No one could believe it when reports first surfaced that Disney cutie Demi Lovato allegedly wigged out and smacked down back-up dancer Alex Welch. Then it was revealed that Demi had deeper issues: cutting, eating disorders, Bipolar disorder and depression. Then she went into treatment.

Demi spoke freely about her journey in Elle's September issue. Now 19, the starlet got her first big break in Barney & Friends. By time she starred in Camp Rock with then sweetie, Joe Jonas, she was a household name. Not only known by her girl-next-door adorableness, but for her pipes.

While everything seemed fab on the outside, trouble was brewing on the inside. The star had been homeschooled since she was 12 due to bullying. “Those girls never gave me an explanation for why they were bullying me,” she says. “One of the words they called me was fat. At that age, you think, Oh, so I don’t have friends because I’m fat.” In response to that, at the age of 9, she started purging and starving herself. It grew into anorexia and bulimia.

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By 2008, scabs on her wrists and arms from cutting herself became visible on the red carpet. Her handlers decided bracelets were the perfect accessory to cover them up.

By the time she was touring with Joe Jonas, Demi was spiraling out of control. “I was completely out of line all summer,” she says. “Just the worst attitude—totally ungrateful.” Then the smack that was heard around the world happened. “I just felt like she’d betrayed me,” Lovato says. “That’s the bottom line...When you punch someone on a plane, enough is enough."

While the tabloids claimed that Demi was being a brat because her ex was dating Twilight's Ashley Greene, Demi said,“I wouldn’t credit my meltdown to a guy. There was so much other stuff in my life.”

After getting treatment, Demi returned to the grind started recording her the song, Skyscraper: "I doubled over, tears streaming down my face. It was a sight to see.” The song contains the lyrics, “Go on and try to tear me down/ I will be rising from the ground.”

It might just become her new anthem.

PJ Gach is Senior Editor: Style + Beauty at BettyConfidential.