Demi Lovato: A Lifetime of Pain

Demi Lovato: A Lifetime of Pain

Amanda Drapkin

February 24, 2015

Description of the Case

Demi Lovato is a singer, actress, and songwriter that began her career as a young girl on the popular children’s show, “Barney and Friends”. Up until recently Demi has suffered from a combination of cross-addictions, including eating disorders, self-mutilating behaviors, drug addiction, depression, and bipolar disorder. Currently, her disorders are under control after having gone to an in-patient facility where she received treatment.

Demi recalled feelings of loneliness and the unwillingness to reach out to others. Demi explains that, “The period of my life that I went through was very dark, I became very depressed, and my only way of really coping with it was through my eating disorder—so I just stopped eating, that was my way of coping with it” (Demi Lovato Talks About Cutting Herself, 2012). She recalled how frequent these dark times occurred. Similarly, the lifestyle that Lovato was submerged in, did not help as the Hollywood scene would enabled her easy access to drugs and alcohol. Demi described her emotions in one interview, “What I can say is that I was depressed… I would come off stage in front of 18,000 people and suddenly be alone in a hotel room. I’d come crashing down and would try to find a way to recreate that feeling, to stay up” (ABCNews, 2012, par. 5).

In describing her reasons for engaging in self-harm though cutting her wrists, the young celebrity said, You do it because you feel so bad inside. You don’t know how to take it out other than on yourself” (ABCNews, 2012, par. 6). To further add to her depression, Demi recounted her childhood, which consisted of bullying, frequently in regards to her weight. The bullying Demi endured led to the development of bulimia. Additionally, she believes that it also caused her to have depression. In turn, her depression led her urges to self-harm. Due to her cross addictions, Demi engaged in highly risky behavior. She became addicted to cocaine, and would manage to bring it onto airplanes in order to satisfy that need.

Prior to seeking treatment, Demi was unaware that she was bipolar. She said that she, "battled depression from a very young age" (Cotliar, 2011), however, the reason surrounding the difficulty to control her behavior and emotions, was due to the fact that she was actually bipolar. Upon learning that she was bipolar, Lovato said, “Looking back it makes sense… There were times when I was so manic, I was writing seven songs in one night and I'd be up until 5:30 in the morning” (Cotliar, 2011).  She explained how she would take on major amounts of work, resulting in a crash, which caused her to be even more depressed. Demi recalled that, “there were days that I didn’t even want to get out of bed” (Demi Lovato Talks About Cutting Herself, 2012).