Demi Lovato Opens Up About Feeling 'Defeated' After Five Mental Health Treatment Terms

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

Demi Lovato went through some low lows before she found herself again.

This week, the 31-year-old pop star sat down at The Center For Youth Mental Health‘s annual benefit in New York alongside Anna Wintour‘s son Dr. Charlie Shaffer. There, she opened up about her mental health struggles over the years — and explained why healing and overcoming obstacles is not always linear. She revealed, according to multiple outlets, she’d been to multiple treatment centers, but her continuous relapses made her feel “defeated”:

“I have been to inpatient treatment five times, and it has [been] something that every single time I walked back into a treatment center, I felt defeated.”

Just because the Heart Attack singer felt down, that didn’t stop her from climbing her way back up. She explained:

“[Things started to improve when I started] putting in the work and I started to, whether it was work, a program, or talk to my treatment team and build relationships there. I think the glimmer of hope started to change when I started to find joy and the little things in life. And that was something that was so foreign to me before because I was so used to, so used to not seeing hope.”

We can imagine how uplifting that must’ve felt!

The first four times weren’t the charm for Demi, though. She recalled hitting “rock bottom” before she went in for treatment for the fifth time — but luckily she “knew what I needed to do, which was to live a life in recovery” as well as “needing the right medication”:

“I think for me, medication has helped me tremendously. It’s helped so many people tremendously. And I think I had hit another low, and I was like, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ I felt defeated. But then, when all of the key parts started to fit into place like a perfect puzzle, I started to find the light again.”

Wrapping up, the Confident hitmaker said she’s “grateful” for what she’s “been through and what I’ve overcome”:

“It’s just a part of what makes me, me. Meaning my struggles have shaped me into the pottery that you see today, but it’s never become my identity since then.”

Such an amazing outlook on life. It’s wonderful to see how far Demi has come and how happy she is these days! Reactions, Perezcious readers?

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[Image via MEGA/WENN]