Demi Lovato has been an open book when it comes to her struggles with mental health. The 31-year-old singer opened up about the hard work of finding balance during a conversation with Dr. Charlie Shafer Monday night at the Center for Youth Mental Health at New York Presbyterian's annual benefit according to People.
“I've been to inpatient treatment five times, and it's something that every time I went back to a treatment center, I felt defeated,” Lovato said. “And I know that experience firsthand, but I think the glimmer of hope was when I started working and started doing it, whether it was a job, or a program, or talking to my treatment team and building relationships there.”
Lovato said she began to have a “glimmer of hope” when she began to find joy in the little things in life, an experience that was foreign to her because, she said, she was so used to “seeing no hope…. I felt like I had hit rock bottom and knew what I had to do, which was to live a life of recovery. And that was something I pushed away for so long,” she added, referring to her fifth trip to inpatient mental health treatment.
Another key, he added, was finally finding the right mix of medications, which Lovato said “helped me tremendously … And I think I had hit another low and thought, 'What am I doing wrong?' I felt defeated. But then, when all the key pieces started to fall into place like a perfect puzzle, I started to find the light again.” The singer/actress also said her treatment has taught her that her mental health is not her “identity.”
In 2011, Lovato, then 18, revealed in an interview with Robin Roberts that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Then on to her documentaries in 2021 Dancing With the Devilrevealed that he had misdiagnosed.
“It wasn't until I got into treatment for the first time that I realized that I'm not who I am,” she said at Monday's event. “It's just a part of what makes me, meaning my struggles have shaped me into the pottery you see today, but it's never been my identity since then. It just became something for me that makes me a little bit interesting, I guess you could say.” That said, as hard as it was, Lovato said she's grateful for what she's been through and what she's overcome.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/demi-lovato-felt-different-5th-in-patient-mental-health-stay-1235700086/