Demi Lovato reveals she started using opiates at 13 following car accident

Demi Lovato first used opiates after she was involved in a car accident when she was 13 years old.

During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, the singer opened up about her history with drugs and alcohol and recalled that she first tried opioids after she was prescribed the painkillers following an accident.

"I started experimenting for the first time when I was 12, or 13," she told host Alexandra Cooper. "I got into a car accident and they prescribed me opiates. My mom didn't think she would have to lock up the opiates from her 13-year-old daughter but I was already drinking at that point. I had been bullied and was looking for an escape."

The 30-year-old said her mother Dianna "locked them up" after she noticed how many pills her daughter was taking.

The Confident singer confessed that she "drank a lot" of booze during her teenage years and first drank alone when she stole beer from her stepdad's fridge, an action she called "a major red flag".

Recalling her first time experimenting with cocaine, Demi said, "At 17, it was the first time I tried coke and, like, loved it too much and then kinda bled into me going to treatment right after I turned 18."

The star went to rehab for the first time when she was 18 to receive treatment for substance abuse, an eating disorder and self-harm, a decision she said had been a "long time coming".

The treatment was not completely successful and Demi subsequently moved into a sober-living facility. In June 2018, she revealed she had relapsed after six years of sobriety, and the following month, she suffered an opioid overdose.