We Need To Pay Better Attention To Loved Ones' Mental Health
Demi Lovato is once again talking about her mental health, and her candor ― as usual ― is crucial in confronting stigma. But her latest comments also underscore the important role loved ones play in someone’s life when they have a mental health condition.
The singer discussed an unhealthy relationship with exercise and how it exacerbated her eating disorder on the podcast “Pretty Big Deal With Ashley Graham.” She told host Ashley Graham that her habits ― which included working out multiple times a day ― weren’t red flags to most, but they were definitely part of a bigger mental health issue.
“I thought the past few years was recovery from an eating disorder, when it actually was just completely falling into it,” she said. “I realized that ... maybe my symptoms weren’t as obvious as before, but it was definitely an eating issue.”
She told Graham she wished that someone around her had recognized the signs of a disorder and intervened.
“I was just running myself into the ground, and I honestly think that that’s kind of what led to everything happening over the past year,” she said. “It was just me thinking I found recovery when I didn’t and then living this kind of lie and trying to tell the world I was happy with myself when I really wasn’t.”
The wish that someone would check in or reach out is also the premise of Lovato’s new song, “Anyone,” which she debuted at the Grammy Awards last month. In the lyrics, Lovato sings about feeling like nobody’s listening to her and experiencing empty conversations.
“I almost listen back and hear these lyrics as a cry for help,” Lovato told Apple Music’s Beats 1. “And you kind of listen back to it and you kind of think, how did nobody listen to this song and think, ‘Let’s help this girl’?”
Mental health disorders are very consuming. ... Sometimes you’re not conscious enough to think, ‘I should tell my friends’ or ‘I should call my sister.’ You’re just...
