Demi Lovato is as open as any celebrity out there.
Which is pretty incredible, really, when you think about all this singer has gone through in her relatively short life.
As Lovato has relayed in several interviews over the years, she has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder… she’s been addicted to hard drugs… and she has an eating disorder.
But there’s even more the artist has not yet revealed, according to Lovato herself, who sat down this week and talked to Dr. Phil about the true extent of her depression and anxiety.
“The very first time I was suicidal was when I was seven. I had this fascination with death,” the singer told the famous psychologist in a Q&A set to air on Tuesday afternoon.
This is the first time we can recall Demi speaking so candidly about wanting to take her own life.
And at the young age of seven?!? Wow.
“I have experienced things that I have not talked about, and I don’t know if I ever will talk about,” Lovato added.
“But at seven, I knew that if I were to take my own life, that the pain would end.”
That’s simply stunning and very sad, isn’t it?
Or very inspiring, one could also say, considering Lovato just recently celebrated six years of sobriety and has worked so very hard to overcome these issues.
Lovato told Dr.Phil that the thought of suicide “came back when I was bullied” later in life, and also during multiple other periods when she was dealing with emotional turmoil and trauma.
Despite (or maybe due to?) being in the spotlight for so long, Lovato has not had it easy.
“It came back several times – when I was struggling with depression, my bipolar disorder,” she explains.
“And there was a while there when my mom was afraid to wake me up in the mornings because she didn’t know if she opened the door if I would be alive or not. Because every time I cut, it got deeper and deeper.”
Indeed, Lovato has talked in the past about how she was a cutter.
She mutilated her own body out of anger and low self-esteem.
The singer is currently on tour, however, and seems to be doing very well. Heck, she is doing very well.
But she knows she will never be cured of all that ails her, specifically when it comes to one particular disease.
“I think the everlasting addiction in my life has been food. My eating disorder started when I was very young. That’s something that I deal with on a daily basis.
“It’s kind of the last thing to go.”
Again, this is a topic Lovato has often delved into at length.
“I feel like I’ve conquered my addiction and alcoholism, where I don’t even think about it anymore,” she says, adding:
“But my struggles with my food issues are something that I still deal with. But I’m growing, and I’m in a really good place today.”
We’re so very glad to hear it.
Demi also touches on her father in this interview, how he passed away when she was 20 years old and how she wrote a special song for him.
She’s singing it on tour these days as a way to push through the pain and to pay him tribute.
“This is the first tour that I’ve performed it on. I’ve only sang it live three times,” she concludes.
“I get through it OK. But I realize that I can’t just shut out this performance. I can’t just not play a song. The healing is through performing it.”
We continue to wish Demi Lovato all the best.
