Yesterday, Demi Lovato released a brand new song called “Sober,” which was really exciting.
… Or it was exciting until people actually listened to the song and learned that it was all about her lack of sobriety these days.
Yep, Demi, who just celebrated her sixth anniversary of giving up alcohol and drugs back in March, has relapsed, and thanks to her new song, there’s absolutely no doubt about it.
Honestly, it sounds like she’s in a particularly bad way, too — in the first verse, she sings “Wake me when the shakes are gone and the cole sweats disappear / Call me when it’s over and myself has reappeared.”
She also explains that “Sometimes I just wanna cave and I don’t wanna fight,” which is concerning, to say the least.
With lyrics like those, and ones like “Mama, I’m so sorry, I’m not sober anymore / And Daddy, please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor,” it sounds like she’s actively in addiction right at this very moment.
Like she was present enough to write this song, but she still hasn’t been able to actually get sober and then reflect back on this relapse.
It’s sad, and scary, especially considering how bad her addiction was six years ago.
At the end of the song, Demi sings “I’m sorry that I’m here again / I promise I’ll get help,” but according to a source close to her who spoke with Radar Online, that’s not necessarily the case.
“No one can get her attention,” the source claims. “Her team tried to hire a sober coach, and she went nuts!”
Another source alleges that “Demi relapsed about two months ago because she stopped the accountability portion of her recovery.”
A third, more direct insider says “Everyone knows Demi is off the rails.”
Yet another source tells Entertainment Tonight that her relapse happened sometime during her break from touring — she finished the North American portion of her world tour on April 2nd, then kicked things off in Europe on May 24th.
Someone else told the site that “Demi relapsed and started drinking alcohol again. Her song is intense, but that’s how she deals.”
“She has to be brutally honest and put it out there so that she’s not burdened with holding on to her struggles privately.”
So this is a whole, whole lot of information, right?
Let’s try to break some of it down.
If Demi’s relapse happened during her break and also two months ago, then it sounds like she must have started drinking again sometime in April.
It also definitely sounds like she’s still not sober, and like she’s not in the best place right now to get that way.
Now, looking back at her recent behavior with this new knowledge, certain things are a little more interesting.
For instance, she’s been canceling shows lately because of what she said were problems with her vocal chords.
In a note she posted to social media earlier this month, she postponed a London concert “due to being very, very sick and with swollen vocal chords.”
“If I go on tonight and injure my vocal chords anymore I could potentially have to cancel the rest of my tour,” she said.
She seemed very upset with the cancellation, saying that she wrote the note “through tears of frustration and sadness,” and to her fans, she wrote “it breaks my heart to let you down.”
She did insist that “I feel your frustration and I wouldn’t do this unless I absolutely had to.”
And all of that could definitely be true — Demi certainly puts her vocal chords to work during a world tour.
But you know what’s really, really hard on vocal chords, and what can also make you very, very sick?
Alcohol.
We hope this new song of hers is a step in the right direction, and that she’s able to get the help she needs to get sober again soon.
In the meantime … we’ll be thinking about you, girl.
