Mischa Barton has spoken for the first time about her psychiatric hospitalization earlier this summer. She’s a smart woman, and her explanation sounds like she’s trying to be purposefully vague and not admit much. Mischa says that it all happened due to the intense pain she was in after having four wisdom teeth removed at once. She suffered terrible migraines and was under a lot of pressure from work. Barton doesn’t admit that she was on any painkillers, just that she couldn’t take them when she was working and that she suffering a lot a pain. She also says it wasn’t a breakdown exactly but won’t say if she was hospitalized due to drugs:

A lot of people are watching you now, speculating you were in rehab back in July.
Here’s what happened: Before the show started, I was traveling abroad for contract stuff and I went through a terrible surgery—a wisdom tooth surgery, all four removed. It was a nightmare. I’ve never had surgery before—it all went wrong and I had to have a second surgery and it almost delayed shooting because it was a nightmare to me, because I couldn’t deal with the thought of not getting there on time. So with the travel, and surgery and prep for the show—it was hell.

Is this when you were checked into Cedars?
Yeah, I went through a tough spot where everything compounded on me, and it was like a perfect storm, like everything was happening to me at once. The show, travel and then this fairly routine surgery that went wrong—it’s still just healing. But I had to get through it without proper painkillers because I couldn’t take those during work. So it’s been a nightmare.

How did you end up in a psychiatric hospital?
I was down in the dumps about everything there for a while. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom about things and have to get the most stressed-out just to feel better again. I got completely stressed-out and couldn’t handle everything, and now I feel really in control.

Was it an official nervous breakdown? Drugs?
I don’t know. I don’t know. I had a friend who had a quasi–nervous breakdown, but I’m not sure it’s the same thing. I’m not sure I’m capable of a full-on nervous breakdown, but it was pretty bad. It didn’t last that long. It was more about the pain. I have a newfound respect for people who have chronic pain. I started getting migraines.

How long were you in Cedars?
They don’t keep you in the hospital. I wasn’t there very long.

[From NewYork.Timeout.com]

I’ve only had a couple wisdom teeth removed at once and it wasn’t that bad. I understand that if the teeth are compacted it can be incredibly painful, though. It probably was as awful as she’s saying, but the cause of her incident was most likely the drugs she was on, prescription or not, coupled with the pain. She’s not revealing much here, and I guess I don’t blame her. The press has moved on, and Mischa didn’t get much mileage out of this. As cynical as it sounds, you can understand why she’s talking about her hospitalization again now. Maybe if she was a little more open about it she would be getting more coverage.

The National Enquirer reports this week that Mischa loves to sing and play guitar and that she’s planning some sort of folk music CD. They write that “the 23-year-old actress has thrown herself into songwriting and hopes to release a CD of original folk-rock songs next year.” We’ll see if Mischa has any talent, but even if she doesn’t she’s sure to get some opportunities in the music industry given her name recognition.

Mischa is shown on 8/21/09 at the “I Heart Ronson” collection in NY. She’s looking much better physically, but her fashion is still atrocious. Credit: Patricia Schlein/ WENN.com