TMZ is reporting that “Designing Women” actress Delta Burke, 51, has checked herself into a psychiatric hospital for treatment of severe depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and hoarding. TMZ has a clip on their website of Burke’s description of why she decided to check herself into a facility and what mental issues she’s dealing with. Delta talks about trying to get her various medications worked out - which can be an arduous process for people who are only on two prescriptions - and she’s on five. She also mentions that she was as bad as those people you see on television who have stacks of newspapers piled to the ceiling.

The former Designing Women star, 51, is apparently seeking treatment for symptoms of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and “hoarding” which on an audio clip provided by TMZ she is heard likening to what is seen in the homes of people who have stockpiled row upon row of newspapers.

“I was on so many medications and they just weren’t working,” Burke is also heard saying on the clip. “I was on five.” Among them, she says are “anti-depressants and stuff.”

[From People]

I really commend Delta for recognizing she has a problem, needs help, and taking action to get it. I can’t imagine anything that would be more frightening than checking into a psychiatric facility. And I would expect that things must have gotten pretty bad for her to do that. Most people know the basics of depression, but few know about hoarding. Wikipedia defines hoarding as:

Compulsive hoarding (or pathological hoarding) is extreme hoarding behaviour in humans. It involves the collection and/or failure to discard large numbers of objects even when their storage causes significant clutter and impairment to basic living activities such as moving around the house, cooking, cleaning, showering or sleeping. Hoarding rubbish may be referred to as syllogomania. A slang term for a compulsive hoarder is pack rat or packrat.

[From Wikipedia]

I dated someone who was a terrible hoarder, and it was truly the most frustrating experience of my life. It was so aggravating to have talks about keeping things clean and normal looking, and then find a box filled with nothing but Styrofoam - just because why throw it out? I would find broken toys, pieces of garbage, Denny’s place mats, empty bottles of Orbitz soda from 1996 (“Because someday it might be worth something!) all carefully hidden to avoid detection. It was really frustrating because he didn’t recognize that it was a problem and was abnormal, unhealthy behavior.

Click here for a great example of a clutter scale. This was put together by psychologists as an example of different levels of hoarding. When you go through picture by picture, you’ll notice a few are out of order, but you can get the idea by looking at the image that shows all the pictures as a whole.

Hoaders often have to make pathways through the crap in their own homes. I was in a home several times that was occupied by an entire family of hoarders. They literally had piles of papers stacked to the ceilings, bags of garbage, dirty blankets, etc. All that bric-a-brac you see people getting rid of at garage sales was stuffed into this house. It basically looked like a Value Village run amok. Everything was old, dingy, and useless.

In an extreme, hoarders can literally save so many things that they are forced to move out of their own homes. They actually choose to do that instead of getting rid of things. Apparently throwing anything away induces a sense of panic. Several studies have shown that hoarding is closely related to obsessive compulsive disorder. A 2004 University of Iowa study found that damage to the brain’s right mesial prefrontal cortex tends to cause compulsive hoarding. The thought is that the part of the brain that helps discern what stuff is and is not important does not function properly in hoarders. Thus they’re not able to logically and rationally determine that saving a napkin from Burger King is less important than saving a monogrammed napkin from your wedding. It really is a miserable and overwhelming way to live. Let’s hope Delta gets good treatment and her issues under control.

Picture Note by JayBird: Here’s a few pictures of rooms in hoarder’s homes.

So Britney somehow hired a new lawyer to represent her in court to challenge the ruling that her father be made conservator of her estate. The judge ruled against Britney’s side, saying that her father, Jamie, can remain in control of her finances and all medical decisions regarding his daughter until February 14th.

Britney’s lawyer, Adam Streisand, who is said to be Barbara Streisand’s second cousin, requested that Northern Trust bank and Howard Grossman, who is Britney’s business manager, be appointed instead as Britney’s conservators. He argued that having her father run her estate is unnecessarily frustrating for Britney. His request was denied and the judge said that Britney wasn’t even mentally competent enough to have hired Streisand to represent her. She will presumably be represented by a lawyer appointed by the court. That court-appointed lawyer visited her in the hospital on Sunday and told the judge that she’s not capable enough to understand the legal case or to have hired her own lawyer. A physician will examine Britney to determine her level of competence and report to the court on February 13.

The lawyers for Britney’s father, Jamie, wanted to have Britney’s legal team of Trope and Trope, who are said to be aligned with Sam Lutfi, fired. That request was not granted and Britney can retain their services. It’s not clear why they did not represent her in this specific case and how she obtained a different lawyer.

The judge addressed the restraining order against Lutfi, saying that the order is that Britney have absolutely no contact with him, including phone calls or e-mail. She is rumored to have been talking to him on the phone. When the conservators of Britney’s estate tried to serve the restraining order personally to Lutfi yesterday, he refused to open the door.

There was also yet another custody hearing for Britney and K-Fed on Monday. It was said to have been scheduled before she was hospitalized for this second time. The verdict is that there will be no changes for now and that she cannot see either of her boys. Britney’s legal reps in the custody battle wanted to request that they be taken off the case, but have withdrawn that request given their clients extreme recent problems.

Meanwhile Britney’s paparazzi boyfriend, Adnan Ghalib, attempted to visit her in the hospital bearing roses. He was seen looking upset while leaving about 20 minutes later, and OK! Magazine reports that it is unknown if he was actually able to see her.

Details from People, AP, TMZ, and OK! Magazine.

Header image from 1/22/08 from Splash News.

There was more news in the ongoing Britney saga this weekend. She remains in the psych ward at UCLA Medical Center, where the new psychiatrist who has been treating her supposed bipolar disorder practices. Britney’s stay has been extended for 14 days, and it is thought that it is on the recommendation of her doctor and is against her will. People reports that she is in a padded room and that she is allowed to keep her own clothing and toiletries and can take cigarette breaks outside. She may make phone calls, but only from a pay phone. LA Rag Mag has some supposed details from inside the psych ward, presumably from a patient or hospital worker, who claims that she is calling herself “Jack Triple X 59,” after having asked people to call her “Amanda.” It could be true, or it could be an anonymous tipster pulling everyone’s leg.

On Friday some valuables were noticed missing from Britney’s mansion. The theft apparently occurred after her hospitalization Thursday morning, and everyone is pointing fingers at Sam Lutfi, the megalomaniac self-appointed manager who has now been shut out of the singer’s life by a restraining order. Britney’s parents called the cops and filed a report of the missing items, which are described as “valuable possessions” by US Weekly. Lutfi has never hesitated to discuss his relationship with Britney to the press, and fellow blog Bitten and Bound has some inside information from a “friend” of Lutfi’s, who claims that he bragged about his power over her and tried to demonstrate that she was helpless without him.

Lutfi might still weasel his way back into Britney’s life despite the restraining order. Britney’s divorce lawyers, who are said to be aligned with Lutfi, are expected to fight her father’s legal control of her estate and medical affairs. TMZ reports that her lawyers will request “that a different conservator be appointed” when they go to court today, but that the person has not yet been decided on. Fingers crossed that it’s not Lutfi - or maybe that would be a good thing. A judge isn’t likely to give Lutfi control over Britney’s affairs. Part of me hopes that Britney with stay in the hospital with her father making the decisions and learning to live with the situation while gaining control of her health. Since she fights everything tooth and nail and seems to hate her dad, maybe an impartial legal team should be running things for her. That way she might have less animosity towards the treatment and day to day help she so badly needs.

Britney is shown in better times at the Scandinavia Style Mansion on 12/2/07, just two months ago. Thanks to PRPhotos.

It looks like the long, painful, over-saturated saga of Britney Spears might finally be coming to a head. It’s been about as entertaining as watching someone pull the wings off a fly. But, now that Britney has been held longer than 20 hours on 5150 lockdown, reputable healthcare professionals are finally able to assess her condition. It’s worse than we all suspected:

Sources at UCLA Medical Center tell TMZ Britney Spears has been classified as “G.D.” - Greatly Disabled. That is a huge and dangerous deal. That means the patient is unable to take care of basic needs, such as the acquisition of food, clothing or shelter. Being G.D. is one of the criteria for involuntary commitment.

Several health care professionals tell us Britney has fallen into a “manic state” due to her bipolar disorder. We’re also told, she arrived at the hospital this morning at around 2:15 AM but wasn’t admitted until 4:15 AM, because she was causing such a scene in the hospital.

We first reported that Britney accused her mother of sleeping with her boyfriend. Now we have more. We’re told Britney screamed, “the only reason she’s admitting me is because she wants to be alone with her boyfriend! She wants to sleep with my boyfriend!!” Britney never said exactly who she was talking about.

When Brit calmed down, she talked about her kids, how much she misses them and how it’s unfair that she doesn’t have them.

[From TMZ]

Earlier, it was revealed that Britney’s drug of choice is Adderall, the prescription medication used to treat ADD, and she has been using laxatives.

Lynne Spears, who has been estranged from her eldest daughter for most of the past year, said she was “devastated” by how badly Britney’s condition had deteriorated. Hopefully, the severity of Britney’s condition will give Lynne the strength to do the right thing and get Britney some help. Unless she commits her, Britney could voluntarily leave the hospital– and this time, she might not survive.

Days before Britney Spears’ “carefully orchestrated intervention,” her mother Lynne Spears “flew out” to L.A. Sunday and was shocked to see how badly the singer’s mental condition had deteriorated, a source close to the singer tells Usmagazine.com.

“Lynne was devastated,” a source tells Us. “She hadn’t seen her in a while and to see her deteriorated to this level – what mother wouldn’t be affected by that? It’s awful.”

Over the weekend, pal Sam Lutfi phoned The View’s Barbara Walters, saying that the the singer and her estranged mom were back on speaking terms.

Though the two appeared terse at a Beverly Hills Mercedes-Benz dealership Tuesday morning, Walters quoted Lutfi as saying, “her mother has been very supportive of whatever it is that Britney is trying to do.”

Last night the singer was taken to UCLA Medical Center in a “carefully orchestrated intervention,” the source says. (Lynne arrived with Spears’ latest beau, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib.)

The singer “had been up since Saturday without any sleep,” the source tells Us.

[From Us Weekly]

I truly hope that this is the end of the crazy and the beginning of the healing process for Britney. I’ve said some pretty harsh things about her on this very blog, but right now, I feel really sorry for her. I still believe that a lot of her problems were self-inflicted; and whether she is bipolar or not remains to be seen. She could also be a prescription drug abuser, and she is still a very spoiled young woman who has been out of touch with reality for quite some time. But she is a person– and she is going through hell right now. In front of the whole world.

There are also rumors that her family will be taking Britney back home to Louisiana to finish her recovery. That may be the best thing for her right now. It would be great if we didn’t have to report on the next crazy Britney episode here, and it would be even better if Sean Preston and Jayden James had a healthy, supportive mother in their lives.

Pictures are older ones of Britney, which means last week.

Like many parents, I like to joke that I want to book myself into a psychiatric hospital and get a break from my kids – and it seems that I’m not alone. Grey’s Anatomy star and father of five Justin Chambers (he plays Alex, for those of you who don’t watch it) has booked himself into UCLA psych ward this week for treatment of a sleep disorder.

Chambers, who plays Dr. Alex Karev on the ABC drama, checked into the facility on Tuesday, before promptly checking himself out the following day.

Chambers, 37, who is married with five children aged under 10, went in voluntarily, according to his publicist.

“[He is] exhausted and suffers from a sleeping disorder,” the rep said.

Celebrity Truth

Justin was only in for a short, unspecified amount of time earlier in the week, and missed the drama that must have been last nights admission (oh, you all know who I’m talking about!)

If reports in the New Zealand Herald are to be believed, than it was not necessarily the best place to get some sleep. They say that the hospital has all patients on 24 hour supervision, and that patients can be “quite agitated and screams being heard all hours of the night.”

That seems like a pretty scary place to be. The only psych ward I have ever visited was quiet and pleasant, with patients playing ping pong and watching the Today show. Although I think that people who need to be restrained are usually in a medical ward until they are calm in some hospital systems. Possibly it depends on where a bed is available.

I hope Justin had some good rest, and is ready to tackle the demands of a large family again.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Justin Chambers is shown at the Enchanted World Premiere on 11/17/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

Britney and Adnan at lunch earlier yesterday
According to the many, many articles about this available today, Britney’s family and her new psychiatrist have put her on a psychiatric hold for 72 hours at UCLA medical center. She was admitted to the hospital at 1:30 am this morning. This was done after she was witnessed driving erratically around her neighborhood, having stayed up for over a day and refusing to take her medication.

Britney has reportedly been undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder. There were rumors yesterday that she attempted suicide, but TMZ and The LA Times report that those rumors are false and that “it was apparent that the operation had been carefully planned over a period of time.”

The route to the hospital was blocked off to all paparazzi vehicles and The LA Times says that “The line of emergency vehicles stretched longer than a football field.”

Britney’s mother, her friend Sam Lufti, her psychiatrist, her boyfriend Adnan Ghalib and her assistant/faux cousin Alli Sims were all at the house when she was escorted away.

TMZ has more details of the incident, and says that Britney wasn’t resistant to the intervention, which was planned ahead of time and managed to shield Britney from photographers at a vulnerable time:

TMZ has learned the plan to get Britney into UCLA Medical Center had been hatched for days — it was aborted last night, but executed just minutes ago. And we’re told the plan was so intricate the FAA had cleared airspace in route to the hospital.

Back at her house, Britney’s psychiatrist told her she was going to the hospital. Her response was, “Is something wrong?” She was not resistant. She made hot chocolate and waited before paramedics arrived and placed her on a gurney.

We’re told the psychiatrist felt her condition had deteriorated. Britney had not slept since Saturday — a day and half longer than she stayed up in recent memory.

The reason she’s at UCLA is her new treating psychiatrist practices out of that medical center.

We’re told during her initial 72-hour stay she cannot be forced to take medication against her will. If, however, she refuses to take meds, the plan is for the the psych to go to court and have Britney held for an additional 14 days, during which time he can administer proper medications.

And get this ironic twist — Lynne Spears and Adnan drove to the Medical Center in the same car. A source tells us when Lynne found out Britney was being committed, she blamed it on Sam and was extremely agitated. When Brit heard that, she screamed to her mother, “Shut the hell up.”

[From TMZ]

Britney’s last hospitalization was on January 3 following a standoff with police when she refused to handover her youngest son for a scheduled visit with his father. She has since lost all visitation rights with her two boys and is only permitted to speak to them over the phone.

Britney is clearly affected by the crush of paparazzi who document her every move when she leaves the house. She has been behaving oddly and speaking in a British accent, and if you watch the videos of her interacting with photographers a lot of them are British, including her boyfriend Adnan Ghalib. There have been theories that she suffers from a type of “Stockholm Syndrome,” which is a psychological disorder that occurs when kidnap victims start to identify with their captors.

When you watch the videos of the paparazzi who surround Britney, you can see how it might be an environment that would make someone lose touch with reality. I’m not placing any blame here, she courts the press too and she’s clearly unstable, but this is a very disturbed person who has been exhibiting out of control behavior for a while. It seems she would have a much better chance at recovery if she could start over in another country or a more remote location where she can get some peace and quiet. A hospital in California where her every move will be leaked to the press is a start, but it doesn’t seem like enough for her at this point.

It seems like all the cool celebrities are going to the hospital these days. In fact I’m going to predict that hospitalizations are the new DUIs. Sad. First it was Britney, then a week later half a dozen celebs gave birth within about three days… though admittedly that’s a much happier hospitalization; at least once it’s over with. Now we find out that Gwyneth Paltrow was admitted to New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital late last night with what media outlets are calling a “mystery illness.” The only mystery is that she won’t share with us what it is. I’m guessing it’s no medical mystery though.

Hollywood superstar Gwyneth Paltrow was at the centre of a health scare mystery yesterday after reportedly being rushed into a hospital in a wheelchair. The actress was admitted into New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital late Monday - just hours after being seen out-and-about near her Manhattan home. But today, it is unclear what was behind the mum-of-two’s scare.

“She was slumped over in a wheelchair pushed by husband Chris Martin,” an eyewitness told a U.S. magazine. “She looked not well.”

At 6:30 p.m., a bag - labeled “Gwyneth Martin” - from NYC organic home supply store Organics Avenue was delivered to the hospital. A source said the star and Coldplay husband Chris were expected to spend the night in hospital. Yesterday Gywneth’s [sic] spokesperson was refusing to discuss the reports, stressing: “We are not commenting as it’s a personal matter.”

[From ShowbizSpy]

I love the integral eyewitness report that “She looked not well.” Generally people being admitted to the hospital don’t look like they’re going to the hospital. And I’ve seen pictures of Gwyneth Paltrow without makeup, and she looks a bit unwell in general. Especially if you’re expecting her to look like Movie Star Gwyneth Paltrow instead of Regular Person Gwyneth Paltrow. It will be interesting to see if we ever find out what she’s been admitted for. Is frigidness an actual medical condition? I kid, I kid. Gwyneth seems to have warmed up a lot in the past few years. Hopefully she’s alright. Not to sound like a hen pecking grandmother, but she appears very very thin and pale, which always makes me wonder. She also sticks to an extremely strict macrobiotic diet – though she did abandon it when she was pregnant. But I can’t help but wonder if she’s getting all the nutrition she needs that way. It’s unclear whether Gwyneth is still in the hospital or has been released. Hopefully it was nothing serious and she’ll be okay.

Update: The Huffington Post reports that Gwyneth was on one of Organic Avenue’s fasts before she was hospitalized.

Like the virtual Woodward and Bernsteins we are, we called Organic Avenue to find out what was in the bag. “She’s doing our five-day live-food fast,” an employee told us. Reaaaaaally, we drawled in our best gumshoe-detective voice. Could that be why she’s in the hospital, perhaps? The employee laughed like that was just crazy talk. Right, because whoever heard of anyone getting sick from not eating? “Oh, no,” she said. “She’s eating salads, there’s juices. There’s actually quite a bit of food there, it’s just all raw and organic.” And so our groundbreaking reporting reached a dubious but still satisfying conclusion. Because Gwyneth can’t actually be that sick if she’s still sticking to her diet.

[From the Huffington Post]

OK! magazine’s website says that Gwyneth has left Mount Sinai Hospital. Her rep has released a statement saying: “Gwyneth is fine and at home - we are not commenting further.”

Picture note by Jaybird: Gwyneth Paltrow on her way to dinner in New York on December 9t. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

An older image of Eminem performing
Did Eminem, aka Marshall Mathers, spend too much time drinking egg nog in the snow over the holidays? It seems he’s been hospitalized with pneumonia and a possible heart problem.

Hospital sources tell TMZ Em was taken to a Detroit-area hospital for a serious heart condition and severe pneumonia. Sources tell TMZ Em’s weight has ballooned to 212 lbs.

Eminem ’s publicist told TMZ: “Over the holidays, Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, was under doctor’s care at a Detroit-area hospital for complications due to pneumonia. He has since been released and is doing well recovering at home.”

TMZ

The publicist doesn’t acknowledge the heart condition or weight issue at all.

Now, I’m no doctor, but is it possible that the pneumonia could cause heart problems? The heart and lungs are both in the chest. Checking it out on Wikipedia, the symptoms include sharp chest pains. When you have pneumonia caused by bacteria it can also spread to other parts of the body including the kidneys, brain and heart. So what probably happened is that Eminem was warned that he had bacterial pneumonia and be aware of possible heart problems. Hopefully he was just erring on the side of caution and went to the hospital to be sure he was ok.

As far as his ‘ballooning’ weight goes, 212 pounds is about 97 kilograms, which is not exactly huge. It might not be a reasonable weight gain for Eminem, but it hardly makes him obese. Who didn’t put on a little weight over the festive season? I always do, which really sucks here in the southern hemisphere because it’s the height of bikini season.

I predict that Mr Mathers will be back to his regular weight in time for his next album release, which he’s been working on for some months at his Shady Studios in Detroit. The album is due for release in 2008. Get well soon, Eminem.

Note by Celebitchy: It’s impossible to find recent pictures of Eminem, I looked on the photo sharing sites and through the fan sites and there’s nothing. He did look a little heavy in December, 2006 at TRL with 50 Cent but those photos are old. Let me know if you can find anything of him from the past six months. Here are pictures of Eminem as a child, thanks to user Kendra on Flickr. He’s shown in the header performing on an unknown date.

Eminem is from 5′8″ to 5′10″ tall, it’s hard to tell, so 212 pounds would be borderline obese for him if he’s 5′10″, according to BMI calculations.

A photo of Britney and Adnan from December
Britney on vacation with photographer
Britney Spears is with photographer and new boyfriend Adnan Ghalib in Palm Desert, California, where she drinking champagne for breakfast and he’s presumably getting plenty of exclusive shots of the world’s most-watched fallen celebrity. There was a story this weekend that Ghalib approached British papers with intimate photos of Britney that weren’t that revealing and wanted an astonishing $5 million for his story and the photos. The snaps were said to just show Britney on the couch with Ghalib with her hand on his knee, and he should have aimed lower or had more compromising photos. We’ve all seen Britney’s kitty on multiple occasions so it’s not like photos of her relaxing in one of the many hotels she frequents are going to bring much on the open market. There are also a ton of stories floating around about her many exploits, told by the guys who were along for the ride, so one more is not going to shock anyone.

Dr. Phil overstated his visit with Britney, violated hospital policy
Britney managed to sneak away from Cedars-Sinai hospital, where she was placed on a medical hold and released earlier than the standard 72 hour wait time, without being photographed. Dr. Phil claims to have counseled her for a full hour before she left, and will surely bring in huge ratings for having her folks on his show on Tuesday. He of course wanted to have Britney on too, but she wasn’t having any of that. TMZ has a story that contradicts Dr. Phil’s statement in which they say that Dr. Phil showed up after Britney was released, tried to talk to her for 15 minutes, and was summarily dismissed. They also say the TV psychologist didn’t walk her to her car as he claims, either. Given that it’s Britney and she won’t listen to anyone, it seems like TMZ has the right story.

Criticism of Dr. Phil for entering Britney’s room without patient permission
There’s also a story that Dr. Phil’s visit violated hospital policy in that he entered a patient’s room without it being cleared with her. TMZ consulted medical experts who say this is highly unprofessional and that Cedars-Sinai must have been starstruck by Dr. Phil, because his unannounced visit violated the patient’s rights and would typically not be allowed.

For his part Dr. Phil says that the family requested that he be involved and that he spoke to Britney’s mother, father, and her older brother before going to the hospital. Britney’s family was worried that she wasn’t going to be held longer, according to Dr. Phil.

Rumors and false stories in the case
It seems like this outrageous story is opening the floodgates for papers to make even more incredible claims about the situation in order to move copies. News of The World ran a story that would be laughable if the subject hadn’t already defied all belief. They claimed that Britney had a gun the night of the police standoff, that she offered Federline $100 million to hand over custody of the children to her, and that she took over 100 pills that night. It was also K-Fed who called the cops, not the court-appointed monitor, according to their account.

The LAPD has denied that there were any firearms involved, and I think we can safely assume that the majority of that story was fabricated.

PageSix reported that Spears’ “cousin” and assistant, Alli Sims, used a hammer to break down the bathroom door where Britney was holed up with her youngest child, Jayden James. This contradicts earlier reports that had all the staff leaving at least an hour before Britney was escorted out. Indeed, Sims denies that she broke down the door and says that she wasn’t even threre.

Was Britney’s drug test really negative and was she on something or just off the deep end?
Many of you have said that there’s no way Britney’s toxicology tests could have come back as soon as the report in Life & Style that all her drug tests were clean. Some commentors mention a rumor that Spears’ camp is leaking these false stories to the press in order to clear her name.

Courteney Love has speculated that Spears is taking too much Adderall, an ADHD prescription medication that has speed-like properties and can cause erratic behavior at high doses. Another report has her on Clenbuterol, a dangerous horse steroid that is being abused as a quick-fix diet drug.

Whatever happened to Britney, she’s dominating the news again. Surely she’s mentally ill, but she seems aware enough to realize that her episode has managed to take the focus off her young sister’s pregnancy. Many are pointing that out, while others are saying it’s just not fair to hold a mentally disturbed person to the same standards as the rest of us who just watch in disbelief.

Britney Spears has once again managed to prove that the rules, no matter how rigid – apply to everyone but her. She’s managed to get herself released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center mental ward, where she was placed on a 72-hour hold. According to most sources, Brit was admitted to the hospital sometime around midnight Friday morning, which means she should have been held until about midnight tomorrow night. But she’s managed to get herself released after only 31 hours – more or less. Brit was released this morning at 7am, after a visit from Dr. Phil. According to Page Six, Brit began acting out after Dr. Phil visited her, and then was released with him and her father Jamie Spears. That really doesn’t make any sense – she started misbehaving, so they released her? Regardless of what went down, Brit was definitely released this morning, and is now at home.

After being rushed to the hospital Thursday night and spending two nights there, Britney Spears has left the building. OK! can confirm that she was escorted out by four police officers at 7 am, but Brit Brit did not head to her lavish Beverly Hills pad. Instead she headed to her Studio City home.

Both Entertainment Tonight and The Insider were first to report that the mother of two left Saturday morning via an underground tunnel. A source told the television shows that there was no reason to keep her hospitalized despite reports she would stay for 72 hours.

Before she was released, Britney had an unexpected visitor. Dr. Phil was seen visiting the out of control singer and her father Jamie. Dr. Phil then walked Britney to her car.

[From OK!]

It seems like there’s a lot of confusing information out there – it’s hard to tell if it’s just because the stories are being written so fast. Britney left through an underground tunnel, but Dr. Phil also walked her to her car? She freaked out when Dr. Phil arrived at the hospital, but they also let her go because there was no reason to hold her? I have to say, the biggest reason to keep Britney Spears hospitalized is that her mood and behavior are super unstable and seem to change often, quickly, and unpredictably. Additional, a good reason to keep her for the full 72 hours is to teach her that there are consequences for bad behavior. Yeah I know that sounds like something you’d say to a child, but Britney has the intellect of a child, so that’s what works. Showing her time and time again that she is an exception to the rule will only reinforce her behavior. She needs as much structure and rigid toughness as possible. I’m really disappointed in the mental health system right now.