What’s Eating Britney Spears?

The Britney Spears saga continues. On Thursday Spears was declared a danger to herself. She is reported to have bipolar disorder, a condition once known as manic depression. Bipolar is characterized by extreme highs and lows. Police were called to her home last month after she refused to relinquish her children to Federline. A US report claimed she was on a three-day crystal meth binge using the horrendously addictive drug in the time leading up to the stand-off over her children. “Britney was high on meth and naked all day before,” a source said. “Even when losing her boys became an issue, she didn’t stop. After the boys were taken from her, Britney went on another drug binge, using meth almost every day for an entire week.” She was strapped to a gurney as she laughed and then hospitalized at the Cedars-Sinai medical appearing to be under the influence of an “unknown substance.” Other sources claim she was on Adderall—a stimulant used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder—and was taking up to ten laxatives a day.

She has been labeled Gravely Disabled. The medical term GD means the patient is unable to take care of basic needs like food, clothing, or shelter. It is one of the criteria for involuntary commitment. Her stay in a psychiatric ward has been extended for two weeks. It seems she has lost all ability to care for her children, and herself. Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Welfare investigated “multiple child abuse and neglect” allegations over toddlers, Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, in the custody battle between Britney and ex-husband Kevin Federline. And now sixteen-year-old sister Jamie Lynn is pregnant. She indeed appears to be crazy, perhaps even an unstable crystal-meth fiend, but I refuse to dismiss her as only that. Let’s examine her background and upbringing, I am pretty certain that she did not just wake up “crazy” one day.

I am bereft. After the Cheetos and Marlboros jokes are over, all I can think is … what the hell is eating this woman? I suppose WHO is the more operative question. The media, for one. I know, I know, it sells. What are we buying? Anyone buying magazines with her face on them is at this point supporting a nervous breakdown. Don’t like hearing that? Tough shit. Bloggers exploiting her condition? Morally reprehensible. So enough of the damn jokes. What is happening to Ms. Spears is far deeper than her marriages, divorces, traffic issues, and drug use, though those are a part of the puzzle. This woman is in serious trouble. It is completely horrifying how the media is documenting her breakdown with absolutely no empathy, no mercy, nothing but a frenzied greed.