Demi Lovato hit a milestone this week: She is five years sober. The pop singer has been vocal in the past about her mental-health struggles and how she’s coped with addiction and eating disorders. On Wednesday, she continued that transparency when she shared a post on Instagram noting the Twelve Steps rehabilitation program and her five-year sobriety anniversary.
Though the five years amounts to more than 1,800 days, Lovato wrote that it hasn’t been an easy process for her. At times, she wrote in the post’s caption, she wanted to give up. “So many times I wanted to relapse but sat on my hands and begged God to relieve the obsession,” she wrote. “I’m so proud of myself but I couldn’t have done it without my higher power (God), my family, friends, and everyone else who supported me.”
Lovato has often spoken about he struggles, which compounded once she found fame on the Disney network. These days, Lovato is a proud mental-health advocate who speaks openly about her bipolar diagnosis and previous self-harm tendencies. “I went through kind of a breakdown about six years ago and I found out I was bipolar, and I thought, There’s nobody talking about this,” Lovato previously told the Cut. “There must be a reason why I’m going through this, and maybe the reason is so that I could help others.” It’s part of the reason why she became involved as the executive producer of the documentary, Be Vocal: Speak Up for Mental Health (view it for free online here). “The advice I’d give to somebody that’s silently struggling is, you don’t have to live that way,” she said. “You don’t have to struggle in silence.”