Britney The Early Years:
Britney Jean Spears was born on December 2, 1981 in Kentwood Louisiana. From a young age, Britney was destined to be a star.
Her claim to fame was her role in the Mickey Mouse Club alongside fellow Mousekateers and future stars Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilara. In 1999, Britney then released her first album, that skyrocketed up the charts and remained number one for a few weeks. After that, she had no where to go but up. Her career flourished.Britney the wife and mother:
After her career got off the ground, we started to see Britney as she grew into a woman.
She had a normal relationship with Justin Timberlake for a number of years. This is where she seemed to be the happiest. But after the break-up Justin, she seemed to go a different route.Is this where signs of mental illness started to appear? In 2004 she married her childhood friend Jason Alexander and the marriage was annulled after only a few hours. Britney's wild ways soon began to show.
In October 2004, she then married backup dancer Kevin Federline. Her marriage became a source of entertainment for the media. After having her children, her parenting skills were put under scrutiny due to her lack of good judgment.After their divorce in July 2007, Britney's world seemed to unravel. She's had so many "crazy" moments, that one might think she should have been place in a mental institution a long time ago.
Mental Illness:
So what makes a person act as strangely as Britney Spears? There are a number of factors that contribute to certain behaviors. It is being speculated that the star is battling with postpartum depression and has a bipolar disorder.
Let's talk about the postpartum depression first. As a parent of two beautiful little girls myself, I once suffered for this after I had my second daughter.
Postpartum depression comes from nowhere. It hits you like a ton of bricks (at least in my case that's how it happened). I remember after being home with the baby from the hospital for a few days and just feeling so sad, for no apparent reason. This was a time where you should enjoy your baby, but for me I was so unhappy and overwhelmed with the situation. There were days I couldn't even get out of bed, I cried all the time and just didn't feel like I was the same person anymore. My husband didn't understand the way I was feeling either, and that didn't help. The only person who knew something was wrong was my mother, who encouraged me to talk to a doctor. After taking her advice, I talked to my doctor and was diagnosed and treated. For Britney Spears I can see how this might have been something she had to deal with, and being in the public eye didn't help either. When you're depressed, it doesn't help having ANYONE make fun of you or put you down.It just makes you go into more of a self-hating downward spiral. Most of the time all we would hear on the news about Britney was how much of a bad mother she was, and how she should not have children. I know if I was hearing that while I was going through what I went through, it would have made the depression I was experiencing even worse.
The next thing that Britney is said to be suffering with is some sort of bipolar disorder. From what I can tell, she's definitely showing some signs of something like that. She's had episodes where she has seemed to gone off the deep end. The head shaving incident shocked us all, and recently, the standoff at her home that made the breaking news. I feel so sorry for this woman. It seems as though she has no one to help her. And her behavior has not helped her to get any sort of help either.So What Can Be Done?
Many people suggest that she go to rehab and I agree. She needs urgent help, but I feel as though she can't truly get this help if the media does not stop feeding into a part of her illness. Britney seems to be seeking the attention from the media, and she gets it everyday. She seems to thrive on the ATTENTION that she gets. I mean who really needs to go to every single gas station in town?
Her only friends right now are the same people that are making money off of her "crazy" moments by taking photos of her. In my opinion, I think that if she stops getting this sort of attention 24/7 she may start to see how much she needs help.
Just a thought. These people need to stop making her think that she's o.k and that she's still a top celebrity like she used to be. Yea she's still famous, but for all the wrong reasons. Let's hope that she will soon get help. Because as a mother, I shudder to think that those two little boys would have to grow up without one.
