Demi Lovato has once again opened up about the depths of her former drug problem.
Ever since she entered rehab in late 2010, the artist has been brutally honest about what led her to seek professional assistance in the first place.
She had low self-esteem. She had an eating disorder. She snorted A LOT of cocaine.
At one point, in fact, Lovato now admits that she thought she’d be long gone by now. As in… dead.
“I lived fast and I was going to die young,” Lovato says in the latest issue of American Way. “I didn’t think I would make it to 21.”
Now 23, Lovato battled drug and alcohol addictions as a teenager. She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Through the years, the singer has spoken candidly about her personal struggles, doing the same now with the pages of American Airlines’ inflight magazine.
In this cover story, Demi recalls how she used to self-medicate with alcohol, cocaine and OxyContin.
Her mother, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and Lovato’s grandmother had both struggled with bulimia, according to the star.
“Even though I was 2 or 3 years old,” the singer told the magazine. “Being around somebody who was 80 pounds and had an active eating disorder…it’s hard not to grow up like that.”
In a previous interview, Lovato said she used to smuggle hard drugs on to airplanes.
But Demi says she took her last drink January 2012 and continues to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
“When I have meet-and-greets, I can’t tell you the amount of times that girls will show me their arms covered in scars or cuts,” Lovato tells American Way, having been a cutter herself as a child.
“They’ll tell me, ‘You helped me get through this. Because of you, I stopped self-harming,’ or ‘I got sober.’ Hearing those things gave my life new meaning.”
She concludes:
“At times I was resentful for having that kind of responsibility. But now, it’s really become a part of my life. It holds me accountable.”
We love and admire you, Demi Lovato.