>>>
dead?
>>>
the 18-year-old was on the international leg of her tour when she made the decision to check into a treatment facility. the news has her fans wondering exactly what's wrong and how long she'll be out of the spotlight. every day is like a blank canvass
>>
she's a rising young star in music and on television. 18-year-old
demi lovato
is best known for her role on "
camp rock
" a made for
tv movie
on the
disney channel
. lovato stars alongside the
jonas brothers
. but according to lovato's representative, the teen star is having some problems. for the past three months she's been on tour with the
jonas brothers
, this week performing in
south america
. a spokesman for lovato says that demi left her tour early this weekend in order to seek
medical treatment
for her emotional and physical illnesses. demi has decided to take personal responsibility for her actions and seek help. sources close to lovato's family say she has a long history of emotional problems, including
eating disorders
and cutting. the latest emotional hurdle, touring with her ex-girlfriend
joe jonas
, the two called it quits in may after dating for several months.
>>
it's bad enough that she's traveling around with
joe jonas
, her ex-boyfriend around the world, but to top it off, he brings his new girlfriend
ashley green
everywhere they go. it's enough to make a girl go crazy for sure.
>> reporter:
she's recently been linked to teen singing sensation justin bieber. sources say the tour with the
jonas brothers
combined with emotional issues became too overwhelming.
>>
she has a good head on her shoulders and she has a really good team behind her and that's very important. so i think she'll pull out of this just fine, she just needs to get the help she needs and get out of the spotlight for a little bit.
>> reporter:
and sources tell us lovato is not in treatment for a drug problem but would not be more specific. her representative says lovato looks forward to getting back to work in the near future.
>>
gail, good morning to you. as natalee just reported, family sources say that demi has a history of
eating disorders
and cutting. if so, what kind of treatment program would be right for her?
>>
expect that first she'll need an evaluation to understand what is causing these symptoms. eating symptoms and cutting symptoms can both can becaused by depression, an
anxiety disorder
. mood changes, sometimes
suicidal thoughts
, a whole come pill plalags of things. either medication and/or psychotherapy with it. psychotherapy being a kind of exploratory talk therapy about the stresses that she's under or something much more structured to try to look at the thoughts and the behaviors that are going on and actually be kind of a training to stop those behaviors.
>>
for those who don't understand what cutting is very simply, it is just that, it is doing mutilating things to your body. so typically what teenagers do is cut their arms or cut their bodies. they're often superficial scratches. they often don't draw blood, but the reason they're scary and dangerous is they can go deeper and they can actually doubt a vein or an artery or something.
>>
she had been dating
joe jonas
but they had broken up in the spring and she's now on tour with them, is that something that could trigger the behavior.
>>
if you already have somebody that's struggling with symptoms of depression and anxiety, a big emotional stressor, breaking up with your boyfriend, yes, having the new girlfriend come along, yes, but her life, and this is what we're seeing, meredith is celebrity children's lives are much more stressful than what the teen usually is equipped to deal with, especially not being in a family setting that provides the structure they need. teenagers tend to be impulsive, that's the way their brain is wired. the combination of this kind of stress with that kind of brain, it's not surprising that you would get something like that.
>>
this certainly predates any relationship issues she may have had. road to recovery, long haul?
>>
these are not short-term treatment issues. now inpatient might be a shorter term to get control of what's going on and create a program that can be managed as an outpatient. but i would expect somebody like this to be in treatment for quite some time, but perhaps she can do it while it's working, i would say a
mental health professional
personally, that's a
high risk
state, because you're putting them back in the same situation that probably caused it in the first place.
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