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New York — While most celebrities tend to hide their struggles with drugs and battles with depression, Demi Lovato has not only acknowledged her issues, she's shared them with the world.
Lovato has been an open book since she announced in 2010 that she was checking into a rehabilitation centre to deal with an eating disorder, self-mutilation and other issues.
Over the next eight years, she became a role model and bona fide pop star, releasing multi-platinum songs and albums that range from playful to serious with lyrical content about her battles with drugs and alcohol.
Lovato's representative said in a statement on Tuesday that the 25-year-old was awake and recovering with her family after the singer was reportedly hospitalised for an overdose.
It came a month after she released a new song called Sober, indicating that she relapsed after six years of sobriety.
LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE:
Lovato has chronicled her life and battles throughout the years, from her bisexuality to being bullied as a child to suffering from depression. She has said she's used cocaine before interviews and drank alcohol in the morning out of a soda bottle to mask it. That candor has helped her become a role model for young women and men who have faced their own issues.
Actress Lili Reinhart, who appears in the hit CW Network series Riverdale, said she looked up to Lovato.
"When I was 14, she was an idol to me in how she spoke so openly about mental health. And now she continues to inspire thousands of young men and women with her body positivity messages," the 21-year-old tweeted on Tuesday.
SEE THAT TWEET HERE:
In her YouTube documentary, Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated, Lovato said at one point thay she idolised Amy Winehouse, whose seven-year death anniversary was on Monday.
"I wanted to be as thin as her," Lovato said in the film, released last year. "I wanted to sing like her. I wanted to be just like her."
WATCH THE DOCUMENTARY HERE:
The last two years have been Lovato's biggest in music: Sorry Not Sorry, the sassy, punchy pop song, became the entertainer's biggest hit of her career, peaking at No. 6 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and reaching triple-platinum status, and her Confident album competed for best pop vocal album at the 2017 Grammys (she lost to Adele's 25).
Lovato earned praise and more hit songs for her collaborations with the electronic music groups Cheat Codes and Clean Bandit. And she's even expanded to the Latin market with the Luis Fonsi collaboration Echama la Culpa and the Spanish version of Solo.
But her latest release, Sober, was concerning since Lovato had said she was clean for six years.
"I'm not sober anymore," she sings. "I'm sorry that I'm here again, I promise I'll get help/It wasn't my intention, I'm sorry to myself."
"We should wrap our arms of love around Demi Lovato. I am so happy you're alive. Thank God," Lady Gaga tweeted. "If I know my monsters as well as I believe I do, we all wish you self-compassion and inner peace. And may you receive the love so many have for you."
SEE THAT TWEET HERE:
Lovato started as a child star on the series Barney & Friends, later breaking through as a teen on the Disney Channel film Camp Rock and the network series Sonny with a Chance. She did not return for the third season of the show after checking into rehab in 2010, also leaving an international tour with the Jonas Brothers.
She emerged with the album Unbroken in 2011, detailing her recovery in the ballad Skyscraper.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR SKYSCRAPER HERE:
More songs like that followed as Lovato toured the world and reached new heights on the pop charts.
There was a worldwide outpouring of support for Lovato as the hashtags #PrayForDemi and #StayStrongDemi trended heavily on social media and everyone from Bruno Mars to Ariana Grande to Ellen DeGeneres to Justin Timberlake rooted for Lovato's recovery.
Demi's upcoming shows in Atlantic Beach and Canada have been cancelled while she recovers in hospital.
