Demi Lovato Reveals She Had Suicidal Thoughts At Age 7

Demi Lovato just opened up about some painful moments from her past, sharing that she once considered suicide when she was just a child.

In a TV interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, which aired on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, Demi Lovato revealed that she'd first had suicidal thoughts when she was 7 years old. "The very first time I was suicidal was when I was seven and I had this fascination with death," the "Sorry Not Sorry" singer confessed, noting, "I have experienced things things that I have not talked about and that I don't know if I ever will talk about."

Lovato continued, "But at seven, I knew that if I were to take my own life that the pain would end."

When asked if these dark thoughts had ever returned over the years, the 25-year-old admitted that they have, especially, she stated, when she'd been struggling with her bipolar disorder. She said, "I turned to cutting and there was a while there when my mom was afraid to wake me up in the mornings because she didn't know when she opened the door if I would be alive or not because every time I cut it got deeper and deeper."

Lovato, who said her peers had criticized her weight, also opened up about her eating disorder, sharing that she still has to deal with every single day.

Regarding the start of her past drug and alcohol abuse, Lovato explained that she'd been bullied since she was 12 years old. "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 said.

Lovato shared that she'd been deeply hurt by her friends turning against her in the seventh grade, noting that their behavior toward her was "more extreme than what was normal." She said that her friends had created a "suicide petition" that they'd had other students sign.

As Nicki Swift previously reported, Lovato has often opened up about her substance abuse issues with her fans in the past. In her YouTube documentary, Simply Complicated, the singer shared how her relationship with her father had helped shape her feelings toward drugs and alcohol. "My dad was an addict and an alcoholic," she stated, "and I guess I always searched for what he found in drugs and alcohol because it fulfilled him and he chose that over a family."

Fortunately, despite her past struggles with addiction, Lovato has been leading a sober life for the past few years. On March 15, she celebrated six years of sobriety.