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Demi Lovato Celebrates Her 6th “Sober Birthday”

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois State chapter.

Sharing difficulties that you’ve gone through in your life to the “public” can be really hard. Everyone has the right to an opinion, negative or positive. What people have to say can play an even bigger role on someone’s recovery – but not with Demi Lovato!

E News stated that last Friday, during her concert with DJ Khaled and Kehlani at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Demi celebrated her “sober birthday,” it was her 6th anniversary of being sober. In the beginning of her hardships, Demi kept everything a secret of what she was really going through at the time. It wasn’t until she was released from rehab in 2011 when she started opening up to the public about what she had been going through.

Demi admitted that she spent most of her teenage years dealing with addiction, an eating disorder, depression and self-inflicted harm throughout her time with Disney. E News stated that at her concert, Demi explained to her fans that, “six years ago she was drinking vodka out of a Sprite bottle at nine in the morning, throwing up in the car and just remembers thinking, ‘this is no longer cute, this is no longer fun, and I am just like my dad’”.

In the powerful, emotional YouTube documentary, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated, Lovato really “peeled” back her top layer of emotions, letting viewers know how “messed up” her life was. Within the documentary she admits that Simply Complicated was actually the second “cut” of her documentary. Demi Explained, during the first cut she was so “doped on Cocaine” that she wasn’t herself.

Her mother, Dianna De La Garza, wrote her newest best seller, Falling with Wings: A Mother’s Story, to show how her life changed since Demi’s fame. In an excerpt, Dianna wrote about how her daughter, Demi, was at her lowest of lows. One day she received a text from that sounded like a suicide note. From a mother’s point of view, receiving that text was the scariest and most heart-breaking moment of her life. The text was sent during the time where Demi beat-up one of her backup dancers, which was another wakeup call for everyone that Demi needed help right then and there.

If there is one thing that Demi hasn’t broken, it’s that for six years she has stayed loyal to her family, friends and fans. Demi does have her low moments that make staying sober difficult. For the most part though, she has started to gain self-love and acceptance for who she is.

Instead of turning to drugs or alcohol for escape, she has taken up an interest in working out, being active and trying to keep her mind busy. She’s shifting her addiction to something healthy. From making healthier decisions, Demi has been able to fight her bulimia, addictions and even her depression. She is determined to never go back to her past again. Demi has realized that who she was, could have gotten her into even more trouble than she was already in. Celebrating her 6th “sober birthday” is definitely a great accomplishment to have!

You can find Meghan at the nearest mall dealing with her major shopaholic problem either coming out of a nearby Forever 21 or Pink. Meghan is from the the Northwest Chicago suburbs and is a senior with a Psychology major. She transferred to Illinois State University last year from Roosevelt University in Chicago and has loved every minute here at ISU! Meghan has always had a strong passion for writing and was super excieted when she got accepted in to the Her Campus Womens Magazine at ISU. She can't wait to see what's instore for her for the rest of the year while being a writer, and currently the Events Director, for the HC team!
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