Demi Lovato: 'Rehab was like prison'

X Factor USA judge Demi Lovato has opened up about her treatment for an eating disorder, saying that therapy felt like "a prison".

The star told talkshow host Katie Couric that coming to terms with her imposed surroundings was "so difficult at first".

X Factor USA judge Demi Lovato
Katie Couric

"I remember walking around saying 'I'm in prison!'" she revealed during an interview for Katie, which airs on Monday (September 24).

"They needed to have those strict rules in order for me to understand how sick I was. I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom by myself.

"We had specific phone times. There are tons of things you weren't allowed to have; you weren't allowed to have certain hair products or whatever that you could injure yourself with or possibly drink and you were just stripped of a lot of things."

Lovato - who has spoken out about her struggles with self harm and her diagnoses of bipolar disorder and bulimia - admitted that mealtimes posed the biggest challenge during her recovery.

"I also had someone watching over me every single time I ate," she said. "If I didn't finish what was on my plate - and often... I would cry because I physically couldn't stomach it - if that happened I would have to have little consequences.

"Nothing horrible, just not being able to go to the cafeteria to eat."

Demi Lovato

The 'Skyscraper' singer also confessed that her issues with her weight began at a very early age.

"I remember being 3 years old in a diaper and rubbing my hand over m! y stomac h," she said. "I remember thinking in my head 'I wonder if one day this will ever be flat?'"

Of the school bullies who verbally abused her, Lovato said: "I've always said I wished that they had just hit me in the face and gotten it over with.

"What they said to me sticks to me to this day and it [turned] me into the person I am today."

When Couric mentioned her 2010 altercation with a dancer on tour, Lovato admitted that it had taken place during a low point where she "wasn't really in control of [her] emotions".

"I was just out of control and there's no excuse for it," she said. "But it definitely showed everyone I needed to get help.

"I think two days later I was checking into rehab."

Simon Cowell recently admitted that he approached Lovato with a role on The X Factor USA because he saw her as "a Disney product who went bad, and knows that she went bad".

The music mogul went on to praise the 19-year-old, saying he was proud of how she "sorted herself out [and] came through the other side stronger than ever".

The X Factor USA continues on September 26 on Fox. It will air in the UK on ITV2 later this month.

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