Demi Lovato Recalls Feeling "So Relieved" After Receiving Bipolar Diagnosis

Demi Lovato is not sorry when it comes to speaking about her mental health.

The Grammy winner recently opened up about how she felt after her 2011 bipolar diagnosis, sharing that it helped her get a better grasp on extreme emotions throughout her life.

"I was so relieved that I had finally had a diagnosis," Demi said during the Hollywood & Mind Summit in Los Angeles May 11, per People. "I had spent so many years struggling, and I didn't know why I was a certain way in dealing with depression at such extreme lows, when I seemingly had the world in front of me just ripe with opportunities."

The 30-year-old pointed to moments that should have been a happy experience for her like being on tour as a teen.

"I remember being 15 years old on a tour bus and watching fans follow my bus with posters and trying to get me to wave outside the window," Demi recalled, "and all I could do was just sit there and cry."

She added, "And I remember being in the back of my tour bus watching my fans and crying and being like, 'Why am I so unhappy?'"

As for why the "Heart Attack" singer felt it was important to go public with her diagnosis, she noted she wanted to pass on what she's learned to others in similar situations.

"I knew that if I could help others with their journey, then that's exactly what I wanted to do," Demi continued. "And so I decided to be open and honest about what I had finally learned about myself."

After initially being diagnosed at 18, the Disney Channel star got candid on what she learned from the disorder.

"I feel like I am in control now where my whole life I wasn't in control," she told People in 2011. "What's important for me now is to help others."

Over the past decade, Demi has continued to be vocal about her struggles with mental health, in both her music and in a series of documentaries. Her most recent docu-series in 2021 Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil even addressed her near-fatal 2018 drug overdose. But these days, Demi's new chapter is only getting started.

"My story's not done," she told Alternative Press in August, "so I want to be able to say by the time I've written a book, ‘OK, this is me grown up.'"