Demi Lovato addresses why she turned to drugs in the past: ‘I genuinely was in so much pain’
Singer and songwriter Demi Lovato opened up about her drug use in the past and how it became a coping mechanism as she was struggling with her mental health.
Speaking with Diane Guerrero in an upcoming episode of the podcast Yeah No, I’m Not OK, whose preview was aired by E! News, Lovato addressed the misconception that “if people are using drugs or if they are dealing with an eating disorder or self harm that they want to die.”
“In the same way it almost killed me, it saved my life at times because there were times that I dealt with suicidal ideations,” said the 28-year-old singer.
She also explained the addiction, despite being harmful, was a “destructive coping mechanism” that allowed her to veer away from taking her own life.
After seeking treatment, Lovato said she realized that “I turned to those coping mechanisms because I genuinely was in so much pain that I didn’t want to die and I didn’t know what else to do.”
By saying yes to treatment and getting help, Lovato recognized that there are other ways to deal with her struggles.
“I (now) know how else to deal and how else to cope so I don’t have to resort to those behaviors again,” she said.
Lovato is known for being open about her past experiences, and she has shared in that past that one of her main reasons is to send the message across that “we all struggle.”
In the podcast, she said, “I would look at people in the media and I would just compare myself, not feel good enough, not feel thin enough, and wonder how it was that these people were living lives that seemed so perfect but yet I was in so much pain. And when I got into the spotlight, I was like, 'Oh, it's not perfect here, nobody has a perfect life, it just looks that way.'"
Lovato concluded that she does not try to present a certain image of herself anymore, nor does she try to fit a mold.
Instead, she is dedicated to being “the person that I most identify within my life today.”
In the trailer that came out last month for her docuseries Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, the singer revealed that she had three strokes and a heart attack in the hospital after a near-fatal drug overdose in 2018.
“Everything had to happen in order for me to learn the lessons that I learned,” she told People. “It was a painful journey, and I look back and sometimes I get sad when I think of the pain that I had to endure to overcome what I have but I don’t regret anything.”—With a report from ANI