Britney's Hospital Stay Extended 2 Weeks

Britney Spears' stay in a psychiatric ward was extended for two weeks under a section in state law that allows patients to be kept for medical treatment if they are found to be gravely disabled or a danger to themselves or others, a person close to the pop star told The Associated Press.

Spears was to be released Sunday from UCLA Medical Center's psychiatric ward after undergoing a 72-hour mental evaluation.

But doctors and a ward medical officer cited California law to keep her longer, said the person close to Spears, who requested anonymity.

Spears' detainment made it unlikely she would appear at a scheduled Monday morning hearing over custody of her children, 1-year-old Jayden James and 2-year-old Sean Preston.

Spears, 26, lost custody of the boys to ex-husband Kevin Federline following an incident last month when she refused to return the children after a visit.

Spears was briefly hospitalized at the time. On Thursday, she was again hospitalized.

On Friday, Court Commissioner Reva Goetz ruled that Spears needed someone else to take over her personal and financial affairs.

Spears' father, James, and her attorney, Andrew Wallet, were granted conservatorship, but a court hearing was scheduled Monday afternoon to review the matter.

A UCLA Medical Center spokesman did not immediately return a phone message Sunday seeking comment. Calls to Wallet and attorney Sorrell Trope also were not returned.

Spears' erratic behavior since she filed for divorce in November 2006 has included appearing in short skirts without underwear, shaving her head, abandoning a car in traffic when it had a flat tire, and recently, holding her dog and sobbing on a sidewalk.

Comments

[mpgarr]

As I have said in previous posts on "the Brit situation"--I think that a great deal of her troubles stems from the fact that she had no one who did serve to act as some sort of brake on her situation----they instead were enablers--people who did not care one whit about her--they were around her because she is a celeb that they can hang around like remora fish hanging on a shark and take whatever it was they were looking for either in terms of money or just being part of her "scene."
Perhaps now she will finally get some real help now that her dad has stepped in.

[BlueandGreen]

While I agree that Britney Spears is an attention junkie, she is also a very sick young woman.

Unless you've been "up close and personal" with someone this ill, you have no idea what a nightmare it is. You get them stabilized and medicated, they're released, things are better ... for awhile. Then, seeing themselves as healthy, they think, "Oh! I feel great ... I must not need this medicine." Or they're not getting the attention they desire, so they deliberately go off their meds in order to manipulate and control the people around them. Or they decide to self medicate with recreational drugs and/or alcohol.

And the cycle just goes on and on and on ... until they die.

[StanDaMan]

Spears’ adoring fans must accept at least part of the responsibility for her apparent mental and emotional breakdown.

After all, the fans’ insatiable appetite for every tidbit of information about Spears (from the lurid to the commonplace) has led to a feeding frenzy among the paparazzi (who are all-too-willing to invade Spears’ privacy and hound her relentlessly) and the entertainment media, in order to supply that information (or to make it up; the truth seldom gets in the way of reports about celebrities). All that can only have contributed to Spears’ breakdown.

P.S. I’m no fan of Spears or any of the other pop/rap stars out there. They have next to nil talent and their music is banal in the extreme. They’re just the latest in a long line of stars hyped by the entertainment industry/media and embraced lemming-like by a public which doesn’t know (or care) sh*t about true art, culture or talent. If not a pop star, Spears’ real calling would be waitress and Madonna’s (who deserves an A+ for marketing and a D- for talent) would be soft-core porn star.

[adc]

Oh, Christ! Just lock her up and throw away the key. The antics of this bimbo make Amy Winehouse look like an upstanding citizen.

Go away. Now. Please. Permanently.

[Hitsong]

Please let's send some love and sympathy to this lost and troubled girl. My heart goes out to her and her family. It's bad enough going through something like this in the privacy of one's own home, but to do it under the glare of the media spotlight is obscene. LEAVE THIS GIRL ALONE YOU PAPARAZZI. Go find Jimmy Hoffa or D.B. Cooper. Those pics will be worth more than Britney's. That's a promise.

[Delphine]

People don't seem to realize that patients who suffer from mental illness often abuse drugs to counteract their symptoms. Bipolar folks who don't like mania tend to drink, while those who don't like the depression abuse speed and coke.

Not all bipolar people abuse drugs, but it's extremely common. So we can't rule out mental illness simply because she's also using speed-like substances.

It's possible that she has detoxed from whatever she was taking and is still extremely ill, and that is why they are able to convince a judge to keep her there another two weeks.

This woman is ill and if you can't give sympathy why not just stay away from the whole issue?

[Merg]

She definely needs more hospital time than just 72 hours so this is a very good thing. Hopefully, she will be fully detoxed from whatever drugs she has been taking (crystal meth has been reported) and begin some real therapy and appropriate medication. Than maybe she will be clear minded enough to decide on her own to stay in the hospital for further treatment. Additional forced hospitalization is still possible, but much more difficult to achieve legally after the 14 day hold (5250)

[Nonamnesiac]

The despicable media will not be happy until she turns up dead by her own hand. She is obviously in severe pain and as a parent of a daughter her age, I would beat the living crap out of the various media commentators who insist on picking at her every wart so publicly if she were my daughter.

Losing her children in a custody fight (even if it's warranted) and the other problems she faces are real and painful. Leave her alone and show some sympathy before she kills herself. Then the media will make a circus over her funeral and move on to the next victim.

Just because she's wealthy and sometimes acts highly inappropriate (as most 25 year olds do) doesn't mean she's not human.