Demi Lovato believes she was “born” with an eating disorder. The 19-year-old singer-and-actress, who checked into rehab in October 2010 to receive treatment for self-harm and bulimia, can’t remember ever having a normal relationship with food and has always been plagued with thoughts about being too fat.
She said, “I think I was born with an eating disorder, because I’ve never had a relationship with food that was normal. I remember looking in the mirror with nappies on thinking, ‘You’re fat, change it.’ I started overeating when I was about eight; I was a binge eater. Then when I turned 12. I was bullied in school and they called me fat. I went from being an overeater to stopping eating and I lost about 30lb. Then I started throwing up to lose weight.”
Demi also revealed she started self-harming when she was 12 years old and admits to “self-medicating” with drugs and alcohol. She added in an interview with You magazine, “I started when I was 12, when I was bullied. It was my way of dealing with the stress.”