Mental health matters and drug use continue to be a hot topic in headlines, even pulling in celebrities. Amanda Bynes recently was taken in for a 5150 hold after she was found walking on the streets of Los Angeles naked. An eyewitness said Bynes waved down a car at the time and told them she was having a psychotic episode. This is a long way from her days on Nickelodeon as a child star and her journey to this point in life has been one filled with mental health issues and drug use.
Amanda Bynes began her career as a child in the late 1990s with shows on television like “The Amanda Show,” and roles in films like “Big Fat Liar.” Although promising roles continued to come her way as an adult, Bynes decided she needed to step back from the Hollywood spotlight as an adult. She also became very open about the struggles she faced with her mental health and had multiple issues with substance abuse and mental health episodes, which placed her on an involuntary psychiatric hold in 2013. It was during that time she would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder and started to receive treatment. Sadly, Bynes continued to have struggles present in her life due to her mental state and also dealt with addiction. She has been open to the public about her use of marijuana, molly, ecstasy, and adderall. Bynes expressed hearing about adderall and how it was a “skinny pill,” women were using to stay thin which led to her seeking a prescription. She got her adderall prescription from a psychiatrist after faking attention-deficit disorder (ADD) symptoms as many do to obtain the pills. She was open about how adderall really led her into a spiral and she would even chew the pills, thinking it made her “higher.” She was also arrested for driving under the influence, got hit and run charges pressed against her, and the snowball effect of her co-occurring disorders continued to take its toll on her life, so much so that her Mother became her conservator in 2014.
In a 2018 interview with Paper Magazine, things seemed to be looking up for Bynes in realms of recovery and her road ahead. She was in school and acknowledged her issues with drug use saying, “There are gateway drugs and thankfully I never did heroin or meth or anything like that but certain things you think are harmless, they may actually affect you in a more harmful way. Be really, really careful because you could lose it all and ruin your entire life like I did.” Fast forward to March 2023, Bynes sadly is back to a dark place and living it out in the public eye once again as she roamed LA streets unclothed.
Co-occurring disorders are the coexistence of substance use disorder and mental illness. This makes long term treatment the goal and challenge for many who struggle with co-occurring disorders. At some point, someone with a co-occurring disorder may disconnect from their support groups as they start to do well in one arena like their substance use only to trigger back into the dark hole of addiction when they have a mental health episode. Scottsdale Recovery and Detox Center understands that the key to long term recovery means treating both issues at hand paired with long term support.
Our team is a phone call away if you or a loved one are seeking support! Learn more by visiting scottsdalerecovery.com or call 1-888-NODRUGS.
