8 years and I definitely got into the eating disorder "subculture" online. It was pathetic and sadly necessary. It's still awesome to have a song like this that is intelligent and doesn't glamorize it or belittle the disorder.
It's female adolescence these days. I can't think of any girl I knew growing up who didn't fixate on her weight because so many other areas in her life were messed up and there was no one she trusted to talk to about it.
It's not about being pretty or whatever. Anyone who believes that hasn't researched it enough. I looked and felt like crap the whole time. When people noticed I lost weight, I felt paranoid and resentful.
And most "anorexic" celebrities aren't anorexic, they're strung out on coke and other amphetamines. Girls admire skinny celebs. Maybe they'd feel a little different if they knew how they really got that way.

"me and Mia, Ann and Ana" does NOT refer to friends, Lerxs. Anorexia is "Ana", bulimia is "Mia".

This song is incredible. It's crafting is beautiful.

I saw some one comment on the music video and I just watched it and i wanted to talk about that but...

in the video he is litterally "above food" becuase he is above the diner. They show the diner and a person walks in right then and that person is eating but ted leo isnt. (I saw it as him being the person he is explaining in the song)

Then the video takes a twist and he walks out...everone confused he goes and orders food and eats it. Then another ted in different clothes goes up and sings....

Part of him wants to be down there eating but the other part is up there singing the song telling of his eating disorder....


Maybe i waaaaay over thought the video but thats what i got from it

I've read all the comments. Kudos to all who researched eating disorders. Certainly on the surface the song seems like it is about eating disorders. However, I've listened to Ted Leo, and he's a pretty clever lyracist. I think somehow the eating disorder is a metaphor for fighting for mental control or life in general:

Even the nights that could get better.
And even the days aren't all that bad.
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing

If I read those lines, I can see they could be about an eating disorder or anorexia or a diet, whatever. But somehow it has mental and life issues undertones. A great song all around!

The lyrics are:

And as always we were on a mission
Latest in a grand tradition

Also, he says:

And I'm gonna wake up fighting
Cause more and more it seems the right thing.

Also...

Cigarettes and speed for livin'
Sleeping pills to feel forgiven

"It's not a "pat you on the back and tell you how to live your life" song. It's just a look in the eye, and if we connect - if you know that look - then perhaps we have understood each other. Yes, I have my wishes for you all and for myself, but they are never commands... and I will leave that at that.
I am going to say, however, that if you truly believe that "you can never be too rich or too thin," then you are missing the point. In no way, shape, or form, do I support the seemingly eternal materialistic trend toward the Paris Hiltonization of life. In my experience, the issue is not an attempt to be a part of that world - that world is not the answer, and the "never too rich or too thin" ideology is in EXACT opposition to the vision of a life that I have been trying to imagine for my entire life as one who imagines.
Honestly? This whole thing brings me to tears. But not for me or my dumb-ass song - only because I do know how hard you try.
As platitudinous as this all sounds, it's hard out there, and you gotta do what you gotta do.
But if I could ask one thing of ANYBODY, it would just be to treat yourself right while you're doin' it.
WE'RE better when we have you around."
-Off of Tedleo.com

Just thought it was interesting.

@melissadynamite

That's definetly what I was thinking.

When I make myself throw up, I get extremely bloodshot, and people at school always ask me why I was crying. It's the hardest part to get away with.

xoxox

I'm sure it's actually about eating disorders, but the first time I heard it, I thought it was about someone trying to get off drugs. Part of it was because I was mishearing the lyrics, but that's ok. Like I said, this isn't what the song was originally about, but what I heard in it.

"As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm but ohh,
I was cold"

When you're in withdrawal, you get cold and shaky.

"Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control."

You're trying to control your need for the drug.

"Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive."

I thought this was the person no longer being able to take the world without drugs, so they take them again. The last 2 lines are how taking drugs can help you deal with stuff. The drugs eat you alive, but they're the only way you stop from suicide.

"It was Ego who was flying the banner,
Me and Mia, Ann and Ana, ohh,
we'd been unkind."

They alienated their friends because of their addiction.

"And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing"

After a week of being off the drugs, they seem to be the best option.

"Won't anybody here just let you disappear?"

Disappear=die quietly out of the world

"Sick to death of my dependence,
Fighting food to find transcendence.
Fighting to survive.
More dead, but more alive.
Cigarettes and speed to live,
And sleeping pills to feel forgiven.
All that you contrive,
And all that you're deprived."

The first line is obvious, and in the second line, I heard "food" as "through". It's easy to see the connection to drugs in the rest of the stanza, until the last 2 lines. Those are basically talking about the reason they do drugs: everything they try to be that they aren't, and everything that they never had.

"They'll never see so clear."

This describes how simple and clear things seem when you're high.

I agree with Fevers et Mirrors, actually. Fionar's interpretation was a little bit stereotypical, and this song is anything but a stereotypical portrayal of an eating disordered mind. In my opinion, it describes the various moral dilemmas and the painful ambivalence that a person struggling to remain motivated to recover unsupported may experience.

As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm but ohh,
I was cold

Fionar was right here; eating disorders cause your internal body temperature to go nuts. However, this wouldn't necessarily refer to a low body weight were it not for the next line:

and though I must have looked a half a person,
to tell the tale in my own version,
It was only then that I felt whole.

"I must have looked a half a person" - this does refer to weight loss. However, I don't think that "[feeling] whole" refers to starvation. This song has always struck me as being about bulimia, not anorexia; "then. . . I felt whole" could easily refer to a stage when the narrator was completely immersed in eating disordered behaviours, after it had become very serious but before it began to take a toll on the body. From personal experience, I know that sometimes it can feel almost comfortable to reach that point - the eating disorder controls your life, but you're almost glad because you're tired of doing it yourself.

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it

For me, this line evokes strong feelings of ambivalence. When you're trying to recover and struggling with your body image, one part of you is saying, "You know how to fix this. Just lose some weight!" Of course, the recovery factor isn't present for everyone who will relate to this song, but basically, this is the voice of the eating disorder.

Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.

I don't think that "smallest goal" refers to weight loss. This is one of the lines that, to me, seems to relate much more to bulimia and the binge-purge cycle than calorie restriction behaviours. When you are caught up in a binge-purge cycle, you can feel completely ashamed of yourself and worthless, because to "gain a little self-control" is such a simple thing - particularly when you only need enough self-control to prevent yourself from gorging yourself on everything in sight and then puking your guts out, to put it bluntly. People who tell you to "just stop" only amplify this feeling.

I know how hard you try.
I see it in your eyes.

Pretty self-explanatory, although I like melissadynamite's connection to bloodshot eyes from purging.

Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive.

Here, I very much disagree with Fionar. I don't think that these lines refer to seeking help for an ED, but rather to being in the grips of one. "Call your friends 'cause we've forgotten what it's like to eat what's rotten" - unfortunately, in today's society, most people experience disordered eating to some extent - I mean, I know very few high school girls who haven't tried dieting at some point in their life, whether or not their "diets" ever were effective, or were even carried out. This is a wake-up call to the narrator's friends, who passively try to offer help but don't realise how serious the problem is. "What's eating you alive might help you to survive": to me, this is another line about ambivalence. You want to recover, but even though the eating disorder "eats you alive", you need it as a psychological crutch to deal with life.

We went on, as we were on a mission,
latest in a Grand Tradition.

"Grand Tradition": eating disorders are not new. They are deeply rooted in human society and psychology, and the narrator is just the latest one to add to the numbers.

Ohh, what did we find?
It was Ego who was flying the banner,
Me and Mia, Ann and Ana, ohh,
we'd been unkind.

Here, the narrator takes on the voice of the eating disorder again. To me, the line "Me and Mia, Ann and Ana" seems to be more poetic than literal, referring to eating disorders in general. "Ego": eating disorders blot out the rest of the world. Sometimes you can't see anything beyond yourself.

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.
I see it in your eyes,
I see it in your spine,

Same as before, and I agree with Fionar that "I see it in your spine" is likely to refer to protruding bones due to weight loss; however, it can also be interpreted as having "backbone" in a metaphorical sense. Having an eating disorder can cause you to become remarkably stubborn. The ED twists your mind, and can cause you to defend your sickness to the death - sometimes quite literally.

Even the nights, they could get better.
And even the days aren't all that bad.
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing

Lasping back into eating disordered behaviours after attempting to recover, you try to convince yourself that it's not actually that bad.

Won't anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom nor dad,
But me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Know how hard you try,
Don't you see it in my eyes?

"Disappearing" does refer, metaphorically, to wasting away, but not just that. As previously stated, this song is primarily about bulimia, not anorexia. To "disappear" could also refer to leaving behind normal life, just becoming completely wrapped up in your eating disorder. In my personal struggle with bulimia, I quite frequently feel irritated at the routines of normal life; I find myself wishing that other people would just ignore me and let the bulimic behaviours take over.

Sick to death of my dependence,
Fighting food to find trancendence.
Fighting to survive
More dead, but more alive.

These lines describe a variety of the different emotional struggles involved with bulimia. You get completely sick of food after a while, even though you can't stop eating it, and "fighting" can refer not eating and/or purging after eating. Food and eating behaviours begin to symbolise really weird things - anything from weakness, to appeasing one's parents, to manipulating social situations... anything. "Fighting to survive/More dead but more alive" - in the grips of an ED, you barely feel like you can count yourself amongst the living.

Cigarettes and speed for living,
Sleeping pills to feel forgiven.
All that you contrive,
And all that you're deprived.

You need something to keep you going through the day, something to help let go at night, something to keep you alive, something to keep you wanting to die, because for some reason you can't survive without a metaphorical deathwish.

All the bourgeois social angels
Telling you you've got to change
Don't have any idea
They'll never see so clear.

I don't think that this is talking about the media, but rather the people around the sufferer who want them to recover but don't fully understand the illness. These would be the ones who say it's selfish, say it's stupid, say it's shameful, say you can "just stop".

But don't forget what it really means to
hunger strike,
When you don't really need to
Some are dying for a cause, but that don't make it yours.
And even the nights, they could get better...

Here, depriving oneself of food via an eating disorder is compared to political hunger strikes. Some people have a damn good reason to stop eating, but you don't even need a reason - you can do it all by yourself. I think that the line "Some are dying for a cause, but that don't make it yours" has to do with what the eating disordered behaviours mean to the sufferer. At first, you pretend that it's about the food, the weight. Once you get in deeper, you realise that that's not the case at all. You can see the psychological links: how you starve to disconnect yourself from the world, perhaps, or purge to feel like you're getting rid of some sort of poison in your body. But eventually, you pass that stage, as well; you do it almost out of habit. You're completely addicted to the behaviours, whether or not you have a reason any more.

Anyway. This is an incredible song. As tbot said, it takes my breath away every time I hear it.

get help

What I though the whole reference to "even the nights could get better" was to do with the sufferers feeling they could always improve on upon how much weight they lose.. because at night your not consuming any food but they feel eating nothing could still be improved upon.

I just found out a friend had bulimia, and this song helped me understand its not actually about fat and skinny.
x

As I was walking through a life one morning
The sun was out, the air was warm but ohh,
I was cold,

[[When you are extremely thin you tend to be colder because you have fat to keep you warm, either that or the person is trying to burn off calories by keeping colder, your body burns calories and fat when kept at colder temperatures.]]

and though I must have looked a half a person,
to tell the tale in my own version,
It was only then that I felt whole.

[[Half a person refers to be so irregularly thin that you are half the size of an average person. In the second half he’s justifying what he’s doing, that others may see it as wrong but it’s the only way her feels ‘whole’.]]

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it

[[Saying that you have to work towards your goals, in this case being skinny. It wont just happen if you don’t, ‘get up and be it]]

Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.

[[Fighting against urges to eat, he wasn’t to stay in control of his body.]]

I know how hard you try.
I see it in your eyes.

[[When you ‘purge’ your food, for those of you who don’t know purge is throw up, and the substance is difficult to get back up your eyes water from trying to get it back up. He’s basically saying that he knows the measures are extreme and that you try hard in every aspect of wight loss.]]

Call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten,

[[This part is telling you to get help, because you’ve forgotten that it’s okay to eat and everything seems rotten to you.]]

and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive.

[[What’s eating you alive it their weight and the fact that it never gets better, and the fact that they don’t think they need to eat and it could be killing them. This part is also saying. GET HELP! EAT A FUCKING CHEESE DANISH OR SOMETHING!]]

We went on, as we were on a mission,
latest in a Grand Tradition.

[[Saying that he is on a mission to lose weight and his unhealthy eating habit has gone on for so long that between him and “Ann” its been like a tradition.]]

Ohh, what did we find?
It was Ego who was flying the banner,

[[Ego is their reason for doing this, they want to be beautiful and thin so they feel better about themselves.]]

Me and Mia, Ann and Ana, ohh,
we'd been unkind.

[[Mia is the abbreviation for bulimia and Ana is the abbreviation for Anorexia. They’ed been unkind to their bodys by making themselves unhealthy, basically they’re saying it’s a self destroying and unhealthy lifestyle.]]

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.

[[same as before]]

I see it in your eyes,
I see it in your spine,

[[Top part same as before, bottom is saying that they are so skinny that you can see their bones through their skin.]]

But call your friends, 'cause we've forgotten
What it's like to eat what's rotten
And what's eating you alive,
Might help you to survive

Even the nights that could get better.
And even the days aren't all that bad.
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing

[[Saying that even if its hard at times after a week you get results and are basically renewed and think there is nothing wrong with it]]

Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then get up and be it
Fighting for the smallest goal:
To gain a little self-control

[[same as before]]

Won't anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom nor dad,
But me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Know how hard you try,
Don't you see it in my eyes?

[[The singer is saying that doctors and your parents don’t understand because they’ve never gone through it, they don’t know the pain of wanting to be skinny and the singer means by “disappearing” he could just be left alone. While him and his friend have gone through it so they know what your going through.]]

Sick to death of my dependence,
Fighting food to find transcendence.

[[Saying that your dependence on food for things likes comfort and trying to overcome and achieve more weight loss.]]

Fighting to survive.
More dead, but more alive.
Cigarettes and speed for livin,
Sleeping pills to feel forgiven.
All that you contrive,
And all that you're deprived.


[[Cigarettes and speed, especially speed, control cravings and make you not hungry. And since they are so jacked up on speed, which makes you jittery, they need sleeping pills to fall back asleep.]]

All the bourgeois social angels
Telling you you've got to change.
Don't have any idea.
They'll never see so clear.

[[The bourgeois social angels are people like Nicole Ritchie, Paris Hilton, and models who are extremely thin but disapprove of eating disorders. (They all have a commercial or something.) that tell you that it’s not right and you need to change.]]

But don't forget what it really means to
hunger strike,
When you don't really need to
Some are dying for the cause, but that don't make it yours.
And even the nights, they could get better

[[The singer is saying not to forget it means nothing to hunger strike without a reason. People hunger strike for political reasons and whatnot, like stop killing animals, wars, genocide, etc. but if you have no reason to do it there isn’t a point.]]
:]

being someone who has experimented with bulimia and anorexia, i completely agree it's about eating disorders. my favorite song in the entire world.

one of my favorite songs.
i think it's obvious what it's about; eating disorders.
he breaks it down & describes it very nicely.
especially the part about everyone not understanding, but your disorder does.
i also like the chorus, fighting for the smallest goal, to gain a little self control.
that is the main reason e.d.'s develop.

it's so ironic with the upbeat tempo, and the way he sings sounds happy but the lyrics are so sad. :)
he's an amazing writer.

This song has already been picked apart a million times, but as a sufferer of bulimia for the past two years, there are a couple things that I personally noticed that I haven't seen addressed.
First of all, I'd like to point out that though anorexia is mentioned several times, the title of the song is actually Me and Mia, which leads me to believe it deals more with bulimia than anything else. Something no one else has pointed out is that bulimia is not only throwing up and taking laxatives. Another form of purging is actually to fast, taking on the tendencies of anorexia for whatever period of time. The difference is that anorexics will eat something small every couple of days and then return to the fast. Bulimics generally break this fast with a binge, which they then purge. Its a vicious cycle.
Anyway, this is my take on all of it.

The sun was out, the air was warm but ohh,
I was cold,
and though I must have looked a half a person,
It was only then that I felt whole.

The first lines are obvious: a quick drop in weight will make you cold in any enviroment. From a personal standpoint, I know that I have trained my body to embrace the feeling of hunger. I feel much better when I am hungry, or just after a binge, or basically anytime I am empty, than when I am full.


Fighting for the smallest goal:
to get a little self-control.
I know how hard you try.
and what's eating you alive,
might help you to survive.

EDs are all about control. Especially with bulimia, its about the self control, because when you lose that self control and binge, it leads to such a feeling of self-loathing and shame that you must rid yourself of the offensive food. Its starts with the "smallest" goal, something like today I will skip lunch. If you can meet that goal, you feel empowered, you skip dinner. Then you don't eat the next day. Or the next. Its all mental, mind over matter. And obviously, EDs are self destructive. You are, in effect, killing yourself, and that hunger will keep you alive if you give into it. Its the choice between being thin and being healthy, and someone with an ED choses to be thin.


Even the nights that could get better.
And even the days aren't all that bad.
And after a week of fighting,
As more and more it seems the right thing

Personally, and from those I know with EDs, when you fast, the first day is the worst. That's when the hunger is consuming and hurts the most, and its hardest to ignore. If you can get past that, going for days and days is easy as pie. The biting hunger just becomes a dull ache and its much easier to ignore. It begins to feel right, the emptiness, and you feel good that you're fighting and winning.


Won't anybody here just let you disappear?
Not doctors, nor your mom nor dad,
But me and Mia, Ann and Ana
Know how hard you try,
Don't you see it in my eyes?

This is more a problem for sufferers of anorexia than bulimics. Its hard to hide the fact that you don't ever eat, and while seriously ill people don't broadcast their disorder, there's usually a certain amount of pride that comes with mastering your own urges. Bulimia, on the other hand, is usually a very secret and shameful struggle, one that is kept hidden for long periods of time. After two years of suffering, no one knows that I have this disorder. The line about the doctors and parents is different in both cases. With ana, this is a literal problem. With mia, this is a problem that will have to be faced if they ever admit the problem, and the fear keeps it hidden. Most people with EDs become so afraid of gaining weight, and the ED is the only way they know of dealing with food, that they fear being discovered and being forced to deal with it in a healthy way. They would rather be knowingly unhealthy than be "fat."


Sick to death of my dependence,
Fighting food to find trancendence.
Fighting to survive.
More dead, but more alive.

ED suffers are completely consumed with an obsession with food. It dictates their lives, how they feel about themselves and others, their moods. Everything. I have never met a person who liked the dependency, but we know no other way. They may be dead because they are dying, but it makes them feel alive.


Cigarettes and speed to live,
And sleeping pills to feel forgiven.
All that you contrive,
And all that you're deprived.

Without your body burning fuel, energy supplements often become necessary. That's where the cigarettes and speed comes in. All that you contrive is the distorted way that people with EDs see themselves, and all that you're deprived is obviously food.
Now, I personally differ on my interpretation of the sleeping pill line. When I'm fighting off a binge, my cravings get worse at night. Sometimes, to deal with this, I would take sleeping pills. If I'm knocked out, I can't eat. I know I'm not the only person who does this.


All the bourgeois social angels
Telling you you've got to change.
Don't have any idea.
They'll never see so clear.

Basically, people left and right tell you you must change, you must be healthy, you must eat. But someone who has never had an ED could never understand the behavior, or the way it makes you feel.


I don't think this song is pro- or anti-ED. I think it's just a portrayal of a person who has a disorder, and its open for the listener to see it as a pro or a con. Some may find it horrifying. It makes me feel understood. It all depends on who you are.
I adore this song.

" Do you believe in something beautiful?
Then, get up and be it "

THAT PART. It means get up from the toilet bowl and try to be somebody else than the bulimic person. Powerful song. Very powerful.

listening to the song, I thought it was about addiction, like someone else who wrote earlier; Pretty sure its about erating disorders, now, though. Must be some psychosomatic connections there. Could have sworn he was describing a (or my former) drug addiction.