The downward spiral of Amanda Bynes

So if you’ve been following any entertainment news recently, then you’d see the most recent spiral of Amanda Bynes.

She’s now 28 years old, but the problems are just starting. In a series of tweets that she has now deleted, she accused her father of sexually abusing her as a child. She later retracted that statement saying that it was, “the microchip in her brain” that made her say those things.

Anyone would believe that that is borderline crazy and after that rant, there were countless tweets and stories about her being the Hollywood’s latest starlet gone crazy. But after seeing those tweets and especially after seeing the one about the microchip in her brain that makes her say these things, I feel bad for her. Bynes is going through some serious mental health issues that shouldn’t be made fun of. It’s so easy to judge and ridicule her mental illness after seeing so many other celebrities (Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, etc.) go through similar situations. I just find it sad because so many people, like Bynes, go through these issues and are unable to submit themselves to getting help.

I also think that anyone who cried and mourned over the loss of Robin Williams but make fun of Amanda have got it all wrong. Mental illness comes in many different shapes and forms and some are easy to detect while with many others, one would be unable to realize that a person is going through something. It has just shown me how cruel and contradictory we can be especially in the media. When a case of suicide becomes national news, given that the victim was a celebrity or the suicide of the victim has become relevant, there are helpless cries for being more sympathetic towards each other, yet when someone is publicly spiraling out of control, we decide that it’s best to make fun of it.

The bottom line is that anyone could be going through a mental illness, but it’s important how we decide to take that. We can choose to help and be sympathetic when we see it or we could harshly criticize it to no end. To me, the first option sounds a whole lot better than the latter.