+
Health

Amanda Bynes is on a 72-hour hold: What that means and why fans are applauding her

"The fact that Amanda Bynes flagged a car down, told them she was having a psychotic episode and called 911 herself actually gives me a lot of hope for her well-being."

Amanda Bynes; mental health; psychotic episode; psychotic break; psychiatric hold

Amanda Bynes is on a 72-hour hold.

It's not a secret that celebrities are just like everyone else and sometimes struggle with mental health concerns. Amanda Bynes is no exception, and she has been quite open about her mental health struggles over the years. In 2013, Bynes was placed under conservatorship after a few mental health crises that put herself and others in danger.

Since the conservatorship was ended in 2021, Bynes has remained essentially out of public view and was scheduled to appear with her "All That" cast members at 90s Con. But recently, Bynes went in for a 72-hour psychiatric hold after experiencing a psychotic episode that led her to walking around downtown Los Angeles without any clothing. During a moment of clarity, the 36-year-old actress flagged down a car and called 911.

While walking around a busy city naked can certainly qualify as risk of harm to oneself, Bynes' actions after regaining a sense of reality are important. There are two types of psychiatric holds: voluntary and involuntary. Clearly, a voluntary hold is more desirable and shows promise for marked improvement because you're the one recognizing the need for psychiatric care. Bynes making the phone call herself shows that she knew, in that moment, her behavior was unsafe and she needed help.


So what happens during a 72-hour hold? If you've never sought out or been placed under psychiatric watch or haven't known anyone who has, what happens can feel like a mystery. When you're placed on a temporary psychiatric hold, whether it's involuntary or not, you get evaluated by a nurse or physician who will then call in for a psychiatric consult.

If the consulting psychiatrist decides that you meet the criteria to be admitted, they will find an available bed for you in a psychiatric facility if the hospital doesn't have its own psychiatric floor. Most of the time, this can happen within a few hours, but sometimes it can take much longer. In the interim, the hospital staff works to keep you safe until you can be transported.

Throughout the stay, you're constantly being evaluated in indirect ways, such as if you eat your food, if you're talkative, if you appear to be experiencing hallucinations, etc. Usually, after group and individual therapy as well as medication adjustments, they hold a meeting in which you are present to decide if you're stable enough to return home or if longer care is needed. Longer care can mean adding days to your stay there or finding a longer-term facility for extended treatment.

The entire process can be scary if you don't know what to expect, but with celebrities like Bynes having mental health crises more publicly, people may be curious about the process. It can also help people feel safe in seeking help when a public figure does so. The "All That" alum's help-seeking wasn't lost on her fans who applauded her decision and were determined to make sure people recognized her agency in the process.

"The fact that Amanda Bynes flagged a car down, told them she was having a psychotic episode and called 911 herself actually gives me a lot of hope for her well-being. That's a huge deal. When she's ready, I hope she can be proud of herself for that, Bassey Ikpi wrote on Twitter.

People are not only applauding that Bynes sought help on her own, they're also pointing out the framing of stories around the star's actions.

"Amanda recognized that she needed help. SHE was the one who made the 911 call to help herself. Please be mindful how you frame stories. Knowing that she understood she needed help and actively sought it is very important. Don't take that away from her," Alana posted to Twitter.

As someone who specializes in psychotic disorders, I can confidently say, in my experience, someone in psychosis actively seeking help is a big deal. Typically, if someone has been off of their medication for a while, they may not recognize that what they're doing is outside of their normal or part of psychosis. But those who do recognize it and seek out help can sometimes catch their psychosis in a moment of clarity and address it before it spirals further out of control.

People who have psychotic disorders are still full, autonomous people who deserve respect and dignity, even in the throes of a psychotic break. What Bynes did was not only brave, it showed that she and she alone took control of her mental health in that moment, and that's worth celebrating.

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

Keep ReadingShow less
@katherout/TikTok

Just another unsolved mystery

Who doesn’t like a good mystery?

A video creator known as @katherout certainly does. At the gym Kath frequents, there’s a whiteboard with a revolving prompt with simple questions like “What are you listening to?” or “What city were you born in?” Gym goers then write their responses anonymously on the board.

Kath recently became enthralled—and tickled—by a person who somehow manage to write the word “monke” (as in the word describing a group of monkeys, apparently) on every single one of their answers.

Keep ReadingShow less
@allbelongco/TikTok

How bizarre, how bizarre.

It should go without saying that it’s not cool to steal from your Airbnb. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen.

However, when one Airbnb host recently discovered a guest had—for some strange reason—stolen one of her paintings, then replaced it with a completely different painting, she decided to make the best out of a very uncool situation by sharing the story on TikTok.

As a result, viewers got to witness an continuously unraveling, truly bizarre modern-day art heist.

Okay, let’s get into it.

Keep ReadingShow less

11-year-old girl is the youngest opera singer in the world.

The majority of 11-year-olds are perfectly content balancing the pre-teen life with Barbie dolls and tinted lipgloss. But one pre-teen is busy breaking records. Victory Brinker is an 11-year-old opera prodigy who was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's youngest opera singer in 2019 when she was almost 8 years old.

If you like opera—or even if you don't—hearing her vocal range of three octaves and voice control is impressive. When it comes to singing, control of your breath, pitch and tone can be difficult, especially when you're without years of classical training. Victory's skill is so impressive that when she appeared on America's Got Talent last year, she was given the "golden buzzer," which sends you straight to the finalist round in Hollywood.

Keep ReadingShow less

Brianna Greenfield makes nachos for her husband.

A viral video showing a woman preparing nachos for her "picky" spouse after he refused to eat the salmon dinner she cooked has sparked a contentious debate on TikTok. The video was shared on April 26 by Brianna Greenfield (@themamabrianna on TikTok) and has since earned over 2.5 million views.

Brianna is a mother of two who lives in Iowa.

The video starts with Brianna grating a massive hunk of cheese with a caption that reads: “My husband didn’t eat the dinner that I made…So let’s make him some nachos.”

“If I don’t feed him, he literally won’t eat,” she wrote. “This used to irritate me. Now I just blame his mother for never making him try salmon,” Greenfield wrote. The video features Meghan Trainor’s single “Mother” playing in the background.

Keep ReadingShow less
@miztermiller/TikTok

Now THAT'S a deal.

Let's be real—buying secondhand allows us to save a few bucks, which is great. But the real thrill is the possibility of snagging that ultra-rare, one-of-a-kind item that’s worth a bajillion times more than we originally paid for it. Yes, that kind of shopping is a lottery unto itself. But man, what a jackpot, should you win.

And of course, it’s not a totally far-fetched fantasy. Costly things get thrown out or donated all the time, ready to be procured at the nearby thrift store, garage sale…

…or, in this case, Facebook Marketplace.

Keep ReadingShow less