Demi Lovato Opens Up About Nervous Breakdown, Rehab

A couple of months after leaving rehab, and keeping her promise that she would use her experience to help others, Demi Lovato is speaking out about the issues that sent her on a downwards spiral – all the way to rehab.

Contrary to reports in the tabloid media, Demi never had any issues with drugs. Instead, she suffered from very low self esteem and poor body image, and she developed an eating disorder, as well as anger management issues.

Now, she’s teamed up with Seventeen Magazine, which caters precisely to the audience Demi is trying to reach out to, in a bid to let other boys and girls suffering from the same issues that “Love is louder.”

“I basically had a nervous breakdown. I was really bad off. My parents and my manager pulled me aside and said, ‘You need to get some help.’ It was an intervention,” Demi recalls of her attack of a backup dancer, which happened when she was at her worst.

“I wanted freedom from the inner demons. I wanted to start my life over,” she says.

She went to rehab and completed treatment and, now that she’s out, she’s learning to take everything step by step. One thing that will never change is that she will always have a messed up relationship with food.

“But I’m living with it, and I wish I could tell young girls to find their safe place and stay with it,” she says.

What’s really important at this point is to be a little selfish and think of her happiness first and foremost, and not about what others may think of her.

“I don’t let anyone’s insecurities, emotions, or opinions bother me. I know that if I am happy, that’s all that matters to me. And it’s okay to be selfish like that sometimes, when it comes to your well-being. Do what makes you happy, and don’t care what others think,” Demi explains.

Also in a bid to show girls that they are not alone, the Disney star and Seventeen made the video you can also see below, for the campaign called “Love is louder.”