Demi Lovato
The troubled pop star has been on a journey of self-discovery
IN JULY LAST YEAR DEMI LOVATO suffered a near-fatal drug overdose, breaking a long stint of sobriety and forcing her into rehab for two months to try and overcome her long-running demons once and for all.
Now the singer has broken her silence on her path to recovery, speaking at the Teen Vogue Summit about how she came out the other side from her latest relapse.
“I think it’s been a very introspective year for me,” she admits. “I’ve been through a lot.”
The 27-year-old has always been upfront about her battles, having first been treated back in 2010 for bipolar disorder, bulimia, self-harm and addiction. But despite her candour, Lovato admits she has struggled with what others have said about her.
“What a lot of people don’t realise is that I’m actually an extremely sensitive person,” she says. “And I am so tired of pretending like I’m not human. That’s the one thing I won’t do anymore. When you say stuff, it affects me.”
Having lived with eating disorders since she was just 8, Lovato revealed she has finally accepted her body.
“What I wasn’t ever open with myself about was, whenever I was in the gym I was doing it to an unhealthy extreme,” she says.
“I think that’s what led me down a darker path – I was still engaging in these behaviours. Embracing my body as it is naturally is why
I took the month of October off the gym.”
But while she sings about confidence and feeling empowered in her 2015 song ‘Confident’, Lovato says that body acceptance is tough.
“We hear the term body positivity all the time. To be honest, I don’t always feel positive about my body. Sometimes I do not like what I see,” she admits.
Lovato champions the ‘curvy and proud’ mantra, and recently overcame her “biggest fear” and posted an unedited bikini photograph to her nearly 75 million Instagram fans. But being truly happy with her appearance was difficult.
“I used to look in the mirror if I was having a bad body image day and say, ‘I love my body, you’re beautifully made’. But I didn’t believe it,” she admits. “I don’t have to lie to myself and tell myself I have an amazing body. All I have to say is ‘I’m healthy’.”
Lovato, who is planning new musical releases, says her journey has been life-changing.
“What I see in the mirror [is] someone that’s overcome a lot,” she says. “I would never regret anything. I love the person that I am today.”