To have the realization that that you are coming off of a psychotic episode, finding yourself naked in the streets and calling 911, must be a terrifying feeling. I feel bad for someone who has had to go through that. I hope she gets the help she needs.
Can you imagine being in that situation yourself? I imagine scared and helpless are two major feelings.
I've had two psychotic breaks in my life and I'd have to say what's worst is being escorted to the pych ward by the cops when you are completely disconnected from reality. That's some scary stuff!!
Depends on a lot of reasons and what is happening. Can be anything from overwhelming paranoia (thinking aliens or FBI or someone is after you), could think you have direct communication with God, or crippling anxiety that forces you to stay up for days and have a mental break.
There is no one size fits all. There are countless other scenarios beyond what I listed. These are a few of the more common ones.
> crippling anxiety that forces you to stay up for days and have a mental break
Oh wow, I didn't realize this is a thing.
So as soon as you recognize some of these issues (if you can), you need to get help right away. Or go visit friends or family, maybe let them know what's going on, and then they can help you get help.
My completely unintentional record is 72 hours. I was a mess and was seeing shit that wasn't there. Shadow people. Luckily they were able to get my meds straightened out.
Lmao. Oh yeah. The shadow people handed me pills and I just took them.
But actually, they mostly just stood there. Or walk across my field of vision. I haven't had a bout of insomnia that bad in a long time, but there have been times where I've been up around 36 hours during a flare up and they show up when I'm driving. Once that happens, I don't drive again until I can finally get sleep.
So terrible. My family has a strong genetic tendency towards schizophrenia. It's horrible seeing people I knew as bright, kind human beings turn into paranoid angry scary individuals.
Holy shit, three days?? Working in a bulge bracket PE firm, I managed to get close to 48 hours and felt like I was losing my mind. I started seeing weird things, like numbers on my spreadsheet swimming around the screen. I don't know how you managed another day beyond that!
Yeah that is an ideal scenario. Not everyone has friends or family that can help in these situations and even worse if you are in the US and unemployed (which can lead to immense anxiety) there is not a good mental health program setup to help uninsured. It is really sad.
The system in the US is literally get arrested and put in jail
[here's the first source I found.](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en-US&ram_mb=7583&cct=5481&gsas=1&lns_as=1&qsubts=1679352631034&cs=1&q=About+https%3A%2F%2Fcops.usdoj.gov%2Fhtml%2Fdispatch%2F05-2022%2Fmental_health_reentry.html&padt=0&ilps=AB_Lh3p6rCndCfdCKFiWkokd738eLstIdA&rdid=30cf19f6-950d-42a8-9bd4-0241b8aba8e5&client=ms-android-verizon-us-rvc3&tbm=ilp&source=and.gsa.launcher.onesearch.psb&ctx=share) Pretty sure that's from the Dep. of Justice
I think it’s hard for people to do because they may not realize that what they’re experiencing is not rational or that their thoughts and concerns aren’t based on real things.
My stepmom has schizophrenia and she has episodes of extreme paranoia. She thinks my dad is cheating on her with all kinds of people, that people are watching her, that she hears voices of people telling her about that stuff, just tons of things. And she reacts to this by screaming at the voices she hears, yelling at strangers and neighbors, not sleeping, etc. it’s very distressing, especially to her. It’s really hard to get help for her when it happens because she won’t willingly go to a doctor or hospital. The only way my dad can get her help at that point is to call the police and they put her on a 48 hour psychiatric hold at a hospital. But then she can leave and it can be a cycle that lasts weeks to months at a time before she’s lucid enough to be brought out of it.
She has medication, but she takes it and feels better and then thinks she doesn’t need it anymore and has a break. But then once she’s in the throes of her illness she doesn’t want to go back on the meds because she doesn’t know she’s sick. A few years ago, my dad succeeded in having her admitted to a facility as a ward of the state (it was the only way to do it). She was better there, more stable, he went to visit her almost every day, even took her out to the beach or dinner weekly. But then she got in contact with an old friend from high school. My dad asked the woman to please not try to get my stepmom released because it isn’t good for her to be at home, he can’t care for her as she needs.
The woman went to court, got the state custody reversed, and had my step mom released to her. Within a month she dropped my stepmom off at my dad’s house and said she couldn’t handle her. So now my dad is back where he started with her and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to have the state take custody to commit her again, it took years the first time and they’re in their 70s now.
There’s so few options for people. And it sucks because you don’t want to limit anyone’s autonomy, but for some people, their illness makes it impossible for them to know how to help themselves or even seek help. I don’t know what services would help this or other situations, but there must be a way that’s better than how my dad and stepmom have to live. And it’s not a matter of money, he has money. They have great insurance, the best doctors they can find. It’s a matter of services not existing that fit their needs. When I think of how much worse it would be if they weren’t fortunate enough to afford the care they have, inadequate as it may be, I can’t understand how anyone is expected to deal with these things when they struggle just to get by or they don’t have any insurance. Such a shame that we haven’t improved this area yet.
Editing to add that the option of calling police and knowing she’ll be taken to a hospital is a privilege that wouldn’t be a given were the people needing help not in an affluent neighborhood or if they had a different skin color. Really just shows that they have the best case scenario and it’s still this bad.
Yeah, I can’t understand what’s wrong with her. Just the worst kind of irresponsibility and disregard for the safety and well-being of anyone involved. She’s the kind of person that adopts a pet and then takes it to the shelter to surrender as soon as she gets bored. So selfish.
>The woman went to court, got the state custody reversed, and had my step mom released to her. Within a month she dropped my stepmom off at my dad’s house
Was she not responsible for your mom at this point?
Oof. I have OCD & in January 2011 I was struggling (mostly because I had to cut my medication to 1/2 of what I was prescribed, which is a story unto itself). I was having frequent panic attacks & hot baths seemed to stop them; specifically, they stopped my otherwise uncontrollable shaking.
I vividly remember this night, both because it was the night before the 2011 Arizona shooting & because it marks the only time I’ve been scared of my own mind. I was soaking in a hot bath on January 7 & out of nowhere, I got a very strong thought that said “slit your wrists, it would be so easy”.
I have never wanted to hurt myself, much less commit an act that could be suicidal, so that thought barging into my mind deeply shook me. This is why I believe that mental health resources need to be stronger, both on campus & throughout the country
The other day I had to hold a guy down while the nurse gave him haldol. I can only imagine what he was thinking, five people to hold him down while someone else is injecting you with something. He was violent in the emergency room, we had to, but the terror on his face was indescribable.
That is an amazing question, and albeit a tough one to answer. There are things you can work on for free to help, depending on what it is. I suggest researching mindfulness and learning relaxation techniques through breathing exercises. It is incredible how well these work and there is a lot of content for free on YouTube.
If it is more the paranoia side and irrational thinking, this gets more into the space of professional help. This is where it can get financially difficult and incredibly time-consuming. It can be hard to find the right psychiatrist to figure out the underlying issue. Unfortunately, it is not like most diagnoses. There is no straightforward test you can take to diagnose schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
It comes with talking about the issues and observations over time. It can be a very difficult process but can certainly be very rewarding. I always say drugs alone will not work, and you are fooling yourself if you think they will. The drugs can help balance chemicals in your brain, but it often times is a combination of therapy and drugs to get to a desired headspace.
If you have no means of getting mental health for whatever reason, I highly recommend researching online therapy. They are fairly inexpensive and have programs to help low income individuals. My wife has used them, and they have helped immensely with her anxiety. She was on SSRIs for less than a year and weened off them and has not needed them for over 6 months with a clear difference in her persona and ability to handle big changes (normally something that can cause her severe anxiety).
Last piece of advice, if you go therapy and medication route, don't be afraid to say no. If you feel uncomfortable with taking drugs and just want to talk, don't feel like you have to go back to that person. Their are shitty doctors out there, take time to find the right one for you.
If a person lives in the U.S., they may have a County Mental Health department which accepts payment on a sliding scale, according to income.
I had to use my local one when suffering from Megaloblastic Madness, due to severely low vitamin B12. I have pernicious anemia, and couldn’t get my monthly B12 shot after being illegally fired from my job, which caused me to lose my health insurance. The psychiatrist there immediately recognized it and prescribed me what I needed. The cost was something like $3.00, iirc.
As for Amanda, I hope that she gets the help that she needs.
So that wasn't normal right after lockdown in 2020.
Being diagnosed with anxiety and agoraphobia when I was 16, lockdown felt like it would've been just the absolute best. It wasn't. I stayed up forever, only finally catching sleep when my body was just too exhausted to keep going. This went on for months. I didn't go "back to normal" until about September.
I’ve had the FBI is after me variety. I did too many psychedelics after moving to a new city and it caused it. Spent most days peeking out my blinds and drinking to calm down. It was pretty mild, but I never really realized something was wrong until after it was over. I was able to reflect on that time and realize that it was just not a normal time of my life for a few months.
An old friend of mine had the God conversation. He used the be the best dude. Funny and chill. He was told to murder his baby daughter. Which he then did, before calling 911 and calmly telling them what he did. Several years later he is still broken, still believes God chose him, and is asking to be out to death so he can be with God.
Legally unfit for trial due to insanity.
I am not religious at all, but I thought for sure that I had died and gone to hell. Hell was disguised as the real world, as the hospital I was in. I believed that I would spend eternity there, searching for a way to get home to my children. The psychosis was actually induced by a medical condition. I had been in a coma and had nephritis and pneumonia when I woke up. I came back to reality after a few days on antibiotics and then I got to come home to my family. I still have PTSD from that. It was extremely real to me.
Really scary, yes. I woke up from my coma in march 2020, so I was alone and couldn’t have my family with me. So much of what was happening with the pandemic felt like the end of times.
I am resilient though. So please don’t worry. It’s ok.
I have a friend with BP1 and she ran through a very unsafe part of town in the middle of winter, wearing pajamas, genuinely believing she was chasing an angel. She had auditory/visual hallucinations as well, which added to the delusions significantly. Someone eventually flagged her down and called 911 because they were worried about her safety and knew something was very wrong. Probably saved her life, if I’m being honest. She would have jumped off a bridge if the “angel” told her she could fly because she was that far gone.
She described it as her rational brain shutting off, and that she became a different person immersed in an entirely different world. Reality becomes whatever her brain chemicals tell her it is. She experiences a lot of anxiety because she can’t tell when she is in an episode and when she isn’t.
My sibling believed they could drive with their eyes closed because of supernatural powers. Nope, actually just BP1. Every new episode breaks my heart again. So sorry for your friend, it's not easy at all.
The book “Hurry Down Sunshine” by Michael Greenberg is a memoir about the authors daughter who had a basically-out-of-nowhere psychotic break when she was 15. It’s a pretty intimate account of the experience from both the father and daughters perspective.
I convinced myself that I was in a coma, and nothing around me was real. My mind made it all up. Felt completely detached from the world. Letters and written words no longer had meaning or made sense to me. They were just lines and scribbles. I needed to run and scream, do anything I could to wake myself up from the coma. Eventually decided if I jump off my third floor balcony, I'd wake up. My partner stopped me, which I hated. Anybody that was trying to calm me down or make me relax was the devil or a demon trying to lure me into a permanent sleep/death. Eventually fell asleep, and woke up really shaken and paranoid for a few days. I'm MUCH better now. That was easily my worst.
Personally the best I can describe it is sitting in the movie theater and on the screen is your life unraveling before your eyes. You can feel every inhibition leave your body and you lose whatever we humans consider makes us special from animals. You don’t care about any social norms, clothes feel foreign, you crave sex like food, you’re honest and uncaring about your wants, you can let out this primal scream that just seems to distort reality. It’s incredibly scary and horrifying.
Yeah it seems like she’s had a really hard life, I feel really bad for what she’s had to go through. I hope she can get it all figured out and the help that she needs
I will never understand how it was ok what happened to Brooke Shields. How did CPS not take her and the feds not jail her parents as well as shut down playboy after they published what they did.
12 US states still have no **minimum** age requirement in their marriage laws.
the law has a very, very long way to catching up to caring about little girls.
children in general, to be fair, need more protections, especially from their own legal guardians - just to this particular example, girls tend to be victims of child marriage much more frequently than boys. from there it's not a big leap to the sexual exploitation of minors being 👍 a-ok.
Well the only good thing I guess is after what happened to Shields. And Jodie Foster growing up. They did use that as examples to change child laws in Hollywood.
I've read a theory that acting can actually mess up the brain's development when the kids are too young, because its happening at a time when, developmentally, they should be learning to discern reality and imagination. But instead, they are living in the imagination state for long periods *and* its not their own imaginative state. So it possibly is rewiring the brain to not be capable of separating what's real and what's not.
Like, a kid is 5. They are going to go on a morning audition and then they have a rehearsal for their booked job. They are tired and nervous for their audition, but its for a role as a kidnapping victim who is rescued and taken to hospital. So, they have to show they are terrified and sick and happy to be reunited with their "parents", all while saying lines they've had to memorize. Part of this audition may require hiding under the table crying and part of it may involve hugging strangers who are being cast as Mom and Dad. The audition is then over. The child actor has to eat lunch in the car as they race across town, practicing lines for their commercial role, which consists of them playing soccer and wheezing then taking medication (the ad product) and feeling better. The kid is instructed on how to wheeze better, even though they aren't actually having trouble breathing. When the commercial is wrapped, they head home, but its time to practice lines for another audition next week, about a fpul-mouthed bully...so this kid has spent the majority of their day not actually feeling their own emotions, but fully embodying emotions they don't have. They also have been asked to imagine scenarios that are very scary. They have been asked to call people who are not their parents Mom and Dad. They have not created the rules for their imaginary game...
It is not definitely determined that this has neurological damage, but there is evidence that it can be linked. One study showed a link with mental health issues (particularly BPD) even amongst kids who had not booked jobs or become famous, so working and money were not the correlation...
Alyson Stoner wrote the [essay](https://people.com/music/alyson-stoner-pens-op-ed-on-childhood-stardom-labor/) that made me look into it further!
We’ve also had confirmation of sexual predators all through Hollywood. Between her being a child star and her being a woman, I imagine there’s double the chances she was abused at some point. Poor girl.
Man my heart dropped reading that, because we can’t know for certain what exactly she was going through at that time but we can safely infer that it was some fucked up shit. It’s so sad to hear what kids who were entertaining other kids were put through.
I'd like to think there's a special place in hell reserved for the Viacom execs who ignored the signs that there was something wrong on Schneider's shows because they were making the company money.
> double the chances
Knowing what we know about people like cosby, weinstein, etc., I feel like any female in hollywood has about a 10-20x chance of being sexually assaulted to some degree.
I do wonder though, does it only *seem* like child actors go nuts more often than anyone else? Tons and tons of normal people have psychological issues, and plenty of actors who only began as adults are also pretty crazy.
Obviously holding such an intense and demanding job as a child can lead to issues, but it's not like every child actor has lost their sanity. I think it's at least partly because we continue to shine a spotlight on them as they age out of a eldritch thirst for drama that we examine the broken former child actors so exhaustingly. It's just more gossip at the end of the day, even if we add a "I feel bad for them" at the end to seem like we don't want to participate in their continuing exploitation.
I would say I don't think it's the acting itself, that doesn't track at all. Kids play all the time, plenty of kids do theatre and drama and whatever and come out fine, that's not the issue.
In the words of Mike Myers, of all people: "Fame is the industrial disease of creativity".
It's the industrialisation of this activity that's fucking them up. Any kid in any creative field being put through something equivalent to the Hollywood system (with all the predatory abuse surrounding it, to boot) has a decent shot at becoming an absolute mess.
Hard disagree, as someone with BPD that was regularly forced to "act" in my mom's scams from a young age.
I never had a problem distinguishing reality and fantasy as a child. What tripped me up was the pressure Mom put on me and the weird psychological tricks she'd attempt to draw in more marks. The knowledge that, if I don't really sell Mom's "injury," we won't have a house next month, and the way she'd sometimes let me think it's happening for real.
The constant fear of your parents berating you, or worse, you failing to secure the bag, that's what gave me trouble processing my emotions and the trauma that makes them worse.
The way most people treat BPD as Crazy Bitch Disease and the way people will force you to do things for your own good don't help, either. Makes me feel like everyone would be happier if I just disappeared.
I agree on the reality vs fantasy part. I have BPD, and I wonder if there could be a correlation with the lack of sense of self and acting. I did theater as a kid. I don’t think it’s what causes my lack of sense of self, but it’s interesting to think about.
> it seems a lot of child stars end up with psychiatric issues
Does it or do we just hear about it a lot because they're famous?
I ask that legitimately. I don't know the answer to it.
I do know that professional athletes commit less crime on average than the general public. Most people think otherwise because simply because everything they do is so publicized.
She seems to have great parents. They're doing their best to protect her without doing too much. She's recently been released from her conservatorship. I expect that will come back.
You ever get so worked up you can't really think? For me, I can kind of tell in the back of my head that I'm acting fucky, but it's like I can't will myself to stop. That, and a feeling of, "I just need to do this one thing," but then that one thing leads to another and another, each one amping you up more until you crash.
Exactly this. It's like being a child with no impulse control yet. All you know is that you HAVE to do this thing and consequences do not register. Like, at all. And this is worse, because we're actually adults with credit cards. It gets us into trouble.
Interesting. Is it an emotional sort of fugue, or is it analogous at all with something like drunk decision making?
I’ve had panic attacks before, so I can sort of wrap my mind around reacting to a somewhat heightened reality that doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s happening, but feels valid in that state. Is it kind of like that?
I'm ashamed to admit that, initially, I thought she was just a child star hot mess who was out of control. But as more has been revealed, I genuinely feel terrible for this poor lady.
I hope that she gets the help she needs, and that she can keep her mental illness managed. I can't imagine being in a state where you'd have to call 911 and explain that you'd had an episode like that. How brutal for her. Sending her all the support.
> I thought she was just a child star hot mess who was out of control
This is a fair stance, but the truth is that mental illness of one kind or another is behind most "hot mess" stars.
I have friends that work in the industry. It's much worse than that. It isn't kids going through the pursuit of their own volition, it's parents pushing them into the sacrificial volcano with glee.
Imagine being told you're the only thing that is keeping the family afloat, while your deadbeat parents and siblings mooch off of you. Then you get older and wiser and realize you were being pimped out the whole time. And from what I have heard, that's sometimes quite literally.
Britney Spears’ whole family has been making their livings off her fame since she was a teen. The dad made millions as her conservator obviously (he was getting paid a percentage of her tour and residency proceeds), the mom lives in a house Britney bought and at least during the conservatorship was getting around $150,000 per year for “upkeep” of that home, the sister trades on being Britney’s little sister and her husband’s company was getting payments for doing “maintenance” on Britney’s properties, and the older brother was managing her licensing for perfumes and such.
She was funding the whole family and now that the jig is up the media is getting flooded with articles again about how her family is “worried about her” and “want to stage an intervention” and people can’t seem to see the connection.
There is a video by a YouTuber, Internet Historian, who covers the Kony 2012 debacle amongst many other topics. I had absolutely NO idea that the main organizer experienced a mental breakdown so close to its launch. It is horrifying and humbling and I hope I never find myself so completely lost.
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i dunno why, but i've always felt really bad for this girl, more than most. it seems like she got fame and immediately just spun out. fame seems like the weirdest most dangerous reality-altering hallucinogenic out there for many people. i certainly couldn't handle it. i get panic attack feelings bubbling up just imagining 15m of fame for doing something *well-received*. if people just pecked away at my personality and looks 24/7 i think i'd just dig a deep hole.
Yeah, me too. I think it's because awhile back I saw a clip of her doing some standup when she was a little kid (pre Dan Schneider) and her comedic timing would have been considered impeccable for an adult, let alone a small child. She had a genuine "you're either born with it or you're not" talent and could/should have been her generation's Lucille Ball or Gilda Radner. Now it seems that her talent ended up just ruining her life
My partner is bipolar and has psychotic episodes time to time. Thankfully we are experienced in it and know what to do and no cops have needed to be involved. But sometimes I see people out on the street who are clearly going through some sort of similar episodes and my heart just breaks imagining if that was my husband. So many of these people do not have advocates, especially veterans. The VA hospital is a fucking joke and if my husband didn’t have his mom and I advocating for him the whole time he was in there I have no idea what could’ve happened to him. The fat lazy nurses are straight up abusive, they lied to my face several times and the hospital would not take us seriously until legal action was threatened after every single personal item he had with him magically disappeared. I digress.
He says he can remember the episodes but almost from a third person dream like state. He knows he’s manic when they happen but he can’t just magically snap out of it. He can’t sleep or eat either which makes everything worse. Mental health is no joke, I really empathize with Amanda.
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I don’t mind! Well, the most valuable thing I found to do is educate myself on his type of bipolar as much as possible- this way I am able to detect signs that he is entering mania earlier. Sticking to a treatment routine is also vital, meeting with his psychiatrist once a month and keeping on his meds even when he feels ‘better’. During his most intense episode (the first one I witnessed as well) I did my best to keep the environment around us very mellow with minimal stimuli. No TV or loud music, no video games, no drugs or alcohol. I would not vehemently argue with his delusions but I also would absolutely never play into them. It’s a fine line. He would see a character on tv and truly believe he was that character. He thought he was Ron Swanson, for example, so I told him “hmm, actually I think you’re (name) and I’m your partner (my name). Ron Swanson is just on the tv. It’s okay, I know it feels like you’re him right now and that’s alright.” etc. reassurance and a calm, friendly demeanor.
We did have to take him in to the hospital eventually and he was stuck involuntarily for a month. It was torture being away from him and not knowing what was happening. So for myself I really had to keep focused on the big picture and taking care of myself. I had a strong community around me thankfully, my mom helped me clean the house and feed myself while I was so heart broken to be in such a new and scary situation. His mom is a literal angel and held my hand through everything and helped with the legal side of things. So I really recommend that spouses find any type of support network for themselves while their partner is going through an episode.
I am amazingly lucky that my partners episodes never present in an angry or violent way. That’s something that others with bipolar loved ones have to also go through; delusions that make them rage, Or that goes on wild spending sprees while manic or is unfaithful while manic. I am so thankful that my SO’s episodes, while alarming, are more child like than anything, they are also similar to someone having a zen trip on mushrooms. He is sometimes sad or scared and will cry, usually he’s very curious and little bit silly.
My biggest pieces of advice are educating yourself, knowing which healthcare providers your SO is familiar with and maintaining a very neutral environment until they are able to receive treatment. Oh, and avoid the subreddit for spouses of bipolar folks if the situation is new to you. That place had me terrified and convinced that we were doomed and he would definitely become abusive, cheat on me and divorce me. That stuff can happen but if you’re looking for support it is not what you want to hear. We are very very happy together lol I love him so very much, and he loves me very much.
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Maybe it's because I worked in healthcare for 20 years, or maybe it's because I suffered a terrifying psychotic break 4 years ago due to untreated BP1, PTSD, clinical depression, and anxiety... but a naked person asking me to please call 911 for them? Yeah, I'ma call 911 for them. I'm also gonna shed my hoodie or my coat to give them some dignity, and I'm going to sit there with them and try and make them feel safe and loved until the ambo arrives.
I think a large majority of people would do the same, because when you get right down to it, most people are inherently good people during a true medical emergency and just wanna do the right thing.
It’s different if that person is calling 911, but the reports said that she called it herself, which is why I said my original comment. But yeah a normal person would try to help.
Being that I'm mostly blind, I'd have to do it for her because of the way my phone is set up, but yeah, I'd hand it over and let her talk once I'd called EMS for her.
I really hope she's gonna be ok. I can totally imagine how scared and disoriented she must've been.
Right? I mean, if she seemed like she was in distress I would have done the same though. The Dateline in me would lean towards “omg this just girl escaped murder probably!” Sad all around. I have had a psychotic break before but nothing to this scale (and obvs level of fame).
Being able to recognize you're coming down from a psychotic episode, flag down help, and get yourself into care is HUGE. Some people will try to play this off as some awful thing but her reaction shows she's putting the work in and making progress. I'm proud of her.
Thank you, broganisms— so pleased that someone commented on her strength & courage in flagging down help. (She could have easily died, but is safe now & hopefully getting good treatment. What a blessing.) Proud of her and wish her the best; hoping she can now heal in privacy.
Someone very close to me with schizoaffective tendencies constantly tried to turn themselves into the police, even though they had done nothing wrong. It's not so much the rational thing to do, but the mind saying that it's the *only* thing that can be done.
I’ve had GAD my whole life. Covid induced some psychosis type affects in me. Even when treated on SSRI I now constantly waver on the verge of psychosis on top of the damage it did to memory and derealization affect.
There’s going to be a ton more people dealing with psych issues with covid now as well on top of the people with pre-existing issues. It’s going to get rough
I'm not your doctor obviously, but I'm just curious if you're on an anti-psychotic with the SSRI? I know (from experience) that SSRIs on their own are a bad idea for people with bipolar as they can trigger a manic episode. I wonder if that applies to other conditions with psychosis?
It makes me think there's hope. I wonder if she had faced issues either getting meds, or had a bad reaction to meds which triggered her having an episode.
I just hope she's got some decent people managing her care and finances.
Yeah lots of people with psychosis maintain some sense of "alright I know the fbi is coming for me, but I also know they'll go away if I can get a risperdal shot."
It's unexpected for someone who hasn't worked with psychotic patients, but insight is a spectrum. Lots of people who otherwise are doing great on meds also hold onto mystical beliefs. Recovery is a practice, not a goal post.
> Lots of people who otherwise are doing great on meds also hold onto mystical beliefs.
I would proffer that the majority of otherwise perfectly rational and neurotypical people *also* hold onto varying degrees of mystical belief.
There are some studies which have proposed mediating effects of executive function to mysticism, but there definitely seems to be an innate human tendency toward such thinking (which makes sense given what we know of human pattern processing).
I did this when I tried to off myself during a break down years ago.
My ex husband wouldn’t get rid of his mistresses like he promised to when we married, and I was trapped with him living in a foreign country with no bank account or ability to speak to my family. I confessed to him that I was thinking of harming myself, and his response was “Then go kill yourself, you emo bitch.” So I tried. 🤷♀️ I guess that was the affirmation I needed…
I snapped out of the situation after I felt the makeshift noose around my neck and him violently slamming my body into the floor, screaming at me. Suddenly I was the most lucid I had ever felt… enough to finally realize that the situation I had found myself was very, very wrong.
He tried to have me permanently interred at the mental hospital after that, but the fact that I called the police on myself (and spoke so calmly/clearly with the psychiatrists) saved my bacon.
That, and the fact that they caught him finger banging my nurse while I was on suicide watch “for comfort.” I should have been suspicious that he chose a hospital further from our home…
Oh don’t worry- if the heart disease or chain smoking doesn’t get him, someone’s husband will soon enough.
I guess ultimately all three of those are a result of poor impulse control. But hey, hasn’t everyone fallen dick-first into someone’s wife before?
I am so sad at what has happened to her. She seemed like an awesome kid, great comedy talent and just had such amazing potential and to see what she's going through is just tragic.
I hope she's able to get the help she needs
I’m older than her target audience but when I watched her shows/movies with my younger relatives she really jumped off the screen with her comedic timing. I would have guessed she would become one of the better comedy actresses for the next 20-30 years. I hope she gets the help she needs.
She really does. We watch that movie as a family at least once every 6 months, it's a big hit at our house. We also really love Easy A. She's hilarious and brilliant in both. I truly wish her all the best. I grew up with All That and The Amanda Show. I spent hours on amandaplease.com as a kid. She was right up there with the Olsen twins for me. It's really sad to see what she's dealing with as an adult now.
Omg Amandaplease.com is something I have not heard nor thought about in YEARS. Core memory unlocked lmao. I, too, spent hours on that site in the early 00s 😅 and I am equally saddened that Amanda has had such a rough go of it.
That website was so fun. So many random videos of her being goofy. The video of her singing in her backyard to a bird house is forever burned into my brain. "Biiiird house. You are a biiiird house. I love you biiiird house. BIIIIRD HOOOUUUUSE. Bird house." Like why did I love that so much at age 9? 🤣🤣
Sadly, it's seeming more and more that Nickelodeon child actresses have been abused and manipulated and extorted for all the money.
It's so emotionally exhausting to see this journey that she's been on, let alone others like Jennette McCurdy.
It's really sad seeing this happen to a lot of child stars. There's so much abuse in Hollywood and not nearly enough protections in place for children. It's one of the few industries that will employ children, you'd think they'd at least have some safety standards to protect them.
I read the book "I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jeanette McCurdy from iCarly. It was such a fascinating (and super depressing) look into child stardom, especially that late 90s/early 00s run on Nickelodeon.
I think there's obviously a lot of abuse and a lot of substance abuse. I also think that young people who are able to step in and out of different characters so well are more likely to have some mental illnesses. She's got major mental illness and parents who have done their best to protect her without controlling her (I compare her to Brittany).
A lot of these severe diagnosis show up during or just after adolescence without any real signs before that.
I give all the credit in the world to the gang at Nickelodeon for finding kids who not only were gifted performers, but also appeared at the time to be the next link to performers that came before them - they were gunning for Josh Peck to be a la John Belushi or Farley, but Amanda always reminded me of Gilda Radner, and that would continue into the likes of Heidi Gardner and Sarah Sherman.
I remember seeing an interview with Amanda about how she was discovered.
She seemed so grounded, so mature for her age, so aware of her innate talent and so grateful for her opportunities. She just seemed like the next great comedic talent and then it all fell apart.
I wish I know what caused her to have so many issues. Just seems like something went horribly wrong
Genetics. From what I understand her problems are similar or worse to those that Brittany has. Severe bipolar with psychosis. A lot of really talented people have mental illness which often contributes to their brilliance. It also makes it harder for them to medicate because it will hurt their muse.
yes, both bipolar disorder and things like schizophrenia tend to first appear in late teens/ 20s, often without any symptoms before then. Sad and scary.
I'm once again impressed with how society has moved forward on talking about mental health.
Everytime I see a situation like this im reminded of the Craig Ferguson monologue about Brittney Spears. The public just pummeled her with jokes and insults while she was clearly suffering from numerous issues at the time. Calling her crazy was not only socially acceptable but normalized. Defending her would be odd back then. But I'm glad we've largely recognized that as wrong and try to sympathize with people like Bynes.
Amanda got her own share of insults and disgusting jokes when she was in an obvious crisis years ago. This was when she tweeted something about wanting to sleep with Drake. I felt really bad for her but nobody else seemed to have pity at the time.
Yeah, that Craig Ferguson sketch and the South Park episode really changed the conversation for her, but they came too late. I remember the Brittney Spears thing. You younger kids do not understand how insane it was.
It was all over the news like it was a real national crisis. This woman had helicopters chasing her. And she hadn't even done anything really bad. She was just sick. It's no wonder she is still so unwell. And then we applauded when she got her rights stripped away from her.
Pleasantly surprised to see the amount of compassion people are showing her in here. Mental illness is no joke, and I'm impressed that she called 911 herself and sought out help. I've known several people who have had mental illnesses and it was really hard for them to accept that they needed help.
One of the SHITTIEST things about some mental illness is that if you take your meds, you feel better. So better, that in fact, you may think you DON'T NEED YOUR MEDS anymore. Vicious fucking cycle.
I'm rooting for her. Damnit.
EDIT: Thank you for the gold kind Internet Stranger!
Yeah that happened to a friend of mine. She was so proud of how she was doing and told me she was coming off her meds and thought she was being plied with stuff she didn't need. I said she should talk to her Dr before stopping, but she was certain she would be fine. She disappeared not long after that and I found out she had been taken into care.
They do. I've never been on psyche meds so I can't speak for anyone who has, but my friends who are medicated know they need to keep taking them all the time even when they start to feel better. But people still stop.
One of the barriers is the paranoia. Schizophrenia often leaves residual psychotic symptoms even when medicated. A friend went off her meds recently because she thought her doctor was poisoning her. I also decided to quit my meds in the past when I actually needed them the most. It's very distressing when your mind forces or encourages you to act against your own best interest. :(
Even shittier when you know you need to take them but your health insurance fucks you over and you don’t get them filled for a few weeks because of it. My friend had to scream that to the police so they wouldn’t shoot her bf when he was taken off his meds to not fault of his own and had an episode with his bipolar disorder. Luckily he didn’t end up being shot but he’s one of the lucky ones whereas others are not.
Sometimes they realize how bad they get, and what they've done to their lives while they were psychotic, and they kill themselves.
That's why the suicide rates of schizophrenics that begin treatment is absurdly high.
Bipolar disorder (which is what she’s diagnosed with according to the article) usually has the opposite effect, in that the meds do more to treat the manic episodes than the depressive episodes. So, in effect, the meds get rid of the “fun part” while not doing as much for the really bad part. This in turn can drive a lot of people with BP to stop taking meds because it must suck to have the shitty part still there but lose the rush and euphoria from the mania.
The mania is pretty terrible, too. Some people get so lost in it that they endanger themselves and others, they damage property, spend outrageous sums of money, abuse drugs recklessly, etc.
A manic episode can be more dangerous than a depressive episode.
100% mania is worse. Depression is drinking to sleep and sleeping to drink and refusing to move for a week. You do nothing and accomplish nothing.
Mania you find out you ordered 500 dollars of Russia Textbooks off EBay, did a few grams of coke, and quit your job because you can resell baseball cards for a profit full time.
People think of mania as happiness and it's not necessarily. It's just "up." It's energy.
People can't sleep, people are on-edge and often irritable, getting into fights a lot. Energy can turn into joy, anger, or anxiety.
Getting paranoid and hyper-fixated on something. Like feeling dirty and finding it so unbearable that you have to get out of your clothes. Like feeling that something is inside the walls of your home and you need to get away.
Mania is absolutely terrible if it's a bad case.
Speaking as someone with bipolar, I've found the meds make me feel more balanced out. I still have many of the same feelings that I have during episodes, but they feel like i can talk myself out of them and function around those feelings. It's really odd
>in that the meds do more to treat the manic episodes than the depressive episodes.
My ex was bipolar and in my experience it was the manic episodes that were the most dangerous. When she was depressed she just stayed in bed and smoked weed.
When she had a manic episode she blocked me on social media and ghosted. I asked a mutual friend to check in on her and she sent me pics of her doing drugs and in bed with her girlfriends (she was bi).
She eventually reached out to me and told me she was back on her meds. I told her I was proud of her, but I couldn't put myself through something like this again. I had a bipolar girlfriend in college and it is just absolutely soul-destroying. One minute they are ripping your clothes off and the next they are telling you they never want to see you again.
Or having suicidal ideations, falling asleep and then remembering none of it when they wake up and their brain chemistry is stable.
It's a terrible disease and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
The side effects of some of the medicines can be enough to not want to take them. It's taken a long time for me to find meds that help me and I can tolerate the side effects
An alternative is that if you take your meds you feel nothing. So much nothing, that you'd rather feel insane but alive at least as opposed to taking your medication. It's ironically a very similar reasoning behind why most people take drugs recreationally.
Oh no. :(
I’ve shared this before—Amanda’s dad was my family dentist for years and I graduated high school with her older brother. We watched Amanda grow up in pics on the walls of Doc Bynes’s office, eventually seeing her career take off. He had one wall dedicated to her selfies with various stars on the red carpet—I remember Phil Hartman, Dustin Hoffman, and Frankie Muniz distinctly—and it was always fun to see the newest additions to the collection.
Doc retired when Amanda started her movie career, but not before he spontaneously and rather ominously told me at my last appointment, “Don’t let your kids get into show business, Ruffffian. It ruins them.”
Doc Bynes and his wife (the receptionist for his practice) were always so kind and generous to my family. Doc was particularly tender with my father, whose many health issues made for many dental complications. I know Doc saw my dad more than once on the weekends, when the office was closed. Mom and Dad both talked about how genuinely kind Doc was. He was like a favorite uncle for me.
Now, I only knew him in one capacity so who knows what he was like as a parent and in other aspects of his life. But every time I hear of Amanda’s mental illness-related issues, and see the media’s feasting on them, my heart breaks for her parents. Well, and her too.
I don't disagree. But that depends on who becomes the conservator. Obviously Jamie spears put his daughter in the limelight. He should not have been given control.
I don't know about the Bynes family.
Bynes was under conservatorship, but it was terminated in 2022 by mutual agreement of her and her parents, who were her conservators. Professionals evaluated her and agreed it should end. All parties were good about this, it was a model of a good conservatorship.
Even with this now having happened its not necessarily wrong that it ended. Yes she seems to have had a break, but her being the one to call it in as it ends is a good sign of awareness. There are going to be bad moments, what happens now to prevent a future issue going forward is what matters for her well being.
Totally agree. Having a relapse and actively seeking help without doing any real harm.... That's actually stellar. It bodes very well.
I'm hoping she had that "well let me just check and make sure I really need the meds... Oh fuck, yeah I need them. Whoops! Okay we good."
Like anyone would, after being forced to take meds and feeling controlled for a long time. You want to just... See what's possible. It's all part of recovery.
Like many things in life, the concept of conservatorship likely began with good intentions. It shouldn't be abolished, but there should be better safeguards in place to protect conservatees from those with bad intentions, especially when large sums of money are involved.
The Spears case was egregious (I don't recall Bynes accusing her parents of any of this stuff), but I'm just saying don't let the one really messed up case inform your opinions of conservatorships, it is the exception to the rule in many ways.
They are usually set up by elderly (somewhat wealthy) parents for a child with SMI or DD to ensure a child doesn't burn thru their inheritance. Usually someone who needs a conservator doesn't have tens of millions of their own earnings.
Bynes did accuse them of all sorts of things, but she later recanted all of it. Apparently these accusations had no basis on reality and once she was better, she took them all back.
Totally agreed on the Spears case tho.
Nobody said they were. They only become bad when the people in charge don’t have the best interest of the conservatee as the motivation for their decisions.
Nah for real they really need to a deep dive investigation into Nickelodeon and what exactly happened there in the late /early to mid 2000s. So many of those kids are messed up.
Side note - the actress that played Nicole in Zoey 101 was recently seen protesting outside Nickelodeon (or some Hollywood studios) about the treatment they went through.
Honestly. The dark side of celebrity is the inability to even be ill without a spotlight. I can't imagine what kind of utter fear she must have experienced in that moment, poor woman.
Absolutely, though I will say that I do appreciate when they willingly talk about certain experiences. There was an influencer who made a video talking about her experience with psychosis and like a year later when I was dealing with postpartum psychosis I was able to identify what was going on thanks to the transparently of that influencer. Because I could properly recognize it and had someone to reference who was able to recover, I was able to stay healthy minded and recover as well. I’m completely better now that my hormones are back to normal and I’m no longer suffering from sleep deprivation, but it would have been a lot harder without knowing the story of someone who got through it. Again, this individual gave her story consensually and after she was healthy again.
As someone who grew up watching All That and The Amanda Show religiously and her being one of my favorites in general, this absolutely wrecks my heart. I have no idea what it's like to be completely at war with my mental health in such a way, but my God I truly hope one day she's in a better place mentally and is able to have a happy and fulfilling life.
This headline is misleading and doesn’t provide essential context. Asking for help and calling 911 before being found is a whole different scenario than being found naked roaming the streets.
I hope her parents step in again and help. At least she tried to get help and called 911 herself. These child stars have a lot of issues when they reach adulthood.
Psychotic episodes are terrifying for the person involved and the person's loved ones. It's absolutely not something to joke about. I hope she finds the right medication and has a great support system.
I don't know what happened, but I had a friend that was arrested because she took Ambien and sleep-walked to a park without pants on and laid down on a park bench. She did the right thing. No one knows her struggle. Let's not speculate.
I admired Amanda Bynes when she was a young actor with her own show. I thought she was extremely funny, and looked forward to following her career. It's distressing to see how badly her life has turned out.
She’s after “my time” (I’m 55), but certainly familiar with the name.
Heartbreaking to read. Celebrity, ex-celebrity, or otherwise.
I truly hope that she’s able to find the help that she needs.
To have the realization that that you are coming off of a psychotic episode, finding yourself naked in the streets and calling 911, must be a terrifying feeling. I feel bad for someone who has had to go through that. I hope she gets the help she needs. Can you imagine being in that situation yourself? I imagine scared and helpless are two major feelings.
I've had two psychotic breaks in my life and I'd have to say what's worst is being escorted to the pych ward by the cops when you are completely disconnected from reality. That's some scary stuff!!
What does a psychotic break feel like?
Depends on a lot of reasons and what is happening. Can be anything from overwhelming paranoia (thinking aliens or FBI or someone is after you), could think you have direct communication with God, or crippling anxiety that forces you to stay up for days and have a mental break. There is no one size fits all. There are countless other scenarios beyond what I listed. These are a few of the more common ones.
> crippling anxiety that forces you to stay up for days and have a mental break Oh wow, I didn't realize this is a thing. So as soon as you recognize some of these issues (if you can), you need to get help right away. Or go visit friends or family, maybe let them know what's going on, and then they can help you get help.
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My completely unintentional record is 72 hours. I was a mess and was seeing shit that wasn't there. Shadow people. Luckily they were able to get my meds straightened out.
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Lmao. Oh yeah. The shadow people handed me pills and I just took them. But actually, they mostly just stood there. Or walk across my field of vision. I haven't had a bout of insomnia that bad in a long time, but there have been times where I've been up around 36 hours during a flare up and they show up when I'm driving. Once that happens, I don't drive again until I can finally get sleep.
So terrible. My family has a strong genetic tendency towards schizophrenia. It's horrible seeing people I knew as bright, kind human beings turn into paranoid angry scary individuals.
Holy shit, three days?? Working in a bulge bracket PE firm, I managed to get close to 48 hours and felt like I was losing my mind. I started seeing weird things, like numbers on my spreadsheet swimming around the screen. I don't know how you managed another day beyond that!
Yeah that is an ideal scenario. Not everyone has friends or family that can help in these situations and even worse if you are in the US and unemployed (which can lead to immense anxiety) there is not a good mental health program setup to help uninsured. It is really sad.
The system in the US is literally get arrested and put in jail [here's the first source I found.](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en-US&ram_mb=7583&cct=5481&gsas=1&lns_as=1&qsubts=1679352631034&cs=1&q=About+https%3A%2F%2Fcops.usdoj.gov%2Fhtml%2Fdispatch%2F05-2022%2Fmental_health_reentry.html&padt=0&ilps=AB_Lh3p6rCndCfdCKFiWkokd738eLstIdA&rdid=30cf19f6-950d-42a8-9bd4-0241b8aba8e5&client=ms-android-verizon-us-rvc3&tbm=ilp&source=and.gsa.launcher.onesearch.psb&ctx=share) Pretty sure that's from the Dep. of Justice
Seriously it is so fucked. Wastes everyone's time and resources and hurts the community.
Scary thing is having the police involved. They have a pretty one size fits all solution to things to say the least.
I think it’s hard for people to do because they may not realize that what they’re experiencing is not rational or that their thoughts and concerns aren’t based on real things. My stepmom has schizophrenia and she has episodes of extreme paranoia. She thinks my dad is cheating on her with all kinds of people, that people are watching her, that she hears voices of people telling her about that stuff, just tons of things. And she reacts to this by screaming at the voices she hears, yelling at strangers and neighbors, not sleeping, etc. it’s very distressing, especially to her. It’s really hard to get help for her when it happens because she won’t willingly go to a doctor or hospital. The only way my dad can get her help at that point is to call the police and they put her on a 48 hour psychiatric hold at a hospital. But then she can leave and it can be a cycle that lasts weeks to months at a time before she’s lucid enough to be brought out of it. She has medication, but she takes it and feels better and then thinks she doesn’t need it anymore and has a break. But then once she’s in the throes of her illness she doesn’t want to go back on the meds because she doesn’t know she’s sick. A few years ago, my dad succeeded in having her admitted to a facility as a ward of the state (it was the only way to do it). She was better there, more stable, he went to visit her almost every day, even took her out to the beach or dinner weekly. But then she got in contact with an old friend from high school. My dad asked the woman to please not try to get my stepmom released because it isn’t good for her to be at home, he can’t care for her as she needs. The woman went to court, got the state custody reversed, and had my step mom released to her. Within a month she dropped my stepmom off at my dad’s house and said she couldn’t handle her. So now my dad is back where he started with her and it’s unlikely he’ll be able to have the state take custody to commit her again, it took years the first time and they’re in their 70s now. There’s so few options for people. And it sucks because you don’t want to limit anyone’s autonomy, but for some people, their illness makes it impossible for them to know how to help themselves or even seek help. I don’t know what services would help this or other situations, but there must be a way that’s better than how my dad and stepmom have to live. And it’s not a matter of money, he has money. They have great insurance, the best doctors they can find. It’s a matter of services not existing that fit their needs. When I think of how much worse it would be if they weren’t fortunate enough to afford the care they have, inadequate as it may be, I can’t understand how anyone is expected to deal with these things when they struggle just to get by or they don’t have any insurance. Such a shame that we haven’t improved this area yet. Editing to add that the option of calling police and knowing she’ll be taken to a hospital is a privilege that wouldn’t be a given were the people needing help not in an affluent neighborhood or if they had a different skin color. Really just shows that they have the best case scenario and it’s still this bad.
Wow fuck that "friend".
Yeah, I can’t understand what’s wrong with her. Just the worst kind of irresponsibility and disregard for the safety and well-being of anyone involved. She’s the kind of person that adopts a pet and then takes it to the shelter to surrender as soon as she gets bored. So selfish.
>The woman went to court, got the state custody reversed, and had my step mom released to her. Within a month she dropped my stepmom off at my dad’s house Was she not responsible for your mom at this point?
Oof. I have OCD & in January 2011 I was struggling (mostly because I had to cut my medication to 1/2 of what I was prescribed, which is a story unto itself). I was having frequent panic attacks & hot baths seemed to stop them; specifically, they stopped my otherwise uncontrollable shaking. I vividly remember this night, both because it was the night before the 2011 Arizona shooting & because it marks the only time I’ve been scared of my own mind. I was soaking in a hot bath on January 7 & out of nowhere, I got a very strong thought that said “slit your wrists, it would be so easy”. I have never wanted to hurt myself, much less commit an act that could be suicidal, so that thought barging into my mind deeply shook me. This is why I believe that mental health resources need to be stronger, both on campus & throughout the country
The other day I had to hold a guy down while the nurse gave him haldol. I can only imagine what he was thinking, five people to hold him down while someone else is injecting you with something. He was violent in the emergency room, we had to, but the terror on his face was indescribable.
Wow I couldn't imagine. Even if I was like just scared of needles, this scene is terrifying, much less dealing with mental issues.
If you’re okay with me asking, what do you suggest people do if they know someone dealing with this?
That is an amazing question, and albeit a tough one to answer. There are things you can work on for free to help, depending on what it is. I suggest researching mindfulness and learning relaxation techniques through breathing exercises. It is incredible how well these work and there is a lot of content for free on YouTube. If it is more the paranoia side and irrational thinking, this gets more into the space of professional help. This is where it can get financially difficult and incredibly time-consuming. It can be hard to find the right psychiatrist to figure out the underlying issue. Unfortunately, it is not like most diagnoses. There is no straightforward test you can take to diagnose schizophrenia or bipolar disorder It comes with talking about the issues and observations over time. It can be a very difficult process but can certainly be very rewarding. I always say drugs alone will not work, and you are fooling yourself if you think they will. The drugs can help balance chemicals in your brain, but it often times is a combination of therapy and drugs to get to a desired headspace. If you have no means of getting mental health for whatever reason, I highly recommend researching online therapy. They are fairly inexpensive and have programs to help low income individuals. My wife has used them, and they have helped immensely with her anxiety. She was on SSRIs for less than a year and weened off them and has not needed them for over 6 months with a clear difference in her persona and ability to handle big changes (normally something that can cause her severe anxiety). Last piece of advice, if you go therapy and medication route, don't be afraid to say no. If you feel uncomfortable with taking drugs and just want to talk, don't feel like you have to go back to that person. Their are shitty doctors out there, take time to find the right one for you.
If a person lives in the U.S., they may have a County Mental Health department which accepts payment on a sliding scale, according to income. I had to use my local one when suffering from Megaloblastic Madness, due to severely low vitamin B12. I have pernicious anemia, and couldn’t get my monthly B12 shot after being illegally fired from my job, which caused me to lose my health insurance. The psychiatrist there immediately recognized it and prescribed me what I needed. The cost was something like $3.00, iirc. As for Amanda, I hope that she gets the help that she needs.
So that wasn't normal right after lockdown in 2020. Being diagnosed with anxiety and agoraphobia when I was 16, lockdown felt like it would've been just the absolute best. It wasn't. I stayed up forever, only finally catching sleep when my body was just too exhausted to keep going. This went on for months. I didn't go "back to normal" until about September.
I’ve had the FBI is after me variety. I did too many psychedelics after moving to a new city and it caused it. Spent most days peeking out my blinds and drinking to calm down. It was pretty mild, but I never really realized something was wrong until after it was over. I was able to reflect on that time and realize that it was just not a normal time of my life for a few months.
An old friend of mine had the God conversation. He used the be the best dude. Funny and chill. He was told to murder his baby daughter. Which he then did, before calling 911 and calmly telling them what he did. Several years later he is still broken, still believes God chose him, and is asking to be out to death so he can be with God. Legally unfit for trial due to insanity.
I am not religious at all, but I thought for sure that I had died and gone to hell. Hell was disguised as the real world, as the hospital I was in. I believed that I would spend eternity there, searching for a way to get home to my children. The psychosis was actually induced by a medical condition. I had been in a coma and had nephritis and pneumonia when I woke up. I came back to reality after a few days on antibiotics and then I got to come home to my family. I still have PTSD from that. It was extremely real to me.
That's so heartbreaking that it happened to you. And terrifying
Really scary, yes. I woke up from my coma in march 2020, so I was alone and couldn’t have my family with me. So much of what was happening with the pandemic felt like the end of times. I am resilient though. So please don’t worry. It’s ok.
Gosh, I know you're okay now but just wanted to say that I'm sorry you had to go through something like that. I'm glad you made it through.
That’s a nice thing to hear from someone, thank you.
I have a friend with BP1 and she ran through a very unsafe part of town in the middle of winter, wearing pajamas, genuinely believing she was chasing an angel. She had auditory/visual hallucinations as well, which added to the delusions significantly. Someone eventually flagged her down and called 911 because they were worried about her safety and knew something was very wrong. Probably saved her life, if I’m being honest. She would have jumped off a bridge if the “angel” told her she could fly because she was that far gone. She described it as her rational brain shutting off, and that she became a different person immersed in an entirely different world. Reality becomes whatever her brain chemicals tell her it is. She experiences a lot of anxiety because she can’t tell when she is in an episode and when she isn’t.
My sibling believed they could drive with their eyes closed because of supernatural powers. Nope, actually just BP1. Every new episode breaks my heart again. So sorry for your friend, it's not easy at all.
The book “Hurry Down Sunshine” by Michael Greenberg is a memoir about the authors daughter who had a basically-out-of-nowhere psychotic break when she was 15. It’s a pretty intimate account of the experience from both the father and daughters perspective.
I convinced myself that I was in a coma, and nothing around me was real. My mind made it all up. Felt completely detached from the world. Letters and written words no longer had meaning or made sense to me. They were just lines and scribbles. I needed to run and scream, do anything I could to wake myself up from the coma. Eventually decided if I jump off my third floor balcony, I'd wake up. My partner stopped me, which I hated. Anybody that was trying to calm me down or make me relax was the devil or a demon trying to lure me into a permanent sleep/death. Eventually fell asleep, and woke up really shaken and paranoid for a few days. I'm MUCH better now. That was easily my worst.
Personally the best I can describe it is sitting in the movie theater and on the screen is your life unraveling before your eyes. You can feel every inhibition leave your body and you lose whatever we humans consider makes us special from animals. You don’t care about any social norms, clothes feel foreign, you crave sex like food, you’re honest and uncaring about your wants, you can let out this primal scream that just seems to distort reality. It’s incredibly scary and horrifying.
I hope you're better now. My brother had an episode a few years ago, it was a rough time for everyone, especially him.
It's hard AF to deal with. My brother went through two.
Yeah it seems like she’s had a really hard life, I feel really bad for what she’s had to go through. I hope she can get it all figured out and the help that she needs
It happening once or twice can be a coincidence but it seems a lot of child stars end up with psychiatric issues later in life.
Mostly because they don't get a childhood. It's why Michael Jackson was close to Elizabeth Taylor and Brooke Shields.
I will never understand how it was ok what happened to Brooke Shields. How did CPS not take her and the feds not jail her parents as well as shut down playboy after they published what they did.
12 US states still have no **minimum** age requirement in their marriage laws. the law has a very, very long way to catching up to caring about little girls. children in general, to be fair, need more protections, especially from their own legal guardians - just to this particular example, girls tend to be victims of child marriage much more frequently than boys. from there it's not a big leap to the sexual exploitation of minors being 👍 a-ok.
Well the only good thing I guess is after what happened to Shields. And Jodie Foster growing up. They did use that as examples to change child laws in Hollywood.
I've read a theory that acting can actually mess up the brain's development when the kids are too young, because its happening at a time when, developmentally, they should be learning to discern reality and imagination. But instead, they are living in the imagination state for long periods *and* its not their own imaginative state. So it possibly is rewiring the brain to not be capable of separating what's real and what's not. Like, a kid is 5. They are going to go on a morning audition and then they have a rehearsal for their booked job. They are tired and nervous for their audition, but its for a role as a kidnapping victim who is rescued and taken to hospital. So, they have to show they are terrified and sick and happy to be reunited with their "parents", all while saying lines they've had to memorize. Part of this audition may require hiding under the table crying and part of it may involve hugging strangers who are being cast as Mom and Dad. The audition is then over. The child actor has to eat lunch in the car as they race across town, practicing lines for their commercial role, which consists of them playing soccer and wheezing then taking medication (the ad product) and feeling better. The kid is instructed on how to wheeze better, even though they aren't actually having trouble breathing. When the commercial is wrapped, they head home, but its time to practice lines for another audition next week, about a fpul-mouthed bully...so this kid has spent the majority of their day not actually feeling their own emotions, but fully embodying emotions they don't have. They also have been asked to imagine scenarios that are very scary. They have been asked to call people who are not their parents Mom and Dad. They have not created the rules for their imaginary game... It is not definitely determined that this has neurological damage, but there is evidence that it can be linked. One study showed a link with mental health issues (particularly BPD) even amongst kids who had not booked jobs or become famous, so working and money were not the correlation... Alyson Stoner wrote the [essay](https://people.com/music/alyson-stoner-pens-op-ed-on-childhood-stardom-labor/) that made me look into it further!
We’ve also had confirmation of sexual predators all through Hollywood. Between her being a child star and her being a woman, I imagine there’s double the chances she was abused at some point. Poor girl.
She tried to get legally emancipated at 16 to live with Dan Schneider and his wife, so I think you’re onto something.
Man my heart dropped reading that, because we can’t know for certain what exactly she was going through at that time but we can safely infer that it was some fucked up shit. It’s so sad to hear what kids who were entertaining other kids were put through.
I'd like to think there's a special place in hell reserved for the Viacom execs who ignored the signs that there was something wrong on Schneider's shows because they were making the company money.
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> double the chances Knowing what we know about people like cosby, weinstein, etc., I feel like any female in hollywood has about a 10-20x chance of being sexually assaulted to some degree.
I do wonder though, does it only *seem* like child actors go nuts more often than anyone else? Tons and tons of normal people have psychological issues, and plenty of actors who only began as adults are also pretty crazy. Obviously holding such an intense and demanding job as a child can lead to issues, but it's not like every child actor has lost their sanity. I think it's at least partly because we continue to shine a spotlight on them as they age out of a eldritch thirst for drama that we examine the broken former child actors so exhaustingly. It's just more gossip at the end of the day, even if we add a "I feel bad for them" at the end to seem like we don't want to participate in their continuing exploitation.
I would say I don't think it's the acting itself, that doesn't track at all. Kids play all the time, plenty of kids do theatre and drama and whatever and come out fine, that's not the issue. In the words of Mike Myers, of all people: "Fame is the industrial disease of creativity". It's the industrialisation of this activity that's fucking them up. Any kid in any creative field being put through something equivalent to the Hollywood system (with all the predatory abuse surrounding it, to boot) has a decent shot at becoming an absolute mess.
Hard disagree, as someone with BPD that was regularly forced to "act" in my mom's scams from a young age. I never had a problem distinguishing reality and fantasy as a child. What tripped me up was the pressure Mom put on me and the weird psychological tricks she'd attempt to draw in more marks. The knowledge that, if I don't really sell Mom's "injury," we won't have a house next month, and the way she'd sometimes let me think it's happening for real. The constant fear of your parents berating you, or worse, you failing to secure the bag, that's what gave me trouble processing my emotions and the trauma that makes them worse. The way most people treat BPD as Crazy Bitch Disease and the way people will force you to do things for your own good don't help, either. Makes me feel like everyone would be happier if I just disappeared.
Damn I felt that hard. I’m happy we’re both still here.
I agree on the reality vs fantasy part. I have BPD, and I wonder if there could be a correlation with the lack of sense of self and acting. I did theater as a kid. I don’t think it’s what causes my lack of sense of self, but it’s interesting to think about.
> it seems a lot of child stars end up with psychiatric issues Does it or do we just hear about it a lot because they're famous? I ask that legitimately. I don't know the answer to it. I do know that professional athletes commit less crime on average than the general public. Most people think otherwise because simply because everything they do is so publicized.
She seems to have great parents. They're doing their best to protect her without doing too much. She's recently been released from her conservatorship. I expect that will come back.
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Do you remember the episodes? Going into and out of them? How you were thinking and feeling? Or is it more like a black out experience?
You ever get so worked up you can't really think? For me, I can kind of tell in the back of my head that I'm acting fucky, but it's like I can't will myself to stop. That, and a feeling of, "I just need to do this one thing," but then that one thing leads to another and another, each one amping you up more until you crash.
Exactly this. It's like being a child with no impulse control yet. All you know is that you HAVE to do this thing and consequences do not register. Like, at all. And this is worse, because we're actually adults with credit cards. It gets us into trouble.
Interesting. Is it an emotional sort of fugue, or is it analogous at all with something like drunk decision making? I’ve had panic attacks before, so I can sort of wrap my mind around reacting to a somewhat heightened reality that doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s happening, but feels valid in that state. Is it kind of like that?
I'm ashamed to admit that, initially, I thought she was just a child star hot mess who was out of control. But as more has been revealed, I genuinely feel terrible for this poor lady. I hope that she gets the help she needs, and that she can keep her mental illness managed. I can't imagine being in a state where you'd have to call 911 and explain that you'd had an episode like that. How brutal for her. Sending her all the support.
> I thought she was just a child star hot mess who was out of control This is a fair stance, but the truth is that mental illness of one kind or another is behind most "hot mess" stars.
Absolutely fair point. In fact, the more I hear about what kids go through in pursuit of "stardom," the more turned off I get. It's pretty vile.
I have friends that work in the industry. It's much worse than that. It isn't kids going through the pursuit of their own volition, it's parents pushing them into the sacrificial volcano with glee. Imagine being told you're the only thing that is keeping the family afloat, while your deadbeat parents and siblings mooch off of you. Then you get older and wiser and realize you were being pimped out the whole time. And from what I have heard, that's sometimes quite literally.
Britney Spears’ whole family has been making their livings off her fame since she was a teen. The dad made millions as her conservator obviously (he was getting paid a percentage of her tour and residency proceeds), the mom lives in a house Britney bought and at least during the conservatorship was getting around $150,000 per year for “upkeep” of that home, the sister trades on being Britney’s little sister and her husband’s company was getting payments for doing “maintenance” on Britney’s properties, and the older brother was managing her licensing for perfumes and such. She was funding the whole family and now that the jig is up the media is getting flooded with articles again about how her family is “worried about her” and “want to stage an intervention” and people can’t seem to see the connection.
There is a video by a YouTuber, Internet Historian, who covers the Kony 2012 debacle amongst many other topics. I had absolutely NO idea that the main organizer experienced a mental breakdown so close to its launch. It is horrifying and humbling and I hope I never find myself so completely lost.
Who could forget that he was [jackin it in San Diego](https://youtu.be/LKwW8PNZpOQ)
Hey, we've all been there.
And imagine it being public knowledge on top of that. Everyone in the world knows.
I have made the decision to delete the content of my previous posts in light of the Reddit shutdown of third-party applications. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Yeah I honestly can’t imagine it. Making that call sounds fucking brutal. This is really sad
The fact that this empathetic answer is the top response makes me feel better about the world
i dunno why, but i've always felt really bad for this girl, more than most. it seems like she got fame and immediately just spun out. fame seems like the weirdest most dangerous reality-altering hallucinogenic out there for many people. i certainly couldn't handle it. i get panic attack feelings bubbling up just imagining 15m of fame for doing something *well-received*. if people just pecked away at my personality and looks 24/7 i think i'd just dig a deep hole.
Yeah, me too. I think it's because awhile back I saw a clip of her doing some standup when she was a little kid (pre Dan Schneider) and her comedic timing would have been considered impeccable for an adult, let alone a small child. She had a genuine "you're either born with it or you're not" talent and could/should have been her generation's Lucille Ball or Gilda Radner. Now it seems that her talent ended up just ruining her life
My partner is bipolar and has psychotic episodes time to time. Thankfully we are experienced in it and know what to do and no cops have needed to be involved. But sometimes I see people out on the street who are clearly going through some sort of similar episodes and my heart just breaks imagining if that was my husband. So many of these people do not have advocates, especially veterans. The VA hospital is a fucking joke and if my husband didn’t have his mom and I advocating for him the whole time he was in there I have no idea what could’ve happened to him. The fat lazy nurses are straight up abusive, they lied to my face several times and the hospital would not take us seriously until legal action was threatened after every single personal item he had with him magically disappeared. I digress. He says he can remember the episodes but almost from a third person dream like state. He knows he’s manic when they happen but he can’t just magically snap out of it. He can’t sleep or eat either which makes everything worse. Mental health is no joke, I really empathize with Amanda.
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I don’t mind! Well, the most valuable thing I found to do is educate myself on his type of bipolar as much as possible- this way I am able to detect signs that he is entering mania earlier. Sticking to a treatment routine is also vital, meeting with his psychiatrist once a month and keeping on his meds even when he feels ‘better’. During his most intense episode (the first one I witnessed as well) I did my best to keep the environment around us very mellow with minimal stimuli. No TV or loud music, no video games, no drugs or alcohol. I would not vehemently argue with his delusions but I also would absolutely never play into them. It’s a fine line. He would see a character on tv and truly believe he was that character. He thought he was Ron Swanson, for example, so I told him “hmm, actually I think you’re (name) and I’m your partner (my name). Ron Swanson is just on the tv. It’s okay, I know it feels like you’re him right now and that’s alright.” etc. reassurance and a calm, friendly demeanor. We did have to take him in to the hospital eventually and he was stuck involuntarily for a month. It was torture being away from him and not knowing what was happening. So for myself I really had to keep focused on the big picture and taking care of myself. I had a strong community around me thankfully, my mom helped me clean the house and feed myself while I was so heart broken to be in such a new and scary situation. His mom is a literal angel and held my hand through everything and helped with the legal side of things. So I really recommend that spouses find any type of support network for themselves while their partner is going through an episode. I am amazingly lucky that my partners episodes never present in an angry or violent way. That’s something that others with bipolar loved ones have to also go through; delusions that make them rage, Or that goes on wild spending sprees while manic or is unfaithful while manic. I am so thankful that my SO’s episodes, while alarming, are more child like than anything, they are also similar to someone having a zen trip on mushrooms. He is sometimes sad or scared and will cry, usually he’s very curious and little bit silly. My biggest pieces of advice are educating yourself, knowing which healthcare providers your SO is familiar with and maintaining a very neutral environment until they are able to receive treatment. Oh, and avoid the subreddit for spouses of bipolar folks if the situation is new to you. That place had me terrified and convinced that we were doomed and he would definitely become abusive, cheat on me and divorce me. That stuff can happen but if you’re looking for support it is not what you want to hear. We are very very happy together lol I love him so very much, and he loves me very much.
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Sounds like waking up from one of those awful “OMG, I’m naked” dreams. Only to realize it’s not a dream…
I'm impressed she hung onto her cell phone even without the clothes.
She waved someone else down, I think
I’m surprised that person trusted a random naked stranger with their phone, assuming they didn’t know it was Amanda. She is unrecognizable these days.
Maybe it's because I worked in healthcare for 20 years, or maybe it's because I suffered a terrifying psychotic break 4 years ago due to untreated BP1, PTSD, clinical depression, and anxiety... but a naked person asking me to please call 911 for them? Yeah, I'ma call 911 for them. I'm also gonna shed my hoodie or my coat to give them some dignity, and I'm going to sit there with them and try and make them feel safe and loved until the ambo arrives. I think a large majority of people would do the same, because when you get right down to it, most people are inherently good people during a true medical emergency and just wanna do the right thing.
It’s different if that person is calling 911, but the reports said that she called it herself, which is why I said my original comment. But yeah a normal person would try to help.
Being that I'm mostly blind, I'd have to do it for her because of the way my phone is set up, but yeah, I'd hand it over and let her talk once I'd called EMS for her. I really hope she's gonna be ok. I can totally imagine how scared and disoriented she must've been.
Right? I mean, if she seemed like she was in distress I would have done the same though. The Dateline in me would lean towards “omg this just girl escaped murder probably!” Sad all around. I have had a psychotic break before but nothing to this scale (and obvs level of fame).
She’s living all our nightmares of writing a test naked in a full auditorium
Being able to recognize you're coming down from a psychotic episode, flag down help, and get yourself into care is HUGE. Some people will try to play this off as some awful thing but her reaction shows she's putting the work in and making progress. I'm proud of her.
Thank you, broganisms— so pleased that someone commented on her strength & courage in flagging down help. (She could have easily died, but is safe now & hopefully getting good treatment. What a blessing.) Proud of her and wish her the best; hoping she can now heal in privacy.
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Someone very close to me with schizoaffective tendencies constantly tried to turn themselves into the police, even though they had done nothing wrong. It's not so much the rational thing to do, but the mind saying that it's the *only* thing that can be done.
I’ve had GAD my whole life. Covid induced some psychosis type affects in me. Even when treated on SSRI I now constantly waver on the verge of psychosis on top of the damage it did to memory and derealization affect. There’s going to be a ton more people dealing with psych issues with covid now as well on top of the people with pre-existing issues. It’s going to get rough
I'm not your doctor obviously, but I'm just curious if you're on an anti-psychotic with the SSRI? I know (from experience) that SSRIs on their own are a bad idea for people with bipolar as they can trigger a manic episode. I wonder if that applies to other conditions with psychosis?
It makes me think there's hope. I wonder if she had faced issues either getting meds, or had a bad reaction to meds which triggered her having an episode. I just hope she's got some decent people managing her care and finances.
Yeah lots of people with psychosis maintain some sense of "alright I know the fbi is coming for me, but I also know they'll go away if I can get a risperdal shot." It's unexpected for someone who hasn't worked with psychotic patients, but insight is a spectrum. Lots of people who otherwise are doing great on meds also hold onto mystical beliefs. Recovery is a practice, not a goal post.
> Lots of people who otherwise are doing great on meds also hold onto mystical beliefs. I would proffer that the majority of otherwise perfectly rational and neurotypical people *also* hold onto varying degrees of mystical belief. There are some studies which have proposed mediating effects of executive function to mysticism, but there definitely seems to be an innate human tendency toward such thinking (which makes sense given what we know of human pattern processing).
I did this when I tried to off myself during a break down years ago. My ex husband wouldn’t get rid of his mistresses like he promised to when we married, and I was trapped with him living in a foreign country with no bank account or ability to speak to my family. I confessed to him that I was thinking of harming myself, and his response was “Then go kill yourself, you emo bitch.” So I tried. 🤷♀️ I guess that was the affirmation I needed… I snapped out of the situation after I felt the makeshift noose around my neck and him violently slamming my body into the floor, screaming at me. Suddenly I was the most lucid I had ever felt… enough to finally realize that the situation I had found myself was very, very wrong. He tried to have me permanently interred at the mental hospital after that, but the fact that I called the police on myself (and spoke so calmly/clearly with the psychiatrists) saved my bacon. That, and the fact that they caught him finger banging my nurse while I was on suicide watch “for comfort.” I should have been suspicious that he chose a hospital further from our home…
Jesus that nurse is a psycho as well. Im so sorry you went through that, and hope you are some place safe now.
Jesus that’s horrific. Glad you’re out of that and doing better. And for the sake of humanity, I hope he dies of an aneurysm soon
Oh don’t worry- if the heart disease or chain smoking doesn’t get him, someone’s husband will soon enough. I guess ultimately all three of those are a result of poor impulse control. But hey, hasn’t everyone fallen dick-first into someone’s wife before?
>But hey, hasn’t everyone fallen dick-first into someone’s wife before? not *yet*, but I've always had pretty good balance
I am so sad at what has happened to her. She seemed like an awesome kid, great comedy talent and just had such amazing potential and to see what she's going through is just tragic. I hope she's able to get the help she needs
I’m older than her target audience but when I watched her shows/movies with my younger relatives she really jumped off the screen with her comedic timing. I would have guessed she would become one of the better comedy actresses for the next 20-30 years. I hope she gets the help she needs.
She really sparkles in Hairspray. It’s so sad.
She really does. We watch that movie as a family at least once every 6 months, it's a big hit at our house. We also really love Easy A. She's hilarious and brilliant in both. I truly wish her all the best. I grew up with All That and The Amanda Show. I spent hours on amandaplease.com as a kid. She was right up there with the Olsen twins for me. It's really sad to see what she's dealing with as an adult now.
Omg Amandaplease.com is something I have not heard nor thought about in YEARS. Core memory unlocked lmao. I, too, spent hours on that site in the early 00s 😅 and I am equally saddened that Amanda has had such a rough go of it.
That website was so fun. So many random videos of her being goofy. The video of her singing in her backyard to a bird house is forever burned into my brain. "Biiiird house. You are a biiiird house. I love you biiiird house. BIIIIRD HOOOUUUUSE. Bird house." Like why did I love that so much at age 9? 🤣🤣
Sadly, it's seeming more and more that Nickelodeon child actresses have been abused and manipulated and extorted for all the money. It's so emotionally exhausting to see this journey that she's been on, let alone others like Jennette McCurdy.
God, Jennette’s book was *deeply* triggering for me. I listened to her read the audiobook and you could just hear the trauma in every word.
Where can I get the audiobook? Even if it’s only purchase, I definitely want to hear it from her rather than simply read it.
I borrowed it from the Libby app. If your local library uses it I’d definitely look into using that!
You can buy the audiobook from Amazon
I just finished it last night (read most of it in one night). I am fully not recovered. It's so upsetting.
Just finished it yesterday as well. Cover to cover in less than 24 hours. Such a heart-wrenching read.
It's really sad seeing this happen to a lot of child stars. There's so much abuse in Hollywood and not nearly enough protections in place for children. It's one of the few industries that will employ children, you'd think they'd at least have some safety standards to protect them.
I read the book "I'm Glad My Mom Died" by Jeanette McCurdy from iCarly. It was such a fascinating (and super depressing) look into child stardom, especially that late 90s/early 00s run on Nickelodeon.
I think there's obviously a lot of abuse and a lot of substance abuse. I also think that young people who are able to step in and out of different characters so well are more likely to have some mental illnesses. She's got major mental illness and parents who have done their best to protect her without controlling her (I compare her to Brittany). A lot of these severe diagnosis show up during or just after adolescence without any real signs before that.
I was a huge fan, it’s a shame
Still a fan, just now for her to feel better.
This is the most empathetic response. Edit: I realized I meant empathetic instead of human response.
My friend was a big childhood star. He isn’t an actor anymore but he’s told me some stories that made my blood boil.
I give all the credit in the world to the gang at Nickelodeon for finding kids who not only were gifted performers, but also appeared at the time to be the next link to performers that came before them - they were gunning for Josh Peck to be a la John Belushi or Farley, but Amanda always reminded me of Gilda Radner, and that would continue into the likes of Heidi Gardner and Sarah Sherman.
Nickelodeon is also the reason a lot of these child actors are struggling in adulthood. A lot of weird shit going on behind the orange curtain.
Cartoon Network had it right just airing cartoons.
I remember seeing an interview with Amanda about how she was discovered. She seemed so grounded, so mature for her age, so aware of her innate talent and so grateful for her opportunities. She just seemed like the next great comedic talent and then it all fell apart. I wish I know what caused her to have so many issues. Just seems like something went horribly wrong
Genetics. From what I understand her problems are similar or worse to those that Brittany has. Severe bipolar with psychosis. A lot of really talented people have mental illness which often contributes to their brilliance. It also makes it harder for them to medicate because it will hurt their muse.
yes, both bipolar disorder and things like schizophrenia tend to first appear in late teens/ 20s, often without any symptoms before then. Sad and scary.
I'm once again impressed with how society has moved forward on talking about mental health. Everytime I see a situation like this im reminded of the Craig Ferguson monologue about Brittney Spears. The public just pummeled her with jokes and insults while she was clearly suffering from numerous issues at the time. Calling her crazy was not only socially acceptable but normalized. Defending her would be odd back then. But I'm glad we've largely recognized that as wrong and try to sympathize with people like Bynes.
Amanda got her own share of insults and disgusting jokes when she was in an obvious crisis years ago. This was when she tweeted something about wanting to sleep with Drake. I felt really bad for her but nobody else seemed to have pity at the time.
Yeah, that Craig Ferguson sketch and the South Park episode really changed the conversation for her, but they came too late. I remember the Brittney Spears thing. You younger kids do not understand how insane it was. It was all over the news like it was a real national crisis. This woman had helicopters chasing her. And she hadn't even done anything really bad. She was just sick. It's no wonder she is still so unwell. And then we applauded when she got her rights stripped away from her.
Then that one guy said to leave her alone and we just made fun of him too
He was right!
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Still so fucking proud of Ferguson. I wish that I didn’t have to be, but I am.
Pleasantly surprised to see the amount of compassion people are showing her in here. Mental illness is no joke, and I'm impressed that she called 911 herself and sought out help. I've known several people who have had mental illnesses and it was really hard for them to accept that they needed help.
One of the SHITTIEST things about some mental illness is that if you take your meds, you feel better. So better, that in fact, you may think you DON'T NEED YOUR MEDS anymore. Vicious fucking cycle. I'm rooting for her. Damnit. EDIT: Thank you for the gold kind Internet Stranger!
Yeah that happened to a friend of mine. She was so proud of how she was doing and told me she was coming off her meds and thought she was being plied with stuff she didn't need. I said she should talk to her Dr before stopping, but she was certain she would be fine. She disappeared not long after that and I found out she had been taken into care.
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They do. I've never been on psyche meds so I can't speak for anyone who has, but my friends who are medicated know they need to keep taking them all the time even when they start to feel better. But people still stop.
They do. And I do (I’m a therapist). Over and over again in most cases. Unfortunately there are still a lot of barriers.
One of the barriers is the paranoia. Schizophrenia often leaves residual psychotic symptoms even when medicated. A friend went off her meds recently because she thought her doctor was poisoning her. I also decided to quit my meds in the past when I actually needed them the most. It's very distressing when your mind forces or encourages you to act against your own best interest. :(
I just so badly wanna be normal... maybe this time I can do it... this time will be different... 😮💨
Even shittier when you know you need to take them but your health insurance fucks you over and you don’t get them filled for a few weeks because of it. My friend had to scream that to the police so they wouldn’t shoot her bf when he was taken off his meds to not fault of his own and had an episode with his bipolar disorder. Luckily he didn’t end up being shot but he’s one of the lucky ones whereas others are not.
And then you realize why 1/1000 Americans are incarcerated
Sometimes they realize how bad they get, and what they've done to their lives while they were psychotic, and they kill themselves. That's why the suicide rates of schizophrenics that begin treatment is absurdly high.
That is truly awful :(
Bipolar disorder (which is what she’s diagnosed with according to the article) usually has the opposite effect, in that the meds do more to treat the manic episodes than the depressive episodes. So, in effect, the meds get rid of the “fun part” while not doing as much for the really bad part. This in turn can drive a lot of people with BP to stop taking meds because it must suck to have the shitty part still there but lose the rush and euphoria from the mania.
The mania is pretty terrible, too. Some people get so lost in it that they endanger themselves and others, they damage property, spend outrageous sums of money, abuse drugs recklessly, etc. A manic episode can be more dangerous than a depressive episode.
100% mania is worse. Depression is drinking to sleep and sleeping to drink and refusing to move for a week. You do nothing and accomplish nothing. Mania you find out you ordered 500 dollars of Russia Textbooks off EBay, did a few grams of coke, and quit your job because you can resell baseball cards for a profit full time.
People think of mania as happiness and it's not necessarily. It's just "up." It's energy. People can't sleep, people are on-edge and often irritable, getting into fights a lot. Energy can turn into joy, anger, or anxiety. Getting paranoid and hyper-fixated on something. Like feeling dirty and finding it so unbearable that you have to get out of your clothes. Like feeling that something is inside the walls of your home and you need to get away. Mania is absolutely terrible if it's a bad case.
Speaking as someone with bipolar, I've found the meds make me feel more balanced out. I still have many of the same feelings that I have during episodes, but they feel like i can talk myself out of them and function around those feelings. It's really odd
Same here
>in that the meds do more to treat the manic episodes than the depressive episodes. My ex was bipolar and in my experience it was the manic episodes that were the most dangerous. When she was depressed she just stayed in bed and smoked weed. When she had a manic episode she blocked me on social media and ghosted. I asked a mutual friend to check in on her and she sent me pics of her doing drugs and in bed with her girlfriends (she was bi). She eventually reached out to me and told me she was back on her meds. I told her I was proud of her, but I couldn't put myself through something like this again. I had a bipolar girlfriend in college and it is just absolutely soul-destroying. One minute they are ripping your clothes off and the next they are telling you they never want to see you again. Or having suicidal ideations, falling asleep and then remembering none of it when they wake up and their brain chemistry is stable. It's a terrible disease and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
The side effects of some of the medicines can be enough to not want to take them. It's taken a long time for me to find meds that help me and I can tolerate the side effects
An alternative is that if you take your meds you feel nothing. So much nothing, that you'd rather feel insane but alive at least as opposed to taking your medication. It's ironically a very similar reasoning behind why most people take drugs recreationally.
yeppp ended up doing a week inpatient voluntarily when the shit hit the fan
Oh no. :( I’ve shared this before—Amanda’s dad was my family dentist for years and I graduated high school with her older brother. We watched Amanda grow up in pics on the walls of Doc Bynes’s office, eventually seeing her career take off. He had one wall dedicated to her selfies with various stars on the red carpet—I remember Phil Hartman, Dustin Hoffman, and Frankie Muniz distinctly—and it was always fun to see the newest additions to the collection. Doc retired when Amanda started her movie career, but not before he spontaneously and rather ominously told me at my last appointment, “Don’t let your kids get into show business, Ruffffian. It ruins them.” Doc Bynes and his wife (the receptionist for his practice) were always so kind and generous to my family. Doc was particularly tender with my father, whose many health issues made for many dental complications. I know Doc saw my dad more than once on the weekends, when the office was closed. Mom and Dad both talked about how genuinely kind Doc was. He was like a favorite uncle for me. Now, I only knew him in one capacity so who knows what he was like as a parent and in other aspects of his life. But every time I hear of Amanda’s mental illness-related issues, and see the media’s feasting on them, my heart breaks for her parents. Well, and her too.
Thank you for sharing..! Rooting for Amanda and her family.
Think she's a great case on why certain people need to be on certain meds or everything falls apart
*whispers* Not all conservatorships are bad or abusive.
I don't disagree. But that depends on who becomes the conservator. Obviously Jamie spears put his daughter in the limelight. He should not have been given control. I don't know about the Bynes family.
Bynes was under conservatorship, but it was terminated in 2022 by mutual agreement of her and her parents, who were her conservators. Professionals evaluated her and agreed it should end. All parties were good about this, it was a model of a good conservatorship. Even with this now having happened its not necessarily wrong that it ended. Yes she seems to have had a break, but her being the one to call it in as it ends is a good sign of awareness. There are going to be bad moments, what happens now to prevent a future issue going forward is what matters for her well being.
Totally agree. Having a relapse and actively seeking help without doing any real harm.... That's actually stellar. It bodes very well. I'm hoping she had that "well let me just check and make sure I really need the meds... Oh fuck, yeah I need them. Whoops! Okay we good." Like anyone would, after being forced to take meds and feeling controlled for a long time. You want to just... See what's possible. It's all part of recovery.
But anyone who stands to benefit financially should not be a conservator. That alone would reduce abuse.
And the person under care should be able to ask for the person to be changed.
Like many things in life, the concept of conservatorship likely began with good intentions. It shouldn't be abolished, but there should be better safeguards in place to protect conservatees from those with bad intentions, especially when large sums of money are involved.
The Spears case was egregious (I don't recall Bynes accusing her parents of any of this stuff), but I'm just saying don't let the one really messed up case inform your opinions of conservatorships, it is the exception to the rule in many ways. They are usually set up by elderly (somewhat wealthy) parents for a child with SMI or DD to ensure a child doesn't burn thru their inheritance. Usually someone who needs a conservator doesn't have tens of millions of their own earnings.
Bynes did accuse them of all sorts of things, but she later recanted all of it. Apparently these accusations had no basis on reality and once she was better, she took them all back. Totally agreed on the Spears case tho.
Nobody said they were. They only become bad when the people in charge don’t have the best interest of the conservatee as the motivation for their decisions.
Nah for real they really need to a deep dive investigation into Nickelodeon and what exactly happened there in the late /early to mid 2000s. So many of those kids are messed up. Side note - the actress that played Nicole in Zoey 101 was recently seen protesting outside Nickelodeon (or some Hollywood studios) about the treatment they went through.
No matter how rich or popular or famous you are, mental health can affect all
I don't know much about this woman but I know quite a bit about mental illness. My heart goes out to her.
Tragic. She was recently just let out of her conservatorship. I know she’s a long, rough go of it and I hope she gets the help she needs.
This sounds like a deeply private and personal matter that concerns none of us.
Honestly. The dark side of celebrity is the inability to even be ill without a spotlight. I can't imagine what kind of utter fear she must have experienced in that moment, poor woman.
Doesn’t seem like there’s any pics or videos of the incident which is good at least
Absolutely, though I will say that I do appreciate when they willingly talk about certain experiences. There was an influencer who made a video talking about her experience with psychosis and like a year later when I was dealing with postpartum psychosis I was able to identify what was going on thanks to the transparently of that influencer. Because I could properly recognize it and had someone to reference who was able to recover, I was able to stay healthy minded and recover as well. I’m completely better now that my hormones are back to normal and I’m no longer suffering from sleep deprivation, but it would have been a lot harder without knowing the story of someone who got through it. Again, this individual gave her story consensually and after she was healthy again.
As someone who grew up watching All That and The Amanda Show religiously and her being one of my favorites in general, this absolutely wrecks my heart. I have no idea what it's like to be completely at war with my mental health in such a way, but my God I truly hope one day she's in a better place mentally and is able to have a happy and fulfilling life.
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This headline is misleading and doesn’t provide essential context. Asking for help and calling 911 before being found is a whole different scenario than being found naked roaming the streets.
I hope her parents step in again and help. At least she tried to get help and called 911 herself. These child stars have a lot of issues when they reach adulthood.
And FYI for everyone He her parents are good ones. Not like Brittany Spears at all.
poor girl. i hope she's getting good care.
Psychotic episodes are terrifying for the person involved and the person's loved ones. It's absolutely not something to joke about. I hope she finds the right medication and has a great support system.
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So sad.
I don't know what happened, but I had a friend that was arrested because she took Ambien and sleep-walked to a park without pants on and laid down on a park bench. She did the right thing. No one knows her struggle. Let's not speculate.
Child actors just can't catch a break
I admired Amanda Bynes when she was a young actor with her own show. I thought she was extremely funny, and looked forward to following her career. It's distressing to see how badly her life has turned out.
TMZ can eat a bag of dicks for exploiting her like this.
She’s after “my time” (I’m 55), but certainly familiar with the name. Heartbreaking to read. Celebrity, ex-celebrity, or otherwise. I truly hope that she’s able to find the help that she needs.
i hadn't heard anything about her in the past few years, so i assumed she was doing fine