Demi Lovato Speaks Candidly About “Throwing Up” During Eating Disorder

Before she entered rehab at the end of 2010, Demi Lovato admits that she used to manipulate people and lie so she could continue with her eating disorder. Demi says she would lie about eating and would go to the bathroom to throw up:

“I was a very manipulative person when it came to my eating disorder. You name it, I did it. I would lie about already eating. I would lie about having to go to the bathroom. I would go to any lengths to make sure I was sick.”

Demi says she began throwing up her food after she was bullied at school, even though she did have issues with food from a younger age too:

“I began compulsive eating at the age of eight. Then, when I started being bullied at 12, I stopped eating. I went from overeating to undereating to throwing up.”

When her eating disorder was at its worst, Demi says she couldn’t look at photos of herself and she couldn’t fight the way she felt about herself, even when others were telling her she looked beautiful:

“It never really went away. I’d try, but the impulses would come back. You feel like you’re on a downward spiral, but you have to fight through it. I had real difficulty with my body image. It was hard to look at myself in magazines. My friends would say, ‘Wow you look so gorgeous.’ Everyone else was looking at what they thought as a beautiful girl, but I just couldn’t see that when I looked at myself.”