In this essay I am going to discuss about Britney spears who has a mood disorder called bipolar disorder.
Britney spears born on 2nd December the year 1981 in McComb in Mississippi and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana is an American pop star. She is daughter to Lynne spears and Jamie spears. She started attending classes in dancing and was a great gymnast, but of all things she liked to sing. This love for singing made her audition for The All New Mickey Mouse Club show at age 8, but because she was young they turned her down. 2yeras later she went and auditioned for a role in Mickey Mouse for the second time and now she won the role and was to act along with Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. In the show they were subjected to widespread training in drama, dance, and singing.
She had a normal teenager life that included things like going to pool parties. She even became homecoming queen of the place they lived. As a teenager the urge to become an artist continued and she started looking form recording deals with major record labels like Mercury and Sony but they denied getting her a recording deal. Jive records finally took her and it was then that her music career started at 18 years old. Overtime she dropped hits like ‘Hit me Baby one more time’ that reached top of the charts and billboards in many European countries, Australia, japan, and the United States in the year 1998-1999.
She started facing problems with her personal life when she broke up with Justin Timberlake whom she was dating and at the same time her parents were undergoing a divorce. Furthermore the media would not give her any space she was being followed all over. At this time she started drinking and smoking excessively on nights out but later on she composed herself and dropped an album later that 2003.
She married Jason alexander, her childhood boyfriend in Las Vegas in 2004 but the marriage only lasted for 55 hours after which it was annulled. She later on became involved with people like Kevin Federine whom she had her first baby with in 2005. She faced troubles in the spotlight being seen driving with her baby on the front wheel (Stevens, 2007, pg. 2). They added a second child in 2006 and then Britney filed for a divorce from Kevin. Afterwards she involved herself in clubbing and partying. Reports are that she was in and out of rehabilitation, and then she shaved off her hair in a beauty salon in California as the paparazzi were taking photos of her in 2007. The same year she attended a center for treatment in California (Stevens, 2007, pg. 3).
Britney lost custody of her children to Kevin and her mother estranged her (Stevens, 2007, pg. 5). Her music career was not that good that year. Her album Blackout did not do well that year. She also lost her aunt to ovarian cancer that year in February.
Since 2008 Brittney has been struggling with getting her act together and she is currently doing fine with both her professional and personal life.
Bipolar disorder has both strengths and problems associated with it. At lower mania levels, individuals seem excitable and energetic and are in fact highly productive. At a level that is much higher, individuals behave impulsively and erratically where they make decisions that are poor due to ideas of the future that are unrealistic and they have difficulties in sleeping. At the level that is highest individuals go through beliefs that are very distorted about the world or also called psychosis. These individuals also experience mixed states where depression and mania are present and depressive episodes that are accompanied by mood swings.
Brittney spears truly exhibits this disorder. Brittney experiences unstable behavior and mood swings. When she is taken to Cedar-Sinai medical center she goes through a lot of moods, she yells, smiles, cries, and laughs (Stevens, 2007, pg. 3). She is also impulsive where she even drives with her baby in the front seat of her car without belting her. She also does not obey street lights and still drives when it’s a red light. Bipolar disorder is also involved with substance use and drug abuse. Brittney excessively smokes and drinks at night outs (Stevens, 2007, pg. 4). Her erratic behavior continues when she holds her two sons hostage in the house and then standing off with the police. She also experiences psychosis. This is when she is taken out of her home being tied to a gurney.
Using of medication to stabilize the moods accomplishes two objectives. First, it suppresses the swings between depression and mania hence avoiding a mixed state that can be fatal to the patient (Goodwin & Sachs, 2010, pg. 21). Secondly, it lowers the hyperactive levels of a patient hence avoiding resulting erratic and impulsive behaviors.
Psychotherapy also accomplishes certain objectives. First, it educates the patients about their disorder and treatments making them manage and recognize symptoms that are early and come us warnings. Secondly, intercedes depressive and manic episodes in an early stage hence reducing the seriousness of the attack (Goodwin & Sachs, 2010, pg. 28).
Involuntary commitment also accomplishes varied objectives. First, it helps in containing the danger that a person poses to the society or to himself even up to extremes of suicidal intentions (Goodwin & Sachs, 2010, pg. 37). Secondly, it observes whether the person deserves involuntary commitment, that is to determine if he/she is psychotic or just deserves involuntary commitment.
References
Goodwin, G., & Sachs, G. (2010). Bipolar Disorder (2nd ed.). Abingdon: HEALTH Press.
Stevens, M. (2007, March 5). Britney Spears, outsider artist: the real, albeit unwitting, meaning behind Brit's acting-out. (Intelligencer)(Viewpoint essay). New York, 3, 6.
