Rumors about Amanda Bynes’ mental health swirled in late 2013 following a six-month stint in rehab. E! News obtained photos of the actor out and about with her mom, looking happy and healthy. However, things soon fell apart again, resulting in armchair doctors diagnosing Bynes with schizophrenia.
“For the record, Amanda does not have schizophrenia, nor has she ever been diagnosed with it,” her attorney, Tamar Arminak, told People in April 2014, insisting Bynes was medication-free and living a healthy life. Arminak also shot down reports that her client had ever abused hard drugs or alcohol. Still, as her behavior became increasingly erratic, it was clear Bynes was struggling with something. In October 2014, she flooded X, formerly known as Twitter, with a series of shocking accusations against her father, alleging sexual abuse, before denying them in a bizarre follow-up post. “My dad never did any of those things. The microchip in my brain made me say those things, but he’s the one that ordered them to microchip me,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet from October 2014, posted shortly before TMZ reported she’d been placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold for a second time.
In November, Bynes shared that she’d been diagnosed as “bipolar and manic depressive” (which are the same thing, as bipolar is the updated term for manic depression). “I’m on medication, and I’m seeing my psychologist and [psychiatrist] weekly, so I’m fine :D,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet (via People).
