Demi Lovato Reveals She Contemplated Suicide at Age 7

Singer appears on Dr. Phil and reveals that in elementary school, she thought about suicide to "end the pain"

By Meg Swertlow Mar 20, 2018 7:20 PMTags

Demi Lovato has never been one to hold back and her latest TV interview is certainly no different than the vulnerable, yet strong woman the world has come to love...

In a new interview with Dr. Phil, the "Sorry Not Sorry" singer gets candid about her sobriety, her suicidal thoughts and her recovery from a seemingly hopeless state of being.

During her sit-down on Dr. Phil, which airs on Tuesday, the 25-year-old songstress opens up about the first time she had thoughts of taking her own life.

"The very first time I was suicidal was when I was seven and I had this fascination with death," admitted the singer. "I have experienced things things that I have not talked about and don't know if I ever will talk about.

The singer also made it clear that she was a child who was suffering: "At seven, I knew that if I were to take my own life that the pain would end."

When asked about whether or not she still had these thoughts, the "Skyscraper" singer also acknowledged the thoughts come back during times of turmoil.

"It came back when I was bullied; it came back several times when I as struggling with depression—my bipolar disorder. I turned to cutting and there was awhile there when my mom was afraid to wake me up in the morning she didn't know if I would be alive or not because every time I cut it got deeper and deeper."

Luckily those times have passed, but she does say her eating disorder require daily attention.

"My struggles with my food issues are something that I still deal with it," said the star.

During the chat, Dr. Phil also asks about when and why the singer, who just celebrated six years of sobriety, went to drugs and alcohol for comfort at such an early age.

I was bullied when I was 12," confessed Demi. "I was searching for something to numb me out and to fit in and I turned to alcohol and that's where I felt relief."

She says that kids bullied her for being on Barney and Friends when she was younger and that eventually other girls, whom she considered friends, turned on her—eventually circulating a "suicide petition" around the school.

"The thing that really hurt me is that friends turned on me. It was over petty drama that 12-year-olds have in the 7th grade," she said during the discussion. "The reaction was so much more extreme than what was normal, they had a suicide petition and they passed it around the school and got people to sign it. I was cyber bullied and they made fun of my weight."

In the interview, Demi also got frank about her troubled relationship with her father Patrick Lovato, an alcoholic who left Demi and her mother when she was young. Patrick eventually died at the age of 53 from cancer. Demi was just 20 years old at the time.

"He was abusive. He was mean but he wanted to be a good person and he wanted to have his family, and when my mom married my step dad, he still had this huge heart where he would say, 'I am so glad that he's taking care of you and doing the job that I wish I could do."

To watch all that and more, tune into Demi's interview with Dr. Phil on Tuesday's Dr. Phil.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).