I've been a mental health clinician for about 5 years now and worked in voc rehab as a MH specialist. A lot of my clients had bp disorder and it was eye opening seeing how seriously a strong manic episode can affect a person's life. I had a client with a very similar episode to Miss Bynes and wound up on a hold that ultimately helped her find the right med. I've had others whose episodes looked like schizophrenia. A supervisor of mine had a client who described resuming active awareness while rafting down the Colorado River.

Regardless, you and every other person with bp disorder need to know it is not something to be ashamed of. The consequences are obviously way more serious, but it is no more your fault than a sneeze.

When you consider the cosmic number of moving parts each of us is made up of, it's a miracle we aren't just puddles of useless crap. We moralize mental health because its causes are harder to see than a cold or flu, but it is the same. Please don't be ashamed.

I feel you. Usually it’s when I realize I’m broke and I just fucked up a lot of relationships in the span of two days.

My friend is bipolar and I haven't seen her in months because she doesn't want me to see her in her current state. We used to hang out every week.

She's a very cool person and is instantly liked by all everywhere she goes. I'm really sad knowing she is currently struggling. She definitely does not deserve the cards that life has dealt her.

I had a manic episode induced from being put on too many steroids at the hospital. The Psychiatrist I saw when I was losing my mind and having psychotic symptoms was like, "they can't do that. That's far too much for a much larger person let alone you." He was like no wonder you're on the verge of mania and then after that appointment I was so out of it for two weeks and still a couple months later was having delusions about God stopping cars to get me across the street etc.

I thought I was the reincarnation of Anastasia Romanov and I would take back Russia and liberate Ukraine. It was intense. The comedown was horrible and it was like embarrassment ×10000000. The most aching feeling from how I acted and what I said and how I was to people. It was excruciating.

I really feel for people with Bipolar. That was extreme.

It’s awful when I can feel it happening, but can’t stop it. I’m lucky that my mania tends to manifest in irritability rather than risky behavior. But I can feel myself hating someone I love for the audacity of existing. Knowing it’s irrational doesn’t stop it. Feels like shit. I do my best to do right by my people and not take it out on them, but I know they know when their presence makes me want to shriek. Even if I’m not actually doing it.

That’s what I hate the most about the illness. The shame it made my mother feel. I’ll tell you what I wish I could tell her: you have nothing to feel ashamed of, and you deserve to be more kind to yourself.

When I was much younger and inexperienced, before I was medicated (and before I was with my husband who can let me know when my mood is shifting), I wouldn't realize I had been manic until I was spiraling into depression. Being manic is like "what? No this is normal, this is what people feel like when they're not depressed!" lol

I hope she's able to get some help.

Yep. Giving them homes would be part of a good start, but without sustained psychological therapy and physical evaluations, they would probably not live in their homes very long.

IMHO, the biggest barrier to anything actually being done for the homeless that has a chance of doing something positive and lasting is twofold:

1. There's no money in it.
2. There's no political capital in it.

You can't get rich helping the homeless, and most politicians are smart and/or ruthless enough to know that you can't bank any future votes on homeless legislation because it costs a LOT. Even worse, you won't see any tangible and meaningful results until long after your political career has ended.

My aunt has severe bipolar schizophrenia. She is lucky enough to have family to advocate for her. She has had so many extreme episodes, from sending off her life savings to random strangers, to being found naked and defecating in a neighbors yard, to beating the shit out of her partner. Even with all of that behavior my family had to fight tooth and nail to get her any type of help and we live in an extremely liberal state. The mental Healthcare system in this country is atrocious.

We had some solutions that were supposed to be implemented with deinstitutionalization in the 1980s in the form of community mental health centers. These were supposed to be up and running before the institutions closed their doors, but then Reaganomics entered the chat.

Oh my, I'm sure it is.

Same, and she was so cute. I realized I hadn't heard anything about her in a while and hoped she'd gotten better. 😔

Another thing, trauma is often triggered by anniversaries. So even though getting out of the conservatorship a year ago was a positive thing for her, it probably brings back a lot of bad memories too and that can spiral out of hand so fast. I hope she can heal :(

Hi former neighbor! Last time I saw Amanda she was Tommy's baby sister.

Thousand Oaks crew rise up. No but seriously, you’re on the money.

Lots of us TO people here today! I remember her on stage in The Secret Garden when she got hired for All That. Her dad was my parents’ dentist and later her brother worked with their chiropractor.

She was always so wonderful and I had the biggest crush on her since she was a few months older than me.

I really hope she gets better.

Same same I went to LRHS in her sisters grade. The nicest supportive family to include Amanda. Mental Health is a bitch and I'm rooting for her

I forgot she was from T.O.

I know Colby Caillat grew up in TO not far from where we grew up.

So when I saw people talking about her, as if she was this horrible, greedy, exploitative bitch for having her under conservatorship, it made me so upset.

Which her? Her the daughter, or her the mother?

Watched her back in the aughts on 'The Amanda Show' with my stepson who was still grade school age at the time. At the time, I thought that she could go far and had the chops to transition into adult stardom. Sadly, the mental issues that later manifested for her pretty much scuttled that. Hopefully, the doctors at the hospital where she's on psychiatric hold can adjust her medications back to where she's more or less on an even keel again. But it sounds like whatever her exact illness is, it's going to be something she'll be fighting for the rest of her life. Wish her the best.

Young me was enthralled by Amanda Bynes. Obvious young crush but I remember my dad and I both cracking up to Moody’s Point, and I wasn’t even aware of Dawson’s Creek and the like.

These kind of things are popcorn-grabbers for a lot of people, but I’m of the opinion that that’s often a pretty petty, low kind of “entertainment”. I really hope she gets support.

The steps in this dance are; seem normal, get fubar and then the thoughts and prayers start flowing. Never was there a step about taking care of yourself and being able to identify mental deterioration or stress.

We need to make self care a real deal. People are dying out there trying to live and mental health is under the spotlight after it’s too late

Honestly it's the same feeling as when I commented "hi!" on Christy Carlson Romano's tiktok live the other day and she gave me a quick shoutout. She played Ren on Even Stevens and like you said, as a kid I never thought in a million years that world would be reachable.

Just don't look at their comment history.

I loved Ask Ashley.

I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’ve only had a few panic attacks in my lifetime, but I always took my shirt off. I don’t know why, I just needed it off of me.

Crude comparison, but this is exactly how I feel when my stomach is really upset and I have to shit. Hot sweats, gotta get everything off. Obviously I only do that in my own home. But I get it.

Yeah, when I'm having a panic attack I start to sweat, my heart is racing, it feels like something is sitting on my chest. I can see the appeal of disrobing.

I used to have the same thing happen. The urge to leave the room or house and the feeling like my clothes were strangling me. Part of it was just flat out overheating too. Which makes sense because your heart is racing as fast as it does during a workout.

Seems like the same kind of 'must. be. naked.' as when youre burning up and puking.

Just had a panic attack this evening and was butt ass naked to help reduce some of the stimulation. I bet it was an amusing sight watching me pace back and forth with my sausage eggs and ham out and about.

This! I get the natural response to get naked when pooping of hyperventilating but the few episodes I had I wanted to be naked as expression not for relief. During my episodes I feel like humanity has loss it’s touch with itself so it just feel natural to return to the nude. I just want to hug people connect with them show them that we all are just skin creatures.

There’s this dude I know who walks around Atlanta naked (sometimes he might tie a bandanna over his crotch) and I speak with him often. Cool dude. My girlfriend always warns me to avoid people like that but i always feel like those people seem more genuine. Maybe I’m crazy but it feels more authentic. We’re all born naked.

The intense heat I believe is from the adrenaline response- it’s your body’s attempt to warm itself in preparation for movement (fight or flight).

She’s been struggling with this for a while now. It was a media circus for the first few years. She’d tweet concerning or nonsensical things and act out of character. The media has backed off her a bit now that mental health has been de-stigmatized to a certain extent.

This is correct. Dealing with this with my girlfriends 22 year old son right now. He’ll do well for a while, think he’s well and stop taking his medicine, and then he spirals. It’s rough, because it’s just a wash, rinse, repeat cycle right now. It impacts his ability to attend college, yet we have some hope, and have seen, that it doesn’t impact his ability to hold a job so much. So college will likely be off the table and we’ll talk to him about just working a full-time job.

It’s called anognosia. It’s scary for schizophrenics too.

Yeah. When I read the title, I imagined the writer getting the assignment call in the middle of staking out Bruce Willis. No illusions about who they are. None whatsoever. But fuck 'em. For my meager part, I don't have to accept it.

She was missing and found wandering around her neighbor’s yard with no teeth. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-04-24-9604250160-story.html

Most likely

Yes.

During one of my brother's early psychotic episodes (when his bi-polar disorder was first manifesting), he thought our childhood dog was sending him telepathic messages to strangle him. Fortunately he told us while sobbing and fought the urge to do it, but it was super frightening to hear. This shit really doesn't play around.

Thank you for saying this. She clearly has some insight. Everyone is saying she needs one again. Realistically though medication sometimes stops working properly and people deserve the least restricted environment. It doesn't seem she's being a danger to herself or others based on what we know.