Framing Britney Spears

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s a link with some information that folks might find helpful - it’s about lithium. https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Treatments/Mental-Health-Medications/Types-of-Medication/Lithium

To clarify, this is a powerful mood stabilizer that is used primarily for treating bipolar disorder (aka ‘manic depression’) and schizophrenia. So as you contemplate Britney’s diagnosis, keep this in mind. Further, proper treatment with lithium requires regular blood draws to monitor therapeutic levels in the blood and any side effects that might cause other health issues. Finally, pregnancy while being treated with powerful psychiatric drugs like lithium and others is always a special consideration, so it is not at all unusual that careful use of long term birth control like an IUD or implants would be utilized by ANY woman struggling with bipolar or schizophrenia. None of this is on its face nefarious in any way.

Also noteworthy that following the call to court to speak to the judge yesterday, Britney reaffirmed HER desire to keep all records of the court proceedings and her diagnosis and mental health assessments SEALED from public view. Her father isn’t the only person who wants to keep her mental health details private.

Imagine this is not Britney Spears, but just a regular person. Person calls court and asks it to be public and publicly assails EVERYONE in her life except her personal trainer boyfriend. Person WANTS HER MONEY NOW and WANTS NO MORE RULES! Person doesn’t want to be subject to evaluation by ANYONE to determine if her competency, that was the basis for her original conservatorship, is now restored. Person repeatedly accuses everyone of being out to get her and please Ma’am, set me free!

Honestly I think so many people in the Free Britney camp are well meaning but have no grasp of serious mental illness and how it manifests. I recommend rewatching the episodes of ER that depict the bipolar disorder manifested in Abby’s mother, played beautifully by Sally Field. Bipolar is disabling in many people who don’t stay adherent to a medication and healthy lifestyle regime, and a bipolar person with a drug addiction history set loose on a fortune of millions has the potential to end up very, very ugly. I hope this judge finds the right path forward.

Thank you PP, this is a very accurate synopsis.

Yeah, the insistence on not being evaluated is a red flag. No one likes spending a day or two answering questions and undergoing tests they've already had. But it's hardly the worst thing in the world if you're asking to be freed from a conservatorship.

[Anonymous]

I have worked with individuals with mental illness for over 20 years. I have seen it all.
I think this is a perfect storm. i believe she has some form of mental illness that is able to be managed, at least on some level. I believe she is insanely wealthy. I believe she is talented. I believe she has been taken advantage of (at least in some aspects) by people in her life (dad, family, boy friends etc). I believe she doesn't believe her illness is as bad as it is or can be managed by her alone. I also believe she thinks some people (boyfriend) have her best interest in mind and is very easily manipulated.

I believe she needs conservatorship to make sure she is protected longterm (as well as her children). I think this should be a neutral third party. She needs an annual evaluation to determine the level of support she requires. This should be set up by the courts and not her dad or boyfriend.
She should NOT have kids if she is on any psychotropic medication as it will likely cause birth defects and if she goes off of them she will not have her symptoms under control and may not be able to make any rational decisions for herself of the baby.

it sucks that her life has turned into this but she is not mentally well and needs supports put in place to keep her healthy and stable.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like her 27 year old boyfriend has a big influence on Britney. I will not be surprised if he is trying to alienate her from her family. She has a child’s mind so it is not too hard to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An IUD put in against your will is trauma.

She didn’t say it was put in against her will. She said she wants it taken out so it is being KEPT in against her will. Both are traumatic but we should be clear in our statements.

[Anonymous]

I think she needs to get second and third opinions on her diagnosis. It’s possible her father influenced the doctor.

[Anonymous]

Britney and her boyfriend have been together for 5 years. He's put up with a lot of BS in 5 years. Do you really think this is some long game con for him trying to get her money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have worked with individuals with mental illness for over 20 years. I have seen it all.
I think this is a perfect storm. i believe she has some form of mental illness that is able to be managed, at least on some level. I believe she is insanely wealthy. I believe she is talented. I believe she has been taken advantage of (at least in some aspects) by people in her life (dad, family, boy friends etc). I believe she doesn't believe her illness is as bad as it is or can be managed by her alone. I also believe she thinks some people (boyfriend) have her best interest in mind and is very easily manipulated.

I believe she needs conservatorship to make sure she is protected longterm (as well as her children). I think this should be a neutral third party. She needs an annual evaluation to determine the level of support she requires. This should be set up by the courts and not her dad or boyfriend.
She should NOT have kids if she is on any psychotropic medication as it will likely cause birth defects and if she goes off of them she will not have her symptoms under control and may not be able to make any rational decisions for herself of the baby.

it sucks that her life has turned into this but she is not mentally well and needs supports put in place to keep her healthy and stable.

Agree on all accounts.

Yes a boyfriend will spend a long con game for that much money. He may be fine, but she still needs some neutral protections in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Britney and her boyfriend have been together for 5 years. He's put up with a lot of BS in 5 years. Do you really think this is some long game con for him trying to get her money?

Yeah maybe.

But that's not the question anyone should be answering. It's whether or not she is mentally unfit enough to have a conservatorship for over a decade. This is INCREDIBLY unusual and very controlling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Britney and her boyfriend have been together for 5 years. He's put up with a lot of BS in 5 years. Do you really think this is some long game con for him trying to get her money?

Yeah maybe.

But that's not the question anyone should be answering. It's whether or not she is mentally unfit enough to have a conservatorship for over a decade. This is INCREDIBLY unusual and very controlling. [/quote

Yeah, long cons take years. That is why it is called the long con.

[Anonymous]

Britney needs to be evaluated (although she is asking not to be) by someone who is not being paid by her conservatorship camp or making any sort of profit off her conservatorship. It most certainly shouldn’t be someone who is making her work when she doesn’t want to, drunkenly assaults her young child, and earns $16k+ a month for his role (plus 2k for office space, plus royalties from her performances)…

If she’s too disabled to make her own financial and reproductive decisions, she’s too disabled for the rigorous performance schedule they have her on. Can’t have both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Britney needs to be evaluated (although she is asking not to be) by someone who is not being paid by her conservatorship camp or making any sort of profit off her conservatorship. It most certainly shouldn’t be someone who is making her work when she doesn’t want to, drunkenly assaults her young child, and earns $16k+ a month for his role (plus 2k for office space, plus royalties from her performances)…

If she’s too disabled to make her own financial and reproductive decisions, she’s too disabled for the rigorous performance schedule they have her on. Can’t have both.

*shouldn’t be initiated by someone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Britney and her boyfriend have been together for 5 years. He's put up with a lot of BS in 5 years. Do you really think this is some long game con for him trying to get her money?

Absolutely. I think he is also trying to take advantage of her.

[Anonymous]

So, rational person here, or at least I think so!

I think that many things can be true at once

1) I thought that reading the transcript she seemed scattered but listening to her talk she seemed cogent. I believe that she has a significant mental health diagnosis.

2) I think her logic for requesting to not be evaluated was actually one of the clearer points she made. My first reaction when I read that was the same as PPs but it was clear that the reason she was requesting to not be evaluated is that last time she was and it was a bad experience and it did not help her.

3) I think this is a situation where the public knows very little about her actual diagnoses and that the grey area for abuse is very large. If you convince the public and the world that she's so severely mentally ill that you can't trust what she says, and you medicate her heavily so she seems off all the time, and when everyone involved in the situation is profiting massively from her being locked in a gilded cage, then the idea that she has been essentially abused and used for a decade is as plausible as the idea that she's mentally ill and will believe anyone working in her interest will be controlling her. And when the doctors are on the payroll and chosen by the people making millions off of her, it just becomes difficult to trust that they are working in her best interest.

4) It is one thing to say she's mentally ill and can't manage her affairs. It is another to restrict her from driving, to not let her friends/boyfriends take her places, to take her credit cards, to not let her live outside of a bubble.

5) There are mentally ill people all over this country who are not forced to take medication they don't want or forced to work or forced to stay in a house. And those people didn't manage to hold down a Vegas show for four years performing every night. Her work competency has to count for something here.

Seems to me like the family should, at large, be entirely removed from the payroll and she should be given a lot more freedom, at minimum. Someone can protect her fortune and ensure she keeps her doctor's appointments etc without preventing her from being able to go to Starbucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Britney and her boyfriend have been together for 5 years. He's put up with a lot of BS in 5 years. Do you really think this is some long game con for him trying to get her money?

Why not? He just turned 27, he has plenty of time. He will not let the cash cow go so easily. There are a lot of money at stake. What is his job again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have worked with individuals with mental illness for over 20 years. I have seen it all.
I think this is a perfect storm. i believe she has some form of mental illness that is able to be managed, at least on some level. I believe she is insanely wealthy. I believe she is talented. I believe she has been taken advantage of (at least in some aspects) by people in her life (dad, family, boy friends etc). I believe she doesn't believe her illness is as bad as it is or can be managed by her alone. I also believe she thinks some people (boyfriend) have her best interest in mind and is very easily manipulated.

I believe she needs conservatorship to make sure she is protected longterm (as well as her children). I think this should be a neutral third party. She needs an annual evaluation to determine the level of support she requires. This should be set up by the courts and not her dad or boyfriend.
She should NOT have kids if she is on any psychotropic medication as it will likely cause birth defects and if she goes off of them she will not have her symptoms under control and may not be able to make any rational decisions for herself of the baby.

it sucks that her life has turned into this but she is not mentally well and needs supports put in place to keep her healthy and stable.

Agree on all accounts.

Yes a boyfriend will spend a long con game for that much money. He may be fine, but she still needs some neutral protections in place.

+1. I agree with all of the above, and at some point, she seemed ok with that too (conservatorship with a neutral third party). I think her dad is scum and has been taking advantage of her basically her whole life, but I'm not convinced dropping all of the reins and setting her entirely free without someone to manage her care and assets is the way to go.