Inspirational teen star: Demi Lovato's shinning career contrasts her dark past and struggles with bullemia and self harm leading to a bipolar diagnosis.  ​

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In an MTV documentary, 'Stay Strong', Demi recalls the difficulty of her teenage years: "I had so many issues that were underneath, that needed to be taken care of, and we kept putting Band-Aids over it. It literally drove me insane. I was not eating, and purging, and self-harming. It was really difficult to be able to stop.  Everyone kind of made me a role model, and I hated that. I was partying, I was self-medicating. I was always stressing out. I felt like I was living a lie. I felt guilt and shame. I decided to take it out on myself. I harmed myself. It was my way of taking my own shame and my own guilt out on myself, and I was just depressed."

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Proving not every diagnosis is a curse, in an interview with Cosmopolitan, Demi says: "I felt relieved when I found out. Like I'm not completely crazy; there's a medical reason for all of it." She also acknowledges bipolar isn't something that offers an easy way out: "It's a daily thing; you don't get time off from it. And if I feel myself slipping back into old patterns, I have to ask others for help, which is hard for me to learn, because I really like doing everything on my own."

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