At the tender age of twenty-five, Demetria “Demi” Lovato has gone through more than most people will in their entire life. Many people face their fair share of difficulties, but Demi is different. She has not had a break since she was five years old. Her father was an addict and he left the family before Demi was five. At five, Demi was diagnosed with depression and it is something she has never been able to fully shake.1 Demi found an outlet for her aching heart in music. Her family realized quickly that she was talented beyond belief, and that she could really be someone. At seven, Demi landed a part in the children’s television series Barney and Friends, and the rest is history.2
She did not stop at Barney and Friends. She knew she was destined for more, and she worked every single day to ensure she got that. The Disney Channel proved to be her next big break, and it was Disney that really ignited a fire that never stopped. From her first show, “As the Bell Rings,” to the “Camp Rock” phenomena, and finally, to “Sonny with a Chance,” The Disney Channel seemingly brought Demi nothing but success.3 However, when you look below the surface, her Disney successes may have been the same thing that sent her spiraling downward. It was at seventeen, the peak of her time at Disney, that she first tried cocaine, a highly addictive narcotic, for the first time with friends.4 She shared being terrified at first, but she quickly came to love the feeling.5 She was hooked. She began hiding drugs from her family and her team, and she began indulging whenever she found the time. She did shows while intoxicated, and lived the majority of her young life under the influence. Her moods changed, and she was irritated and angry, and she slept all the time. At first, everyone thought she was just experiencing normal teenage mood swings; it took time before those around her understood the depth of what was going on.6
Demi felt immense pressure from a very young age. She felt the need to please everyone around her while becoming everything she wanted to be. It is not uncommon for young people to have come in to fame to lose themselves along the way. In fact, Demi is far from the only young Disney star to do so. Shake It Up’s Bella Thorne has no shame in showing some, or all of her skin, Jessie’s Debby Ryan was slapped with a DUI, and Lab Rats’ Kelli Berglund was caught with a fake ID.7 While to some, these all sound like typical growing up things. The issue at hand is that it is a recurring pattern in Disney Stars. Walt Disney, the man who can be described as nothing but “guts and goodness,” created the Disney company with nothing but pure intentions and hope for a better future.8 As the issue has become more and more prominent, it has been decided within the company that something had to be done. Disney teaches its young starlets life skills, like how to deal with the brutal world that is social media. These classes are held by pediatricians and child-development experts.7 While no one can pinpoint the exact reason Demi began the path that became addiction, we do know that it had to have something to do with the difficult life she was living due to the fame. She was too young to be ready for all she was enduring and too naïve to know better. Although the Disney Channel cannot be held to blame, it can be said that the company knows it is doing some harm along with the good, as they are now taking protective measures.
Addiction. A nine-letter word that we use lightly every day. We say things like “I’m addicted to chocolate” or “she’s addicted to her phone.” We tend to not realize the gravity of addiction or how life-threatening it can be. Addictions are diseases; they are dependencies on something, requiring that something to live, or at least one believes it is that needed. Addiction ran through Demi’s veins. Some say she was destined to fall into it because of her father’s own additions; others still blamed it on the life she lived. Regardless of why, addiction consumed her. It wasn’t just drugs and alcohol; it was body image as well. Demi was stuck on the idea that thin meant beauty, that skinny was a requirement of fame. So, she developed an eating disorder, Bulimia. Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder that is defined by “repeated, uncontrollable episodes of overeating followed by induced vomiting or laxative abuse to eliminate the undigested food.”10 It was after she was discovered to have Bulimia that the people around her decided it was time that she got treatment. Demi’s behavior was all over the place: “some days she was sweet and enthusiastic, and some days she seemed to brood in darkness.”11 She was sent in for treatment at a rehab center and had to continue with that treatment even when she was able to leave.
It is not uncommon to have an obsession with body image in our society. We live in a world where social media is prominent and “skinny is in.” We see runway models and actresses on TV and on the cover of magazines and we cannot help but compare ourselves to them. Today, close to 30 million people in the US are diagnosed with an eating disorder and every 62 seconds one of them dies.12 The disorders range from Bulimia to Anorexia and Binge Eating Disorder. They become a chemical imbalance in someone’s mind that take more than just will power to be lessened.
Demi Lovato is still a part of that 30 million, and it is something she has to deal with every day. She fights her urges with different things, like working out. Anything that can take her mind off of her problems, she says, is a blessing.13 The stability of having a specific gym with specific trainers has helped her a lot, and she is working her way up to a black belt in jiu-jitsu.
Nineteen was her year. Demi’s nineteenth year of life was her first year sober. It seemed as though all the rehab and all the struggle had paid off. Her life was taking a turn for the better, she was a judge on X Factor, broke up with her long-term boyfriend to “conquer issues she couldn’t conquer if she was relying on someone else,” and had found her sound.14 Her music career was booming, and her team couldn’t be happier with the progress. Everything was falling into place.
At twenty-five, her six years of sobriety had come to a screeching halt. On July 28, 2018, paramedics rushed to the young singer’s house. The night before, she had gone out to celebrate a backup dancer’s birthday, and the next morning she was found lying unconscious in her house. 15
About a month before the overdose, Demi Lovato had come out with a new song, “Sober.”16 Her music had always been emotional and honest. She had talked about her issues before, and about her love life, but this was different. In “Sober,” Demi admitted to having relapsed from her six-year sobriety. Upsetting and tragic, but to many, not surprising. Everyone hoped for the best for her, but feared the worst as they heard the news of her unconsciousness.
While sad, a relapse in addiction is not extremely uncommon. Recently, there has been a lot of research done on relapses in order to better understand them. They differ from random slips in strength because they are recurring during a certain period of time. Despite research, relapses are still hard to understand as they vary from person to person. Some people do a better job of controlling their urges than others, some give in quickly, and some can last long periods of times. What they have come to the decision on, however, is that relapses are not a failure of the treatment, but a consequence of the attempts to change a chronic behavior.17 Some people overcome addiction and never turn back, others fall back again and again and never get to live again.
Eventually, she woke up. She refused to cooperate with authorities or reveal exactly what drugs she was on, but she was alive.18 Demi lived through her relapse but is now back at square one. She has to now find a way to deal with her age-old demons and rebuild her life. She went again to rehab, and is working every day to make sure the cycle doesn’t continue.
That’s exactly what is, a cycle, a never-ending cycle. People fall into addiction, go to rehab, become sober, fall back into addiction, go back to rehab, and so on. Some people find ways to break the cycle, others succumb to its brutal turning. The treacherous cycle causes many people to lose hope, to lose their glow, but not Demi. She lives by the motto of “you get what you put out in the world. Put out positivity and you will receive it,” and she will never stop fighting.19
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health, 2015, s.v. “Cocaine,” Justin D. Garcia, PhD. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- “Disney Damsels IN DISTRESS!,” New Weekly Magazine, April 3, 2017, 38-41. ↵
- Neal Gabler, Walt Disney, The Triumph of the American Imagination (Vintage Books, 2006), 44. ↵
- “Disney Damsels IN DISTRESS!,” New Weekly Magazine, April 3, 2017, 38-41. ↵
- Magill’s Medical Guide, 2013, s.v. “Bulimia,” Alvin K. Benson, PhD and Leanna DeAngelo, PhD. ↵
- Dianna de la Garza and Vicky Mckintyre, Falling with Wings: A Mother’s Story (Fewer & Friends, 2018), 247. ↵
- “Eating Disorder Statistics,” National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, (2018), accessed November 29, 2018, http://www.anad.org/education-and-awareness/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated – Official Documentary, Phillymack Productions (2017; Los Angeles), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWTlL_w8cRA. ↵
- Melody Chiu, et al., “The Fight to Save Demi Lovato,” People, August 13, 2018, 48. ↵
- “Demi’s Tragic Relapse: ‘I’m Grateful to Be Alive,’” 2018. New Weekly Magazine 26 (32): 22. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health, 2014, s.v. “Addiction Relapse,” Ruth M. Colwill. ↵
- Melody Chiu, et al., “The Fight to Save Demi Lovato,” People, August 13, 2018, 48. ↵
- Demi Lovato, Staying Strong: 365 Days a Year (Macmillan Publishers, 2013), 43. ↵
87 comments
Sarah Uhlig
Demi’s entire story is all so shocking and devastating to read about, but now that she is recovering from her last big hospitalization, it is good to hear about how she is improving in her life. The struggles that she is still dealing with are real and they happen to a lot of other people too, but it is the people in your life that bring you back from such dark times and I was glad to read about the support she had along her journey in the good and bad.
Bianca-Rhae Jacquez
Many Disney stars have had horrible turn outs after leaving and/ or while in the company. Many have publicly spoken about abusing drugs or living with an eating disorder. I like that Demi is extremely strong for her efforts to stop this horrible life decision and even though she relapse she’s fighting to get back on track with her recovery.
Samantha Ruvalcaba
It’s unfortunate and unfathomable how addiction can affect individuals. It’s even sadder that people without the kind of resources Demi has that don’t have the access to the proper treatment or therapy. I’m glad Demi recognizes this and makes the decision to take advantage of those resources. I liked how the writer included paragraphs that zoomed out and looked at the big picture of how addiction affects others as well.
Mason Kheiv
This article showcases the effects of the pressure put on child stars. They grow up in the spotlight, and they must live their life according to their brand. They are not allowed to “slip up” and make mistakes. To keep up their appearances and deal with the constant online bullying that they receive. It takes its toll on them, and it is truly heartbreaking that they look to drugs as an escape from their lives, and fall into the path of addiction.
Maria Garcia
Addiction is something that so many famous people struggle from, yet get degraded so badly for. Your article shows that even though it might not be okay, you are still able to bounce back from it no matter how bad you suffer from it. Demi Lovato struggled so bad, but she was still open about her situation for the most part in order to try and motivate a d show people and her fans that it is something that they can eventually overcome if you give it time, even if you end up relapsing. There’s always room to start over no matter how many times it takes.
Tyler Reynolds
This was a well researched article that was well structured. Although I don’t like to talk about it at times, I once suffered from addiction myself. It is by no means a good thing to happen to you and only degrades you life the longer you are hooked onto whatever drug it may be. The unconscious instinct to take more or take larger quantities of said drug because you develop a “tolerance” starts to become a reality for you. Even if you manage to get rid of your addiction, the effects are still there in your brain. Somewhere, in some recess of your brain, you still crave whatever you were addicted to before.
Katherine Wolf
I think it is so sad to see the kids we watched on TV grow up and fall into the same self destructive cycles. I always wondered that when the fall of child stars is so common then why do parents allow their children to go into the entertainment business at such a young age? I am glad that Disney is now taking precautions to help protect the kids working for them.
Danielle Slaughter
Growing up on the Disney Channel, I’ve always loved Demi Lovato. It was devastating to hear about her relapse after an entire six years of sobriety, yet as you mentioned in the article, it happens all too often, especially with young celebrities. Unfortunately, Demi has fallen into this vicious pattern, and all we can do is hope for and support her.
Diamond Davidson
I remember when I first heard about her overdose and didn’t expect someone who was young and very talented to go through an experience like overdosing. Reading this article gave me more information on how she started and why she started. Now that I know her background about the reason she did it, it just makes me feel hurt for her because her childhood cause her to go through a depression stage that didn’t end. But, I really like this article it provided a good amount of information, I just think you could’ve pick better picture to use for your article to make it stand out more.
Fatima Navarro
It’s sad to see how a talented young and beautiful girl, celebrity or not, goes through this. Mental illness is still a taboo that many wish to ignore and even if they know that a close one is dealing with depression, etc, they don’t know how to help leading the other to fall into drugs. I personally do not listen to her music but it does not mean that it is worrisome. She is a celebrity therefore it is on the tabloid and her stories are always on the front page if she had a relapse, it is exactly why we should see how it is not only celebrities we should be concerned about, but the “normal” people surrounding us: family or friends, etc,.