Demi’s struggles have gone far into her early childhood. Her father, Patrick Lovato, was abusive and had mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. When he started doing drugs, everything spiraled down as he abused Demi’s mother, Dianna. On and on it went, until Dianna got the courage to leave him. Later, in 2013, after Patrick’s death, Demi said, “"I was very conflicted when he passed, because he was abusive. He was mean, but he wanted to be a good person. And he wanted to have his family, and when my mom married my stepdad, he still had this huge heart where he said, ‘I’m so glad that [he's] taking care of you and doing the job that I wish I could do.'" For other’s like her dad, Demi created the Lovato Treatment Scholarship Program after her father’s death in which mental illness victims can get help.
Along with handling an abusive dad, Demi struggled with bipolar disorder when she was young. “For years, people said I was depressed, and I actually didn’t know myself why I was so upset and why I would have these episodes of mania—what I now know is mania,” she said. She would stay up till early in the morning, sometimes writing 7 songs per night. Since Demi had no idea why she was the way she was, it was all the more harder for her. Demi’s hardship goes onto her teenage years. When she started acting on Disney channel, she was going through bulimia, depression, self abuse, and later, drugs. When she was a child, she binge ate, but when she became a teen she hated her body and wanted to starve herself. ‘It was always there, but then I just acted on it at around 8 or 9 years old. I started overeating, compulsively overeating. I would bake cookies and then eat the whole pan. I went from doing that to being unhappy with my body. I went to just completely starving myself and that turned into throwing up and starving myself and it was just this crazy battle going on inside of me.” This is not all she went through, as she self abused herself and cut her wrists. “There were times I felt so anxious, almost like I was crawling out of my skin – that if I didn’t do something physical to match the way I felt inside, I would explode. I cut myself to take my mind off that. I just didn’t care what happened. I had no fear. When Demi was just 17, after struggling with many mental illnesses, she started drugs as a coping mechanism. Once Demi threw a party that included alcohal in the hotel room she was staying in. Together they trashed the hotel room. One of Demi’s backup dancer told her manager that she was on drugs. Demi seeked revenge and later, in front of everyone, punched the dancer in the face. That week she was sent to rehab and focused on her sobriety and other mental health issues. It was effective for the time being. As soon as she left the rehab center, however, Demi continued to do drugs. She thought that she was going to die young, so she wanted to live her life as much as possible. It was only when she was 19 that she hit her rock bottom. “I was going to the airport and I had a Sprite bottle just filled with vodka and it was just 9 in the morning and I was throwing up in the car and this was just to get on a plane to go back to L.A. to the sober living house that I was staying at. I had all the help in the world, but I didn’t want it. When I hit that moment I was like, it’s no longer fun when you’re doing it alone.” After this she focused on her sobriety and succeeded for 6 years. She even made a documentary called Simply Complicated, openly saying all the hardships she went through, which is quite brave, seeing that most would bury that past. Instead, she wanted to be an inspiration, wanting to help those who were going through what she had been through. Her involvement in organizations and social media to help those are struggling have saved many. In summer of 2018, Demi overdosed. Just previously, she released a song that said she was not sober anymore. Weeks following this surprise single, Demi was found unconscious in her home. Currently, she is doing everything she can to focus on her health and is now a little over half a year sober. Overall, Demi persisted in her lifetime through every obstacle thrown at her. She is open about her struggles and wants everyone to use her experiences to get through their problems. She’s part of many organizations and works with victims suffering mental health issues. She is an inspiration to many!
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