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Demi Lovato is opening up about her difficult history with sobriety during an interview with Paper Magazine. The 28-year-old said that immediately after leaving rehab in 2018, she felt seriously triggered when an article called her “morbidly obese.”
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Lovato told the magazine, "I think it was right after I got out of rehab in 2018. I saw an article somewhere that said I was morbidly obese. And that is the most triggering thing that you could possibly write about somebody with an eating disorder."
"That sucked, and I wanted to quit, I wanted to use, wanted to give up," she explained. "And then I just realized that if I don't look at those things then they can't affect me. So, I stopped looking and I just really try not to look at anything negative."
Although that tabloid coverage is definitely a negative side effect of life in the public eye, it has not stopped Lovato from sharing her life experiences.
"I think the positives outweigh the negatives," she explained. "I think that if they didn't, I wouldn't be doing this."
Part of that openness is evident in her documentary Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil. One aspect she revealed of her current lifestyle is that she's actually not 100% sober right now; she drinks in moderation and smokes moderation.
She explained, "In my career, it benefits me to be a perfectionist," she says. "In my personal life, it definitely doesn't. Having been in recovery from eating disorders, body image and perfectionism are not friends in my eyes, and so it's been difficult to balance. But for the most part it's just something that you have to walk through with as much grace as possible."
Admitting this change to her approach was challenging for her, but she still felt like it was the right decision. "I feel like I wanted to get a great understanding of it for myself before I told the world about it," Lovato said. "And also, it's just really important to note that just because I am trying this doesn't mean it's for everybody. Just like the dogmatic views of complete sobriety, that isn't a one size fits all solution for everybody."
