Now 6 Years Sober, Demi Lovato Recalls the Moment She Knew She Needed to Make a Change
While most of us were celebrating the end of a long week last Friday night, Demi Lovato was celebrating something even more monumental: six years of sobriety. In front of thousands of fans at her concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Lovato gave an emotional speech about her decision to become sober and why she's so public with her mental health challenges these days.
"Yesterday was a really big day for me," Lovato told the crowd, as reported by E! News. "Yesterday, six years ago, I was drinking vodka out of a Sprite bottle at nine in the morning, throwing up in the car and I just remember thinking, 'This is no longer cute. This is no longer fun. And I'm just like my dad.'"
So she decided to make some changes in her life—including no longer drinking.
As Lovato said previously, making sobriety a priority takes work "every single day."
For Lovato, staying sober takes regular therapy, AA meetings, medication, and physical activity. She also avoids potentially triggering TV shows and movies, she said in a recent interview.
Lovato also has experience with bipolar disorder and an eating disorder. So she's incredibly vocal about caring for her mental health and why it's so important for everyone to feel comfortable getting the help they need. She even brings guest speakers along on tour to share their stories about mental health and substance use to concertgoers.
"The reason why I became so open about my story is because I know that there are people here tonight that need to ask for help and I want them to know that it's OK," she said at the concert. "Mental health is something that we all need to talk about and we need to take the stigma away from it. So let's raise the awareness. Let's let everybody know it's OK to have a mental illness and addiction problem. I'm bipolar, whatever. I take care of myself."
She went on to thank her fans for their support through the ups and downs of her life. "I can never say thank you enough to you guys for the support that you've given me over the years," she said. "And you've forgiven me for my mistakes. So thank you for being a part of saving my life. I love you guys."
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