In 2012 and 2013, Amanda Bynes was a mess. CB and I debated her issues just amongst ourselves, and my takeaway was always that Amanda has legit mental health issues, plus substance abuse problems that go further than “she likes to smoke pot.” It wouldn’t surprise me if Amanda was/is an alcoholic, nor would it surprise me if Amanda’s substance abuse included meth, heroin, cocaine and basically anything she could get her hands on. After multiple arrests and legal situations on both coasts, Amanda finally was forcibly put into some kind of rehab/treatment center for three months. Amanda’s mother was also appointed conservator over Amanda’s money and her medical situation.
Skip ahead to April of this year… in a weird, out-of-nowhere move, Amanda’s lawyer and her mom issued statements about Amanda’s progress. They claimed she was “cured” because she was no longer smoking pot, and that she had no mental condition (like schizophrenia, which was the armchair-diagnosis that had gotten a lot of traction). Additionally, her lawyer said that Amanda was completely drug-free, as in she was not on any medication for any mental health issue. It all seemed like another disaster was inevitable. Well, guess what? Yep.
Sad news for Amanda Bynes. The 28-year-old actress was arrested on Sunday morning at 3 a.m. for DUI, the California Highway Patrol confirms to E! News. She has been charged with a misdemeanor after police “determined she was under the influence of a controlled substance” while driving. The former Nickelodeon star was held at the Van Nuys, Calif., station on $15,000 bail before she was released at 12:44 p.m. that same day.
According to officials, Bynes was traveling westbound on Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks as she approached the intersection at a red light on Van Nuys Boulevard. She stopped for the red light, but she stopped in the middle of the intersection, at which point the actress was pulled over and “given a series of field sobriety tests, which she was unable to complete.”
Bynes was then transported to the CPH West Valley Office where she was given a drug evaluation test that determined she was under the influence of a controlled substance (the substance is unknown). She currently has an upcoming court date scheduled for Oct. 23.
TMZ’s sources (probably the arresting officers) say that Amanda was on a “stimulant” while driving, but the exact drug is not known at this time. Sources also say that Amanda is back to smoking weed all the time now. This arrest will probably affect her probation – she was sentenced to three years’ probation last February. Oh, here’s something I didn’t know: Amanda’s conservatorship ended in early September. Ah!!! That makes more sense. Amanda was back on her own and she fell back into her terrible habits.
PS… Michael K at Dlisted says that THIS is Amanda’s undercover Twitter account. Hm. Whoever it is, she’s been posting TBT photos of vintage Amanda Bynes. So, yeah, why not?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
I am genuinely sad for her! I hope she can turn things around
I feel bad for her. She really needs help, but won’t get it from her family or her lawyer.
They took her off of her psychiatric medications after being on them for such a short time! Then declared that she was cured! I remember reading that and being shocked. I’m willing to bet anything I own that, with her mental issues, she needs long term medication coupled with regular counseling/therapy.
I like Amanda and I hope she can peacefully work on her mental health and drug issues.
Yes, sadly it reminds of Brittney Spears. Although she did eventually get the treatement and steady meds she needed, it took her having an all-out public mental breakdown. If it weren’t for her father, Jamie, getting involved, chances are she would have left treatment as soon as she could and dropping her meds. I realize many don’t care for Jamie Spears, but at least he protected her more than her mother did. Poor Amanda doesn’t seem to have a decent parent to save herself.
She seemed to have been getting it together somewhat and staying under the radar and the peering eyes of TMZ who really targeted her. Some of these paps have no souls and treat the fragile personalities like somehow they’re different than the rest of us. Leave her alone and let her get as well as she has the capacity to be.
100%
ITA, it must be so hard dealing with mental illness and substance abuse, let alone being followed every where and having camera’s in your face. Add some paranoia in the mix and it ain’t going to end well..
Poor bugger, the best for her I think is that the violation of her probation means she gets a proper psych evaluation and rehab.
Is that how it works in America in the justice system or is it go straight to jail, do not pass go?
oh no, i was happy that she seemed to feel better. I hope she makes it.
Sad news.
Apparently she moved out of her parents’ home awhile ago and has been drinking and smoking weed ever since. A lot of articles suggest that her parents sold her out as a child and allowed her to be abused by Hollywood pervs, so she understandably doesn’t like them much. So who can help her?
Oh my god. I hope this bit of gossip isn’t true. Jeez.
🙁
O.o
I read that too. Same with Hayden Panetiere but even worse if you can imagine. I’ll let you Google that one.
I don’t know anything about her really, but I do feel badly for her. It seems she’s trapped in a real-life nightmare without the ability to wake herself up.
I saw tweets about her someone collected on tumblr and I read this several days before her DUI. Apparently she has been partying and yelling (?) at people thinking they are taking a pic of her. She seemed to be doing so well 🙁
And her parents seems to be in denial about her issues as well as IF this is just about pot.
If that Twitter account is really hers, then she’s been losing it again for awhile.
I think it’s her. Right now it says something like “It was NOT me! I have never been arrested!” which is pretty much like what she was tweeting in 2012/2013 every time she got arrested or spotted doing something bizarre.
That twitter account was big when she started with all of the issues. It dropped away when she was getting treatment. It could very well be her – or someone pretending pretty well.
This breaks my heart. I have a family member in the same situation and it’s so hard to watch. Amanda is bipolar, straight up. Anyone with experience with that disease can spot it a mile away.
Yes, I have it in the family too. It’s very sad when it’s severe. Very sad.
My guess is that she’s doing the typical thing of–having had a few good months of stability, she’s decided that she’s “cured” now and no longer needs drugs. So she’s self-medicating to ease the way it feels to be “clean.”
Sigh.
I hope she gets back and track and stays that way.
She needs sympathy, understanding and help, not scorn. I feel for her. Mental illness can be devastating, not just for the sufferers, but for families and friends.
Her parents seemed to not want to accept that their daughter liked drugs and had mental issues. This girl will never get better since everyone around her is in denial too.
Exactly this! at first i thought “well they are Protecting her privacy” but it really just seems like they are deep in denial, stabilized her and figured “she’s all good now”
Ugh, awful. Look if you can get off medication and live a comfortable life, great. That’s preferable but she may well be someone who can’t. The rush to demonize medications (and vaccines!) is costing lives. Her parents/handlers need to face some hard truth.
…or she’s just a typical addict acting selfishly but somehow I don’t think it’s that simple.
I really hoped she was doing better. I read through her twitter feed – calling people ugly, just being rude like before. This isn’t something pot heads do – she’s got issues.
That makes me sad. She seemed to be doing better, but it was worrisome that her family didn’t accept that she has some mental illness. She really needs a lot of help, and for the media to back off and let her get better.
I’ve been following that Twitter for a long time and was surprised it never really caught on.
She was never “cured”, she needs long term assistance.
I hope she’s sentenced to more time in UCLA’s psychiatric ward so they can get her straightened out. Hopefully someone gets another conservatorship over her and doesn’t allow her parents any involvement. They’re probbably good people but they dropped the ball on this one by staying in denial.
The worst thing her parents did was ignore the doctors and take her off the medication. You don’t get “cured” of mental illness. If they didn’t agree with the diagnosis they should’ve went for a second opinion! But I knew this wasn’t going to be good when her mom was saying she was cured months ago.
They need to meet with Jamie Spears. Britney had her meltdown and he got s**t together. He didn’t deny his daughter had problems and he made sure she was stable before slowly backing down. That’s the way to do it.
@Alex I agree with you that Amanda’s parents need to learn from Britney’s dad.
I see people criticize Britney’s dad and the conservatorship in the comment sections on Britney’s articles here, but I don’t think they realize that there may be more to the situation than ‘she seems normal now, so let her loose & go unsupervised.’ It looks like Amanda needs someone to look after her best interests rather than take the easy way out and ignore what the reality is with her and her drug abuse and mental illness. It’s a long-term process with no short-term ‘cure.’ Her situation may need years of supervision and might not even have an ‘end.’
So I guess I’m criticizing people who criticize Jamie Spears and the conservatorship. Look what happens not only to Amanda but other young celebrities especially in the past few years, some who have died or just completely broken down. There are troubled people who need major guidance and someone to step in and take control and it may require years of this, and maybe it might never end, but it’s in the best interest of the person who is genuinely sick.
People criticize Jamie Spears not for being Britney’s conservator, but for continuing to have his clearly unwell daughter tour and work in a very public forum. Yes, she may need to be busy, but there’s a whole lot of ground between “busy” and “world tour” or “Vegas residency”. She’s unwell enough that she cannot even make her own decisions, but she’s well enough to be put on show?
@Bridget
I can’t understand when I see people say that mentally ill people like Britney shouldn’t work . There are different degrees of being mentally ill, some can continue to work, some can’t or can’t do the same level as more highly functional people, healthy or otherwise.
I also don’t understand when I see people say that Jamie is forcing Britney to work. I don’t know where that comes from. What evidence is there that Britney is some kind of slave or unable to make such decisions on her own?
Conservatorship doesn’t mean that the conservators can force those under their care to work. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about financial, legal, and health management. It’s not about being an employee or slave owner. Britney has a say in what she wants to do in terms of work. I think a lot of critics who keep saying that Britney is forced to work against her will don’t have even a small understanding of what a conservatorship is.
Britney has said in the past, even in that documentary, that she loves working. And this Vegas residency is much better than going on tours. The work hours are more stable and there’s more opportunity to spend with kids and the rest of the family and whatever else. Also, there’s no moving around from city to city. You live in one place and go to work at one place.
I feel sad for her. I cannot even watch “What a Girl Wants” or any of her films/old TV shows anymore. I always just feel sad to see how she was.
Pray she gets the help that she needs.