Top 10 Empowering Eating Disorder Recovery Songs

Music can be healing. It can make us feel understood, less alone, more hopeful. In these ways, listening to music is an essential form of self-care for many people, including people recovering from eating disorders.

Below are ten songs that I have found incredibly empowering or relatable for me on my recovery journey. They touch on body image and other insecurities, trauma, self-harm, suicide, addiction, mental health, and more.

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1. Scars to Your Beautiful – Alessia Cara

Know-It-All – 2015

Alessia Cara’s 2015 song, “Scars to Your Beautiful,” describes my experience with an eating disorder, specifically anorexia, better than I could.

Cara describes how it starts for many — wanting to be perceived positively by others. Negative comments about me and my body from the man I was dating triggered anorexia for me.

Then she describes the behaviors: “she’s starving…She says…’What’s a little bit of hunger? I can go a little while longer.'” Her lyrics mimic the eating disorder voice in my head that convinced me to starve rather than eat.

She goes on to indicate the consequences of those behaviors. “She fades away.” Likewise, I lost myself. My body began to shrink, I became weak and cold, my memory and cognitive functioning were impaired, and my personality’s best aspects began to disappear.

By this point in the song, I could genuinely relate to the person’s suffering described. Cara pivots and brings hope to the character in the song, and to me as well. She explains that other people can see the character’s light, worth, and beauty even though she cannot yet.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

She just wants to be beautiful.
She goes unnoticed; she knows no limits.
She craves attention; she praises an image.
She prays to be sculpted by the sculptor.
Oh, she don’t see the light that’s shining
Deeper than the eyes can find it.
Maybe we have made her blind,
So she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away
‘Cause covergirls don’t cry after their face is made.

But there’s a hope that’s waiting for you in the dark.
You should know you’re beautiful just the way you are,
And you don’t have to change a thing. The world could change its heart.
No scars to your beautiful. We’re stars, and we’re beautiful.

She has dreams to be an envy, so she’s starving.
You know, covergirls eat nothing.
She says, “Beauty is pain, and there’s beauty in everything.”
“What’s a little bit of hunger?”
“I can go a little while longer.” She fades away.
She don’t see she’s perfect; she don’t understand she’s worth it,
Or that beauty goes deeper than the surface, oh, oh.
So, to all the girls that’s hurting, let me be mirror-
Help you see a little bit clearer the light that shines within.

Alessia Cara, Scars to Your Beautiful

2. Rise Up – Andra Day

Cheers to the Fall – 2015

In Andra Day’s 2015 song, “Rise Up,” I could relate to the exhaustion of fighting the eating disorder every single day in recovery. In recovery, we often want to give up, and it feels like it would be more relieving to let the eating disorder take our lives than to continue living in the battle. Sometimes we slip or even relapse, but we rise up and fight again.

I will rise up, despite the aches, a thousand times again. I will not let anorexia hold me down.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

You’re broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry-go-round,
And you can’t find the fighter.
But I see it in you, so we gonna walk it out.
And move mountains.

Andra Day, Rise Up

3 & 4. Body Love, Pt. 1 & Body Love, Pt. 2 – Mary Lambert

Welcome to the Age of My Body – 2013

I think these songs speak for themselves if you listen carefully, but I will give a few warnings.

Trigger warning: These songs include mentions of self-harm and suicide.

Language warning: Please note that these songs have adult language, so if if children are around, you may want to put in/on earbuds/headphones or wait to listen until you are alone.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

The funny thing is women like us don’t shoot.
We swallow pills, still wanting to be beautiful at the morgue,
Still proceeding to put on make-up,
Still hoping that the mortician finds us f*ckable and attractive.
_____
The time has come for us to reclaim our bodies.
Our bodies deserve more than to be war-torn collateral
Offering this f*ckdom as a pathetic means to say, “I only know how to exist when I am wanted.”
_____
My body is home.
_____
Take your hands over your bumpy lovebody naked,
And remember the first time you touched someone
With the sole purpose of learning all of them
Touched them because the light was pretty on them
And the dust in the sunlight danced the way your heart did.
Touch yourself with a purpose.
Your body is the most beautiful royal.
_____
Lay your hands flat and feel the surface of scarred skin.
I once touched a tree with charred limbs.
The stump was still breathing,
But the tops were just ashy remains.
I wonder what it’s like to come back from that
Because sometimes I feel a forest fire erupting from my wrists
And the smoke signals sent out are the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen
Love your body the way your mother loved your baby feet
And brother, arm-wrapping shoulders, and remember
This is important.
You are worth more than who you f*ck.
You are worth more than a waistline.
You are worth more than beer bottles displayed like drunken artifacts.
You are worth more than any naked body could proclaim in shadows,
More than a man’s whim or your father’s mistake.
You are no less valuable as a size 16 than a size 4.
You are no less valuable as a 32A than a 36C.
Your sexiness is defined by concentric circles within your wood.
It is wisdom.
You are a godd*amn tree stump with leaves sprouting out
Reborn.

Mary Lambert, Body Love (Part 1 and 2)

5. Clifford is Not Too Big – The Doubleclicks

The Book Was Better – 2019

The Doubleclicks’ 2019 song, “Clifford is Not Too Big” is about not fitting in. They explain that the problem is not with the unique person; the problem is with society for not accepting that person and welcoming them. They use body size as an example, which relates to the struggle of people with eating disorders. Often we are trying to change our bodies to feel a sense of belonging. I think the song is advocating for more inclusive representation and accessibility, too. The Doubleclicks manage to say all of this in an analogy about Clifford, the Big Red Dog.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

Shut up the voices that tell you that you’re the wrong size
Or say that you’re too specific to represent.
The problem comes not from their subject
But just from their eyes,
And I say there’s nothing unlovable about a giant.
_____
Clifford is not too big.
No he’s not.
Clifford is not too tall.
No he’s not.
If Clifford doesn’t fit,
Then the world is too small.

Shut up the voices that say you take up too much space
Whenever your shoes are just tall or your dress is just tight.
I don’t agree that there’s anything wrong with your face.
No matter the scale, my friend, I think that you fit just right.

The Doubleclicks, Clifford is Not Too Big

6. Sober – Demi Lovato

Single – 2018

In her 2018 single, “Sober,” Demi Lovato sings about her experience with relapses in her own recovery journeys, including her experience with alcoholism. Like all people trying to recover from substance abuse disorders or eating disorders, we cannot possibly explain our slips and relapses. We want to succeed in our recoveries, but it feels outside of our control. The fight is exhausting, and sometimes the idea of giving up feels relieving.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know why
I do it every, every, every time.
It’s only when I’m lonely.
Sometimes I just wanna cave, and I don’t want to fight.
I try and I try and I try and I try.
Just hold me; I’m lonely.
_____
I’m sorry that I’m here again;
I promise I’ll get help.
It wasn’t my intention;
I’m sorry to myself.

Demi Lovato, Sober

7. Beautiful – Christina Aguilera

Stripped – 2002

Again, this song really speaks for itself. Christina Aguilera describes feeling insecure and ashamed. She sings about the resilience needed to live in a word where people put each other down.

Trigger warning: The video contains images of someone who appears emaciated.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

Every day is so wonderful
Then suddenly, it’s hard to breathe.
Now and then, I get insecure from all the pain.
I’m so ashamed.
I am beautiful no matter what they say.
Words can’t bring me down.
I’m beautiful in every single way.
Yes, words can’t bring me down, oh no,
So don’t you bring me down today.

Christina Aguilera, Beautiful

8. The Middle – Jimmy Eat World

Bleed American – 2001

The moral of this story: be ourselves. We don’t have to try to conform or be “good enough” in other people’s minds. We will be alright.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

Hey, you know they’re all the same.
You know you’re doing better on your own, so don’t buy in.
Live right now. Yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough for someone else…
Everything, everything will be just fine.

Jimmy Eat World, The Middle

9. I Believe – Christina Perri

Head or Heart – 2014

This is another song that reminds me of my resilience. Every day that we are in the recovery fight, we are stronger than we were the day before. Only our own limiting beliefs keep us feeling stuck. And, it’s okay to feel stuck or other challenging emotions.

When Christina Perri says, “I have felt the pain of losing who you are,” I felt seen. (The eating disorder made me a different person.) She then immediately talks about how she has survived that. The recovery journey is a new beginning.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

I believe that tomorrow is stronger than yesterday,
And I believe that your head is the only thing in your way.
I wish that you could see your scars turn into beauty.
I believe that today it’s okay to be not okay.
_____
I have been where you are before,
And I have felt the pain of losing who you are,
And I have died so many times,
But I am still alive.
_____
This is not the end of me,
This is the beginning.

Christina Perri, I Believe

10. Human – Christina Perri

Head or Heart – 2014

This song is relatable for me because it describes the universal reality of humanity: we cannot be perfect. If other people expect perfection from us, or if we expect it of ourselves, the only possible result is feeling disappointment.

Here are some of the most relatable lyrics:

I’m only human,
And I bleed when I fall down.
I’m only human,
And I crash, and I break down.
Your words in my head, knives in my heart.
You build me up, and then I fall apart
‘Cause I’m only human.

Christina Perri, Human

In addition to songs, I have found books to be incredibly relatable and helpful for my recovery. Check out the books I recommend on my resource page.

What songs do you listen to on repeat? What new songs have I missed? What do you recommend? Leave a comment!