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Katie Adams

Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 2010, Section 3

12 March 2019

Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

“​I haven't relapsed in drugs and alcohol,” Demi answered, “that's something that I'm very

proud of. I'm coming up on five and a half years of sobriety, and that's something that's been

difficult at times, but one thing that I haven't fully conquered is my eating disorder.” After

starting to drink at 15, Demi Lovato quickly became addicted to drugs and alcohol. By the time

she was 17, she was dependent on cocaine and Adderall and checked into a rehabilitation center

at only 18.

Demi Lovato started singing in beauty pageants when she was young. This led her to her

first job at a guest star on Barney. From there, she took her acting career more seriously, but

didn’t land any major roles until the “Camp Rock” movie series on Disney Channel. Because of

the popularity of these movies, Disney offered Demi her own television show where she starred

as Sonny in “Sonny With a Chance.” After the show ended, she decided to focus on her music,

adn has since been nominated for multiple grammys and many of her albums have gone

platinum. Demi’s life experiences have allowed her to bring emotion into the songs she writes,

and you can hear it in her voice. This authenticity draws people to her music.

Demi has been struggling with an eating disorder for much lon​ger than her addiction to

drugs and alcohol. ​The torturing and taunting that she received at school caused her to begin

purging after she ate meals. When Demi was 12, she walked down the halls of her school while
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the popular girls would say things like “Demi should kill herself” and “She should slit her

wrists.” The girls didn’t stop with mean words, they passed around a suicide petition in Demi’s

class​es for her to k​ill herself and Demi had to watch as other classmates signed it. No one stood

up for​ her. She asked the girls why they were bullying her, and when they couldn’t give her an

answer she decided to go off of what they were calling her, fat. This is when she began to purge

after eating.

Demi was harassed at school and bullied online from​ both the people at her school and

strangers because of the attention on her from her career. These comments only worsened her

self-image. She developed anorexia on top of her bulimia and confessed that there were weeks

where she only ate two meals. Demi described how food controls her life even now: ​“[Food is]

something that I'm constantly thinking about. Body image, what I'm gonna eat next, what I wish

I could be eating, what I wish I didn't eat.”

One day, her mother had come across Demi’s personal diary, and she opened to a page

where Demi had drawn two pictures of herself: on the left was a heavier figure, and on the right

was a thin figure with the caption “This is what I need to look like to be a star.” Because Demi

wanted to become famous, she felt imm​ense pre​ssure to be thin like all of the other female

celebrities in the media. She hung up pictures in her room of the women that she wanted to look

like as inspiration for a new body. Amy Winehouse was everything Demi aspired to be, vocally

and physically because she was known for being very thin, but with an amazing voice.

When she was 15, she got the starring role in the movie “Camp Rock” on Disney

Channel. This movie became a huge success, and Demi became known for her powerful voice.

Although Demi started to become famous, like she wanted, it only put more pressure on her to
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look a certain way. However, she kept her problems to herself and put on a happy face because,

as a Disney Channel actor, she was supposed to be a role model for other girls. She bottled her

feelings and became severely depressed to the point where she was sleeping for 17 hours a day.

During the few hours she was awake, Demi used drugs to get through it. After punching one of

her dancers in the face for telling the manager about her drug use, she decided to go into rehab.

After checking into rehab at 18 to help her with substance abuse and alcoholism, Demi

was diagnosed with Manic Depression, or Bipolar Disorder. This disorder causes people to have

periods of euphoria or mania, and then sink into a period of depression. She says that as a kid,

during her manic episodes, she stayed up all night writing songs and singing. Although Demi

said that the rehab ​h​elped her, she immediately began to start doing drugs again because it was

hard for her to stick with the rehab program now that she was on her own. During this time,

Demi started to do interviews about her rehab experience, and how she is thankful that she is

now clean, yet she was doing cocaine daily. Demi confessed, “the last time I did an interview

this long, I was on cocaine. It was called ‘Staying Strong’.” Her manager started noticing her

recent behavior, and told her that if she didn’t stop doing drugs that he would leave her. Luckily,

this ultimatum gave her the motivation she needed to become sober.

After being bullied herself, Demi is now a huge supporter for the “Stomp Out Bullying”

campaign. She shares her bullying and eating disorder experiences in hopes that others will stand

up for those they see get bullied and get help. Although she still struggles with her eating

disorder, she has found ways to improve. Demi started exercising and doing jujitsu, and

whenever she feels the urge to purge after meals she tells someone, so they can help her
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overcome the feeling. Her platform as a celebrity has helped many others get the help they need

to talk about their mental illnesses.