Amanda Bynes was tricked into checking into a psychiatric facility last Friday, where she was put on a 72-hour psych hold. Amanda got to speak in her defense, but at the end of the day the doctors extended the 72-hour hold to two weeks. Amanda’s parents went to People Mag to frame the story as “Amanda is finally getting the help she needs, she has mental health problems,” which is great that they acknowledged it and de-stigmatized it, but these are the same people who told media outlets five months ago that Amanda’s problems were the result of her pot-smoking. While Amanda’s siblings rally around their parents, Amanda is apparently pissed off and blames her folks for her current situation:
Amanda Bynes is filled with anger as she sits in a Pasadena mental facility … after her parents created an elaborate ruse to get her committed. TMZ broke the story … Amanda’s parents worked with Sam Lutfi to lure her from NYC to LA Friday. Lutfi convinced her to take a car service to what she believed was a Pasadena law office, where she would meet with a lawyer about suing her parents for abuse. The building was actually a mental facility. When she walked in the front door, she was restrained and involuntarily committed.
Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ … Amanda feels utterly betrayed and says her relationship with her parents is “destroyed forever.” Although she’s had a poor relationship with her dad, she had warm feelings for her mom … until Friday.
We’re told Amanda is in the women’s lockdown section of the facility … where she is showing fits of anger. Doctors are medicating her, but it takes time for the meds to kick in.
TMZ said that the problem these days is that putting Amanda into another conservatorship controlled by her parents would be “extremely difficult to manage Amanda given her hatred for her parents.” So what other possibilities are out there?
Amanda Bynes is headed for another conservatorship, but we’re told it almost certainly will not be at the hands of her parents. Rather, we’ve learned Amanda’s doctors are planning to get the type of conservatorship that can keep her confined and medicated for up to 1 year.
Sources familiar with Amanda’s treatment tell TMZ … the plan is to get an LPS Hold — something a judge will grant at the behest of doctors but only if the patient is “gravely disabled as a result of a mental disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism.”
The LPS Hold allows doctors to confine Amanda — at either the hospital or another secure facility — and administer meds against her will. The LPS Hold is far more stringent than what her parents could get. The parents could not legally force meds on Amanda nor could they effectively restrain her. We’re told Amanda literally hates her parents now after they tricked her into coming to the mental hospital.
You may recall … doctors got an LPS Hold on Amanda a little more than a year ago after she went off the rails … ending with lighting a driveway on fire and dousing her dog with gasoline. That LPS Hold expired last month. Our sources say the doctors will likely ask a judge for a new LPS Hold within a week … after Amanda is fully diagnosed.
While the thought of forcibly medicating makes me queasy, I also think that in certain situations, it’s a public health issue. Amanda is a danger to herself and others. So, yes, something needs to be done and maybe this is one of the stricter solutions. And I agree that this might even be a better solution than putting her back with her parents.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
2 words.
Frances Farmer.
I really hope this is the help she needs.
When I read that, it sent shivers down my spine. I agree and also hope that she is getting the appropriate treatment. I feel so sad for her, poor girl.
Frances Farmer wasn’t a danger to anyone or the animal kingdom, Amanda is.
yeah, this is different than frances farmer. this chick is going to kill somebody in her car someday soon if she doesn’t get some major psychiatric help.
I only hope you get’s the help she needs!
It is very sad, hope she gets better soon.
Genuinely so distraught over any news about Amanda Bynes now. I loved her in so many of her earlier movies and can’t believe the situation has gotten this out-of-hand. Poor girl.
This is so so sad and crazy! I mean forcing a somewhat sentient adult to medicate for her own good? They can’t possibly keep this up indefinitely…
Sadly dome people do need it forever. She may be one of them.
No they can’t keep it up forever. Unfortunatly, sometimes people like Amanda won’t take their meds if they are not forced. So after a year, she’ll be back off them again.
Right, that’s what i was thinking that while she might definitely need this, they can’t keep court orders/legal framework in place FORCING her to comply..although that brings up Britney and makes me wonder as it seems that’s pretty much the situation she herself is stuck in?
My mother inlaw has schizophrenia and it’s a cycle with her. She takes the medication, gets better, then feels cured and is committed again. This has been going on for years. She lost doctors due to her unwillingness to stay with the program they’ve put her on. Unfortunately, my father in law is passive about her meds so she isn’t getting the support at home.
The reason I bring this up is because; if someone isn’t insisting in the care of someone who is mentally ill, they will slip through the cracks. Because they do not have the presence of mind to be their own advocate.
@aims – didn’t see your comment before i posted. sorry to hear about your MIL. tough situation. 🙁
I was thinking the same thing. hopefully, if they find meds that can help her, she’ll realize how much more healthy she is and how much better she feels on them and will continue to take them.
unfortunately, as many here can testify to, some folks take the meds, feel better and think “hey, I don’t need the meds anymore!” and start the cycle again.
she always struck me as a sweet young lady with a talent for comedy (a la Lucille Ball and Debra Messing). I really hope she can recover.
She seems to get into a lot of mischief when she’s out on her own in public and this has caused problems. Her access to social media is a disaster too with the lies she puts on there, looks like she’s off her meds. She’s going to run out of money eventually as she only has about three million left. Who’s going to pay for her care once that happens as I don’t think her parents are wealthy.
Sorry to hear about your situation Aims… That must be extremely taxing on your relatives
@AIMS is right. I work in a MH and Addictions Hospital and we see a lot of the same clients cycle through. The schizophrenic population can be especially tricky. I’m glad she’s getting help but until people treat their MH meds as somthing they need for life – like insulin for example – the cycle will not break. Destigmatization!
My ex had severe mental health issues and at one point I had to crush Haldol (a powerful anti-psychotic) and put them in a beverage to get them down his throat. He also would take his meds, feel better, think he was cured, stop taking his meds and slowly slide down into psychosis. I had to get him hospitalized twice, the second time after he tried to kill me. That was a long time ago but to this day I keep my car keys next to the back door. Mental illness impacts so many more people than just the sick soul. And these illnesses don’t just “go away.” It is a lifetime struggle. We need better answers for the mentally ill. An amazing resource that helped me was The Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Caring people when you need caring people.
a lot of this will turn on the patient’s resources. a court can order her to take her meds until the cows come home, but if she doesn’t want to, she won’t. the social/public health system doesn’t have enough workers to visit a person to make sure they take their meds. in her case, if she still has money left, the conservator could hire someone private to supervise her medication schedule. in addition, although i have no idea what her diagnosis is, a lot of people with serious mental health issues (such as schizophrenia) stop taking their medication once they improve. they feel better, so they no longer feel like they need it. which makes them worse. it’s a vicious cycle. perhaps she can break it (if applicable) if she has the resources and support to get the help she needs regularly.
Yeah. As a social worker/therapist, I’ve worked with people with extremely severe mental health issues (schizophrenia, for example). It often is the case that the people who need medication the most WON’T take it. Or they take it for a little while, get somewhat stabilized, then stop because they start feeling okay. Something I’ve heard a lot, too, is “my meds don’t have any effect.” And it’s usually not the case, there’s almost always a pretty sharp difference that I’ve seen between when they are medicated (and therefore can function, are reliable, can live productively in society) and when they are not medicated (and rendered unable to function in daily life). From what I’ve seen, the outcomes for severe mental health, particularly schizophrenia, and no treatment/medication is pretty serious: dead, homeless, or incarcerated. Generally speaking, of course. Some people can get by, if they have intense family support, and fight daily battles on the fringes of functional living, but it’s tough. With medication and mental health treatment, though, the chances of living the normal lives that we all take for granted are much better.
Hope she gets the treatment she needs.
As someone whose significant other has been “committed” involuntarily, I think this is a really awful situation. Her parents should not be devising secret plans against her…no wonder she is losing it. Can you imagine if you felt like your family turned on you? Don’t get me wrong, I definitely think Amanda needs help but just imagine if you were deeply depressed or were going through a rough time emotionally if you were taken somewhere and imprisoned? Locking someone up just doesn’t seem like the right plan of action. Psych hospitals are MISERABLE places.
I agree it’s a terrible thing to do, but sometimes it is the best option. Her parents probably knew there was no way she’d cooperate and they didn’t want a flight risk, so they had to take some secretive action.
Better to have her incarcerated against her will and under treatment than out by herself, at risk from herself and outside elements.
Poor girl, I hope she stabilizes and is able to live out the rest of her life in relative anonymity. Living in the public eye for so long could not have been good for her mental fragility.
She clearly can’t take care of herself and she can’t manipulate the doctors into thinking she’s “cured.” This is for the best and I hope she gets the care she really needs.
+1
“And I agree that this might even be a better solution than putting her back with her parents”
AGREED. As someone with a sneaky-snake abusive mother, I heartily applaud this decision. I know she has mental problems, and her claim that her father abused her was retracted…but for her to say that, it makes me wonder if there’s not a grain of truth in that — maybe it wasn’t her dad, maybe it was someone else….
Or maybe I’m reaching due to my own experience, idk.
Well…you might not be so far off. There have been very loud long-time rumors of her being sexually abused by a certain Nickelodeon executive producer, the same who allegedly father Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby. Won’t mention names since there has been no public accusation, but you can google the rumors.
Funny how there are rumors about Dan made by some anonymous cowards online yet there were no rumors about Stephen Collins.Stephen has admitted molesting girls dating back forty years.It’s also odd that Stephen’s story is off the radar .
Collins’ story off the radar?! It’s been all over MSM and entertainment media, and still is.
I felt the same way for the same reasons. My own mother has an untreated personality disorder and is abusive in ways that are almost invisible to people outside her home. But being legally under her control is my worst nightmare.
Then someone up thread mentioned Frances Farmer, and I am reminded that mentally ill women are abused and taken advantage of by employees of state facilities all the time. And now I just feel sad and conflicted again.
Hopefully Bynes’ case is high profile enough to protect her from any abuse at a state facility, and she is able to confront whatever issues she has with her parents or childhood after her mental illness is being treated/managed successfully. Fingers crossed.
I had similar thoughts when she tweeted that. Such trauma could certainly have contributed to her susceptibility to mental instability.
Forcible medication and detainment. Its the stuff of nightmares for all people, mentally ill or not. I dont know enough about it or her to comment more than that but man… its terrible it had to come to that.
This will be a lifelong struggle. And it certainly will not be the last time she goes off her meds…
Partly, this is her parents’ fault. During the last episode, they probably felt they controlled it so they put out BS statements about her perfect mental health so Amanda wouldn’t look bad. At times, they seem to be as in denial as she is.
Or maybe they were trying to spare her public humiliation by blaming drugs instead of a mental disorder.
Or don’t want to acknowledge that their child has schizophrenia, or is bipolar with psychotic features, or whatever the truth is. I do feel terrible for them, and anyone in the same situation, but denial doesn’t help anyone.
unless you have been in their position you have NO IDEA how hard this can be on a parent and the rest of the family.
Whatever happened to her dog?
According to TMZ, adopted by someone else after the incident.
I feel so bad for Amanda, I really do but the girl ain’t right in the head.
Allowing her parents to have a conservatorship failed. I understand that they could not forcibly medicate Amanda or make her take her medication but they failed. In the past couple of weeks you realize that they don’t want to deal with this and you know what? That’s okay. The problem is though that it is their daughter who is tge health and safety risk. Do you really want to be the parent who finds out that your child harmed or killed someone because of their delusions. Do you want to feel that responsibility? I doubt Rick and Lynn did. I don’t blame them but there was no feasible way they could keep their daughter safe or the public safe from their daughter.
Considering how quickly Amanda unraveled her neuro-chemical inbalances are pretty severe. On average it takes 2-5 years for someone with schizophrenia to really stabilize and I chalk that up to the difficulties of med-compliance. One year being forced to take meds may be good to reorient her to reality. But I think her elderly parents need to consider getting a family lawyer as her conservator because the realistic chances of being a fully functioning stable adult if her dx is combined bipolar disorder and schizophrenia is slim to none. I hope she gets better and beats the odds but being realistic is the key here. I wish Amanda well nonetheless.
Their conservatorship ended, she left their care, she went off her meds. Her parents didn’t have much choice in any of that. Mental illness happens to a family, not just the person who is ill, and I’m sure they are doing their best for their daughter in a very, very difficult situation. You really have no idea.
Someone other than her parents needs to be assigned responsibility here. She needs help but she’s an adult who deserves the dignity of not being controlled by parents she chooses not to have a relationship with – and who may not have her best interests at heart.
It’s not like there are legion people who could step in and take on this role. She’s not worked in a really long time and I doubt she;’s insurable at this point. Her career is probably over, probably a lot of money already burned through so I doubt her parents are scheming to get control over her millions or whatever. She was hitting people and other cars with her cars for months and it’s gone progressively downhill from there, lighting fires in driveways and harming a dog (as I recall). she most definitely needs intensive care and medication right now.
But the whole I hate my parents thing is most likely coming from the mental illness and making her get help.
Maybe … but is it possible her parents were complicit in whatever abuse she experienced as a child actor? I.e. allowing her to be alone with pervy producers or not listening to her concerns? They were dismissive of her problems early on, which gives the impression they don’t want to deal with the realities of this situation. If she doesn’t trust them, I’m inclined to believe there’s a valid reason beyond her mental illness.
We don’t know why her parents claimed her problems were drug related and not a mental disorder. I thought that maybe they thought that she can be back to normal and working again with her meds as drug problems aren’t such a stigma in Hollywood (as half of Hollywood had them at some time) as severe mental illnes – medication or not. So maybe they tried to somehow “save” her name and career – unfortunately at the cost of a) not bringing awareness to the reality of mental illness and b) sounding totally in denial.
I agree with Betty Rose sentiments on her parents. I also sincerely doubt her parents are her only option. Hopefully mental health care professionals and people she trusts will support her.
The Court can assign a GAL.
Harsh but necessary.
She has siblings, I wonder if it wouldn’t be a reasonable compromise to have one of them take matters over.
Her siblings have lives and families of their own and probably don’t have the time and means to care for her fulltime. Not to sounds harsh, but as the sister of a suicidal alcoholic, it’s not reasonable to expect someone to drop their entire life to dedicate the physical, emotional, and mental energy it takes to care for a sibling with major problems. Professional help is what she needs, not to be babysat by a sibling.
Fair enough. Though I meant as a liaison between the family, Amanda and the professionals, not to babysit her lol, since she just seems to have a weird relationship with her parents.
@Pants, I apologize, I misunderstood your comment. I thought you meant for one of her siblings to become conservator for her, which I think is too much to ask of a sibling. Personally speaking, my sister and I were roommates for a few years in our twenties, and having to deal with her alcoholism, severe depression and suicide threats, all the while having to hide it from our mother (because she begged me not to tell anyone) and the rest of the world really took a serious toll on my emotional health and messed me up psychologically for years afterward. I often felt like I was babysitting her, because that’s literally how it feels when someone is helplessly lost in the throes of their problem. My sister needed professional help and she wasn’t getting it, she was just depending on me to help get her through each day without wanting or trying to kill herself. It’s a massive emotional burden for a sibling to have to shoulder, especially when the sibling is thing to have their own life. Again, I apologize for being defensive. I get what you were trying to say now.
I’m sorry you had to go through that difficult time. Suicidal threats should be taken seriously and not hushed up. If some one threatens suicide, you need to tell someone, talk to a parent or counselor, call a suicide prevention hotline. Most people who commit suicide have a history of threatening to do so. I say this not to you personally but just as a general comment on the situation.
Possibly, especially if she’s in the hospital for a long time, a sibling could be put in charge of the decision making, or at least act as the leader for the family. I hope they are all able to work together and do what is best for her.
Unfortunately this is another Britney like situation. She needs help, even if it’s forcible. If she’s on her own, imagine what she could do to herself/others. It’s all for her own good, even if people don’t agree. Really hope she gets the help she needs.
What a nightmare. She must be feeling so betrayed, on top of everything else.
Had to be done, it sounds like. It’s not as if she could be persuaded to go on her own.
I know, you’re right. I just can’t imagine that level of shit storm being in her position.
My grandfather and one of my uncles are both severely schizophrenic and they go in phases. They go off on an episode, get committed, take the meds for awhile, feel cured, stop taking them. Rinse, repeat. As a result my grandfather has been homeless off and on for almost thirty years because he is violent and dangerous. We have all tried to take him in but he has tried to attack numerous family members. He has gotten so violent that he is banned from local homeless shelters. My uncle is almost 40 years old and has lived with my grandma off and on his whole life. He too is violent but not to the extent that my grandpa is. My grandma is terrified of him but feels she has no choice but to let him stay.
Carrie, wow, that must be so much for your family to deal with! I’m so sorry..1000 big warm hugs.
This is just all kinds of sad. I sympathize with her for having to go through this mess with the whole world watching and commentating.
I feel for her as well but I hope that some good can come from her “high profile” illness, we have to have public awareness, we have to have a functional mental health care system.
This is tragic. The only upside is it seems to be educating a few people about mental health.
I wonder if her parents contacted Sam Lutfi or if he contacted them. He was Britney’s so-called boyfriend, right? I thought he was a bad guy…?
How does Sam Lutfi always get mixed up in celebrity breakdowns? Opportunist much???? Ijs
This.
Which is funny to see that nobody is talking about this? He is conveniently the good guy? Since when?
Great question.
This may be forceful but it’s necessary, since she doesn’t listen to her parents she would never take medications from them.. so putting her in a really strict facility is the best option, imo.
Yet when was the last time we saw a male celebrity in dire need of intervention (including bouts of domestic violence against females) be put in this type of situation? Society is loath to take the independence of any famous male in these types of conservator situations.
Show me the man raving about microchips in his head because I haven’t seen or heard him to forcibly medicate. And Charlie Sheen doesn’t count, he’s raving because of medications.
How can this be legal!? Confinement for a year with NO trial by jury? Forced medicating? What is this, Germany in 1933!? Remember that most of the charges against her for everything that’s happened over the last few years have all been dismissed/dropped. Plus the police sexually harassed her back in 2013, and I’m sure that this is all in retaliation for that one. Yeah she’s “said” crazy stuff on Twitter, but I’m pretty sure she’s just the victim of hacking like Jennifer Lawrence was.
I think we should set up a Go Fund Me thing so we can post bail to get her out of that hospital. I know she has the money to post it but the police/parents have this conspiracy to keep her there and fritter away her hard earned money. I really loved Hairspray and I hate to see this happen to her!
Amanda Bynes needs help. To me, the most disturbing thing about this story is that Sam Lutfi is in the picture. Isn’t this the same guy that virtually held Britney Spears hostage and tried to keep her parents at bay? So this is what he does for a living now? He’s gone from allegedly drugging mentally ill women to tricking a mentally ill woman into being restrained at a facility. Disgusting.