Demi Lovato reveals struggles with vision and hearing impairment following 2018 overdose

25 July, 2023

Demi Lovato has revealed that she struggles with both visual and hearing impairments, caused by an overdose in 2018.

READ MORE: Demi Lovato – ‘Holy Fvck’ review: a sonic middle finger and bold return to their rock roots

The pop star and former Disney Channel actress appeared on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live earlier this month, and opened up about her previous battle with addiction and the consequences it had on her health.

Speaking with the host, Lovato confessed that while she is a strong believer in having no regrets, the “closest thing” she comes to regretting is the near-fatal overdose she had five years ago – which left her with various long-term issues.

“I wouldn’t change my path because I don’t have any regrets… [But] the closest thing that I get to a regret is when I overdosed,” she began. “I wish somebody had told me, one, that I was beautiful, because I didn’t believe it, and two, I wish that someone would’ve told me that if you just sit with the pain, it passes.”

“That overdose caused me a lot of – it actually caused a disability,” she explained. “I have vision impairment and hearing impairment to this day,” she added, later admitting that she doesn’t drive anymore due to “blind spots in [her] vision”.

Later in the discussion, however, the 30-year-old singer shared her positive outlook on her health issues and said that she has begun to view the impairments as a “daily constant reminder” to continue her journey into sobriety.

“Anytime I look at something – like, I have blind spots in my vision when I look at your face – it’s a constant reminder to stay on the right path, because I never want that to happen again,” she stated.

This isn’t the first time that Lovato has opened up about her struggle with addiction, nor her near-fatal overdose in 2018. She also shed light on the incident in her 2021 YouTube documentary series, Dancing with the Devil.

In the series, she admitted that in the weeks coming up to her overdose, she had become addicted to meth, heroin, and crack cocaine. She also said that she was, in hindsight, amazed that she didn’t overdose sooner.

Demi Lovato. Credit: Jerod Harris/Getty Images

“I’m surprised I didn’t OD that night,” she shared in the docuseries. “I just went to town. I went on a shopping spree. That night I did drugs I’d never done before. I’d never done meth before, I tried meth. I mixed it with [ecstasy], with coke, weed, alcohol, oxycontin. And that alone should have killed me.”

The overdose instead happened two weeks later, after she began experimenting with heroin and crack cocaine. In the YouTube series, she also confessed that she suffered three strokes and a heart attack during the overdose, and was left with permanent brain damage.

As reported by The Independent, the vocalist is now fully sober as of 2021, following an initial adoption of a “California sober” approach– a lifestyle that allows marijuana and alcohol provided it is in moderation.

In other Lovato news, earlier this month the singer announced a new album, ‘Revamped’, which will reimagine hits from her career as rock songs. The latest single to be released from the forthcoming LP is titled ‘Sorry Not Sorry (Rock Version)’, and sees her team up with Guns N’ Roses icon Slash.

Two other tracks, ‘Heart Attack (Rock Version)’ and ‘Cool For The Summer (Rock Version)’ have previously been shared from the project.