With a simple Google search of “Britney’s breakdown,” around 65,000 videos and articles come up all about Britney Spears’ ups and downs in life. Spears has been through it all from the birth of her two sons to her two divorces, in addition to her popularity ever since she was a child to her superstar status she remains to have today. To any normal person, one divorce would be very difficult to deal with, but with her fame, the show must go on.
With Spears’ recent mental rehab stay, it doesn’t come as a shock to some people. We have seen time and time again what fame can do to a celebrity’s personal health as well as the impact it can have on their family. No matter if the celebrity is young or old in age, there is an enormous amount of pressure to perform at a certain caliber.
We have all seen and heard of celebrities going from child star to hitting rock bottom, but nothing ever seems to change in the entertainment industry. Whether it’s in the music industry or film industry, there doesn’t seem to be a form of required mental health care available for the entertainment profession or protocol if the star is ill and needing help from professionals in order to step back from the limelight and truly get better.
Some may know Britney Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, and his past role as not only a father to Ms. Spears, but as the man who calls the shots after her breakdown in 2007. In an NBC interview with her just prior to her 2007 breakdown, Matt Lauer asked Spears if she thinks the paparazzi will ever leave her alone and she said “I don’t know” and began to cry.
There is no doubt that with Spears’ child fame in combination with the overbearing paparazzi, her status has done a great deal in her 2007 breakdown. Spears’ father then stepped in to her life as her conservator because she couldn’t take care of herself.
According to Britney Spears superfan YouTuber Adam Mcintryre, he states that in January 2009 her manager spoke out and said that during her tour that she was “being pushed back into a money machine.” Her father and team allegedly ran her life due to her father being her conservator. From 2007 to 2018, there have been many articles written about Britney’s comeback and how her father seems to be helping her, when in reality her father is controlling every aspect of her life as her conservator and it seems to have brought her down even more.
Many people can say they trust their families with everything they have, but the real question is if fame and wealth come in the picture, how can we judge who is making the right choice. Spears has had her fair share of ups and downs but when it comes to wealth and her own human rights, those should be kept to herself.
When we take this all into account, a few possible solutions come to mind in regard to maintaining health mental health and human rights in general. Starting with maintaining a good balance of mental health, there should be a part of being in the entertainment industry where entertainers should talk to a therapist or mental health specialist before furthering their career in order to prevent any sort of breakdown.
Secondly, when it comes to a very successful brand and business like Spears has developed, it shouldn’t be as simple as a few court visits. With that much fame and power passed down in a blink of an eye comes responsibility, and as a father, Jamie Spears should have stopped all of Britney’s projects and focused on her health until she could fully take care of herself so she can take care of her own business.
At the end of the day, we can all pick apart her life and try to understand what truly happened but we really don’t know what exactly has been going through her mind, and social media and vague interviews can only tell fans and the public so much. So the next time you see a celebrity, stick to the golden rule and remember to treat others the way you want to be treated. These people are regular individuals just like the rest of us, who suffer from time to time with mental health, and these issues should not ignored.
