The Tragic Life of Demi Lovato

Many artists attempt to deal with pain through their work, and pain, sadly, is something that rarely seems to be in short supply for this singer. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be discussing The Tragic Life of Demi Lovato. Come along as we take a closer look at the story of this incredibly talented musician and the many hardships that she’s weathered over the years. Demi Lovato is a multi-talented dynamo. From a young age, she established herself as a charming and charismatic actor, before going on to similarly excel in the world of music. Throughout her career, she has been the voice of seven top 20 tracks, sold millions of albums, earned dozens of awards and hundreds of nominations, and has consistently been a champion of the marginalized and misunderstood. For all her success, however, Lovato has had an incredibly difficult journey. And as she’s grown to become a household name and instantly recognizable face, her perpetual place in the spotlight has only added to her burdens. Personal struggles are meant to be, well… personal, but Lovato’s success has forced her to process them with the whole world watching. But to fully appreciate everything that this inspiring and persevering artist has been through, we have to go back to the beginning. Demi Lovato was born August 20th,1992, to parents Dianna De La Garza (née Smith) and Patrick Martin Lovato. It’s safe to say that entertaining is in Demi’s blood; her mother was a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys and her father was a musician and engineer. Unfortunately, their family was an unstable one, and Lovato found herself the child of divorce just around the time of her second birthday. From a young age, Lovato gravitated towards creative endeavors. She began playing piano at the age of seven, before expanding to guitar, singing and dance at age 10. Around this time, she also got her first opportunity to step in front of the camera as a cast member on the children’s show, “Barney & Friends”. Though Lovato was apparently thriving creatively, her family turmoil continued to cast a dark shadow over her childhood. As she explained in the 2017 documentary “Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated”, her father was a drug addict and alcoholic, and he was prone to fits of anger and violence. He was also very emotionally manipulative. In the long run, this would result in an estrangement between father and daughter, but even from afar, his choices influenced her. As Lovato has explained, as she got older, “I guess I always searched for what he found in drugs and alcohol because it fulfilled him and he chose that over a family”. After appearing on “Barney & Friends” and an episode of “Prison Break”, the young star’s life was forever changed when she was recruited to the House of Mouse. She scored a starring role in the first season of the Disney Channel series “As the Bell Rings” before being catapulted to tween royalty with the TV movie “Camp Rock”, in which she starred alongside the Jonas Brothers. This was followed by another Disney series, “Sonny with a Chance”. And while Lovato was seemingly living her childhood dream as a Disney idol, behind-the-scenes, things quickly began to spiral out of control. By the age of 17, when the latter series began, Lovato was already using cocaine. While on “Camp Rock 2” tour, she trashed a hotel room and was found to be abusing adderall. With Disney, music and acting often go hand in hand, and Lovato’s singing career was taking off in a big way. Her 2008 debut album, “Don't Forget” charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold. She followed it up with another album the next year, “Here We Go Again”, the title track for which earned Lovato her first top 20 single. Her star was rising fast, but she was also on the fast-track to self-destruction. At the age of 18, in 2010, Lovato dropped off the Jonas Brothers Live tour to seek treatment. This was precipitated by her having attacked one of her dancers. People close to her had been concerned for quite some time, but few could have imagined just how bad things had gotten. Lovato had been struggling with self-harm, depression, an eating disorder and had developed a drug and alcohol dependency. She was reportedly using cocaine multiple times a day. During her time at the Timberline Knolls treatment facility, Lovato was also diagnosed as being bipolar. Not only did the revelation help Lovato realize that she had been self-medicating in more ways than one, but it also provided context to the struggles she’d been experiencing since a young age. Depression and periods of mania had been a normal part of her life since she was little. Though the knowledge is empowering, it doesn’t necessarily make living with the condition any easier, and so her mental health remains a daily struggle for the star. When Lovato left treatment in early 2011, it was billed by her publicists as her turning over a new leaf. In secret however, she soon relapsed. Her issues were kept from the public for years. When she moved into a sober-living facility, it was packaged as being preventative, to help her avoid a relapse, but in reality, it was a desperate attempt by management to save the star from herself. As Lovato revealed in her 2017 documentary, she’s actually on cocaine during her 2012 interview about sobriety in “Demi Lovato: Stay Strong”. During this time, her addiction caused a number of near-overdoses, putting her life in jeopardy. Thankfully, sticking with living at a sober-living facility seemed to make a significant difference. After years of struggling in secret, she seemingly found a formula that worked for her. She flourished, with new albums and a stint as a judge on “The X-Factor”. As Lovato acknowledged in her 2017 documentary, her eating disorder is something that she has continued to struggle with over the years, but in terms of substance abuse, her sobriety stuck, until 2018. Unfortunately, even after years of sobriety, it takes just one single mistake to relapse. One bad day. One lapse in judgement. On June 21st, 2018, Demi Lovato came clean with her fans that she had once again relapsed. Though she didn’t talk about it openly, she shared the news by releasing the song “Sober.” Just over a month later and a few days after forgetting the words to “Sober” onstage, she was hospitalized following an opioid overdose. After two weeks recovering in the hospital, she returned to rehab. In 2019, over a year after the overdose, Demi Lovato finally spoke candidly in her first major interview about the relapse. And when she did so, it was with confidence, a positive attitude and a whole lot of self-love. As of 2020, she remains sober, has returned to acting and gifted fans with a moving new single, “Anyone”. Lovato’s performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards, her first since the relapse, was widely praised, and she followed it up with a similarly awe-inspiring rendition of the The Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl. Lovato has a long road ahead of her, but as she told Teen Vogue,"I'm so tired of pretending like I'm not human. That's one thing that I won't do anymore… I genuinely see a fighter. I don't see a championship winner in there, but I see a fighter and I see someone that's going to continue to fight no matter [what] challenges are thrown their way." Wise words from the mouth of a 27 year old who’s lived a lifetime of pain, but continues to persevere and inspire.