Demi Lovato reveals she used opiates for first time at 13

‘I had been bullied and was looking for an escape,’ the singer says

Demi Lovato has spoken out about her past experiences with substance abuse and revealed that she was 13 years old the first time she used opiates.

During Wednesday’s episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, the 30-year-old singer recalled how she first tried drugs as a teenger, noting how she had already “started drinking” at the time.

“I started experimenting for the first time when I was 12, or 13. I got into a car accident and they prescribed me opiates,” she told host Alexandra Cooper. “My mom didn’t think she would have to lock up the opiates from her 13-year-old daughter but I was already drinking at that point.”

“I had been bullied and was looking for an escape,” she added.

The “Cool for the Summer” singer said that when her mother realised “how many of the pills had disappeared”, she decided to “lock them up”.

As she explained how she “drank a lot” as a teen, Lovato noted that throughout the ages of 15 and 16, when her mother had a Xanax addiction, she stole some of her mother’s pills.

Although her experiences with drugs were “off and on” throughout those years, Lovato confessed that she decided to experiment with cocaine at the age of 17.

“It was the first time I tried coke and, like, loved it too much and then kinda bled into me going to treatment right after I turned 18,” the former Disney star added.

Lovato then discussed some of her previous drinking habits and her first time drinking, which was when she “stole beer” from her stepfather’s refrigerator.

“My first time drinking, I was alone, and that should have been a major red flag,” she explained. “I stole beer from my dad, in the fridge, my step dad and took it to my room and drank like four beers just to see what it was like to feel drunk.”

“I was like a little 90-pound girl,” she recalled. “So that was a lot. Then it started being with like friends and it wasn’t ever alone after that.”

This isn’t Lovato’s first time opening out about her experiences with substance abuse. In March 2021, she spoke about being “California sober”, an approach that involves consuming marijuana and alcohol in moderation. The decision came after her near-fatal overdose in July 2018. However, in December 2021, the actor said that she no longer supported her “California ways” and that ​​”sober sober is the only way to be”.

In a YouTube documentary, Dancing with the Devil, released in April 2021, the “Confident” singer detailed her journey through relapse, hospitalisation, and recovery after her overdose.