Demi Lovato Reveals Having An Eating Disorder Led To Her 2018 Overdose
Demi Lovato opened up about her near-fatal 2018 overdose during a talk with Ashley Graham on her Pretty Big Deal podcast on February 18. The Grammy Award nominee got candid about how her overdose and sobriety slip-up was caused by an eating disorder.
Demi, 27, revealed on the podcast how she replaced her eating disorder with hardcore workouts and dieting. "I'm tired of running myself into the ground with workouts and extreme dieting," Demi told Ashley, 32. "I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder when it actually was just completely falling into it."
"I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder when it was really completely falling into it and I just realized that maybe my symptoms weren't as obvious before but it was definitely an eating issue," the "Sorry Not Sorry" singer explained.
Demi continued, "I think when you have certain people around you that are telling you certain things that you should look a certain way, it makes it harder. I was in that situation, and I was just running myself into the ground."
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"I honestly think that's kind of what led to everything happening over the past year was just me thinking I found recovery when I didn't, and then living this kind of lie and trying to tell the world I was happy with myself when I really wasn't," she told the model. Demi suffered from a heroin overdose in July 2018 and was sent to rehab shortly after her relapse.
The mother of one praised the "Cool for the Summer" songstress for her strength on Instagram. Alongside a clip from the podcast episode, Ashley wrote, "I am so proud to call @ddlovato a friend and I’m in awe of her strength and openness on today’s episode of @prettybigdealpod. Her faith, wisdom, and new found awareness has gotten her to a place where she’s comfortable enough to set boundaries or take a pause to heal; which is something we can all learn from."
Ashley added, "I’m so excited for this next chapter of her career, it’s going to be the best yet because she finally gets to be true to herself ❤️ Thank you Demi for coming on and showing your fans that while pain and recovery aren’t simple, healing and strength are still possible."
Demi also posted on February 18 a photo of herself and Ashley embracing on set of the show. "My episode of @prettybigdealpod with @ashleygraham drops today? I had such an amazing time filming," the Texas native captioned the cute snap. "Thank you Ashley for allowing me to really open up about my faith, boundaries, my body acceptance journey, and what my future holds. We had such an honest and real conversation... I can’t wait for you guys to watch and listen??."