According to reports, Amanda Bynes is now on a "cocktail" of medication at the facility in which she is housed, and things are going swimmingly. She has reportedly stopped taking part in the odd behavior and angry outbursts (reference: her entire Twitter account) for which she has become known. But the continuous coverage following her journey back from the edge of schizophrenia has been both hopeful and shameful, for her and the rest of us.
We're all rooting for Bynes to get better, to return to the successful career she once had, but if we're honest, we're also embarrassed. Embarrassed that, truth be told, we were all out here, egging on her mental health issues and laughing at her for being "crazy" when what she really needed was psychological help. It is the nature of celebrity that as a population, we're less inclined to take their problems seriously. Oh, you're depressed? Shut up! You're rich and famous! Having cash flow problems? What, did you buy one jet too many? But these stars are people too, and the way we all, myself more than most, dealt with the obvious breakdown of a public figure is kind of disgusting.
We didn't start with bad intentions. I mean, anyone harassing Drake about vaginal murder and the Obamas about their ugly faces was going to get some laughs. But it went on for a long time, and we sort of knew something was seriously wrong when she started tweeting about all of her surgeries and making weird solo appearances in public. More than anything, we should've known when she went to court wearing an aquamarine wig and the same sweatpants your grandma wears. And it feels a little messed up that we all still jeered at her, let her continue having a mental breakdown all on her own while the entire world watched.
I could pull the whole "next time we'll be more supportive, next time we'll know what to do" card on the table, but we live in a celebrity-fueled culture. Watching dysfunction is fulfilling in a screwed-up way that we rarely admit to. But let's hope next time we let a struggling celebrity actually get better, like Bynes is doing right now. And we'll be super helpful in helping her/the next Bynes restart his or her career if they so choose, because we want to be a society that is accepting and understanding of mental health difficulties. I know we can do it guys — we just need it pull it together. Just like Amanda Bynes.
