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Entertainment
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Entertainment
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Entertainment
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It took a while for Demi Lovato to open up about the issues that led her into rehab -- and the Disney starlet is impressed that Catherine Zeta-Jones has been so up front about her treatment for bipolar disorder. Lovato, 18, expressed her support for Zeta-Jones on her Twitter feed on Thursday.
"I don't know Catherine Zeta-Jones personally but what she has decided to do it SO brave.. And SO difficult but worth it," Lovato tweeted. "I'm proud of her."
On Wednesday, Zeta-Jones' rep acknowledged that "after dealing with the stress of the past year, Catherine made the decision to check in to a mental-health facility for a brief stay to treat her Bipolar II Disorder." That stay lasted five days, and Zeta-Jones, 41, is now out of the center and reportedly set to begin working on two upcoming films, Playing the Field and Lay the Favorite. She was spotted out and about in Connecticut Thursday, grabbing pizza with hubby Michael Douglas.
For her part, Lovato has been slowly coming clean about her own stay in rehab. In an interview for the May issue of Seventeen magazine, the teen star is described as having a history of depression and cutting herself, as well as eating-disorder behaviors such as starving herself, and bingeing and purging.
"I basically had a nervous breakdown," says Lovato, who has been made a contributing editor of Seventeen so that she can give teens the benefit of her experiences. "I was really bad off. My parents and manager pulled me aside and said, 'You need to get some help.' It was an intervention. I wanted freedom from the inner demons. I wanted to start my life over."
Lovato says she's still coping with finding healthy ways to deal with stress, and that her struggle with eating disorders and depression isn't over.
"There have been times when I definitely have been tempted to get rid of my dinner," she tells the magazine. "But I will deal with it for the rest of my life because it's a life-long disease. I don't think there's going to be a day when I don't think about food or my body, but I'm living with it, and I wish I could tell young girls to find their safe place and stay with it."
The star will soon be sharing her full story in interviews with Good Morning America and 20/20. Interviewer Robin Roberts tweeted this week that Lovato was "incredibly open. Didn't hold back at all, wants her story to help others. It will!" Now that's good news.
