Demi Lovato Began Overeating At 8, Cutting At 11

By Amber Goodhand
RadarOnline.com Staff Reporter
Disney star Demi Lovato opened up about her battle with self-image admitting that she began overeating when she was just eight-years-old and cutting herself when she was 11.
"I was compulsively overeating when I was eight years old," Lovato said. "So, I guess, for the past 10 years I've had a really unhealthy relationship with food."
"I developed an eating disorder, and that's kind of what I've been dealing with ever since.”
Now 18, Lovato told ABC News’ Robin Roberts that she started cutting herself on her wrists when she was 11-years-old as a way to deal with the emotional pain she was struggling with.
“It was a way of expressing my own shame, of myself, on my own body. I was matching the inside to the outside,” Lovato said.
“And there were some times where my emotions were just so built up, I didn’t know what to do. The only way I could get that instant gratification was through an immediate release on myself.”
Since completing a three-month stint in rehab for “emotional and physical issues” Lovato has been very outspoken on issues she dealt with like bullying, bulimia, cutting and the effect it has on young girls.
"I was performing concerts on an empty stomach. I was losing my voice from purging,” Lovato said.
“I was self-medicating. I was not taking medication for depression, and I literally was so emotionally whacked out that I took it out on someone that meant a lot to me."
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