Dancing With Devils: On Demi Lovato and Recovery
CW: Addiction, suicidal episode
Originally published at https://www.splicetoday.com.
I hope Demi Lovato is okay. Three years after their near fatal heroin overdose, the singer returned earlier this year with both a new album and docuseries titled Dancing with the Devil detailing what led to their relapse. This isn’t Lovato’s first comeback documentary; 2012’s Stay Strong came out two years after their first stint in rehab, followed by 2017’s Simply Complicated, where Lovato revealed they were still using while filming Stay Strong. Lovato sings on the album’s closing track that they’re finally “in a good place,” and it seems like they are. They’re out as nonbinary, moderately drinks and smokes weed, and can finally control their food consumption.
Not everyone is convinced. Psychologist Dr. Kirk Honda, who reviewed Dancing with the Devil in a series of YouTube videos, says he’s seen a lot of clients that, like Lovato, tried to break their addictions with moderate use, but failed. One of my Facebook friends recently said she refuses to listen to Lovato’s music because “it seems like quite literally every single thing they do is a cry for attention and/or a publicity stunt.” (Lovato’s recent clash with fro-yo shop The Bigg Chill didn’t help, either.) Since Dancing with the Devil isn’t Lovato’s first time making a grand spectacle of their recovery, it’s easy to be skeptical, but I’m still rooting for them because I understand.
We create narratives to make sense of reality. Life is messy and complicated; narratives are simple and easy. The common narrative of recovery is that once an addict hits rock bottom and enters rehab, they come out sober and live happily ever after. It’s the classic story structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Some people’s recovery stories align with that structure, but for most, recovery is the beginning of the story, not the end. Recovery isn’t a climactic battle with the final boss of a video game; it’s more like trying to slay a hydra-cut off one head, and the beast grows two more.
I began my recovery in December 2017 after spending a year living inside a bottle. At first the goal was to quit drinking, but as it progressed, I discovered more addictions to conquer: social media, other…
