Amanda Bynes revealed that her mental health struggles have impacted her weight.
On Thursday, the former child star posted on her Instagram Story sharing with her fans how her depression has negatively affected her — while noting that she’s been making progress.
“I’ve gained over 20 lbs. in the past few months from being depressed,” the 37-year-old wrote. “I’m doing a lot better now and have learned to do opposite action when I don’t feel like working out or eating clean.”
It is not ˹possible˺ for a human being to have Allah communicate with them, except through inspiration, or from behind a veil, or by sending a messenger-angel to reveal whatever He wills by His permission. He is surely Most High, All-Wise.
(The Quran - Chapter Ash-Shuraa : 51)
“I weigh 162 lbs. right now and want to get back to 110 lbs.,” the Hairspray star added.
Back in 2018, Bynes admitted that at the height of her career, she dealt with severe body insecurities that led to an Adderall and drug addiction, and fed into her decision to quit acting in 2012.
Bynes pinpointed her role in She’s the Man, an update on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in which she plays a girl pretending to be her twin brother, as one of the moments when her body image issues became a problem.
“When the movie came out and I saw it, I went into a deep depression for 4-6 months because I didn’t like how I looked when I was a boy,” she told Paper magazine. The short hair and sideburns she had for the role was a “a super strange and out-of-body experience. It just really put me into a funk.”
The actress started experimenting with drugs like ecstasy and cocaine, and her goal of losing weight led to an Adderall addiction.
“I definitely abused Adderall,” she said at the time, after “reading an article in a magazine that [called Adderall] ‘the new skinny pill’ and they were talking about how women were taking it to stay thin. I was like, ‘Well, I have to get my hands on that.’ ”
After going through similar experiences with her weight and appearance after filming Hall Pass and Easy A in 2010, Bynes decided to quit acting altogether.
The next few years were filled with several arrests for drug possession, a DUI, reckless driving and more.
In 2013, she was hospitalized in an involuntary psychiatric stay, which her parents extended for nearly six months after explaining in court documents that Bynes “is obsessed with the idea that she and others are ‘ugly.’ She talks incessantly about cosmetic surgeries that she wants to have completed … We are concerned that the surgeries she wants to have are dangerous and detrimental to her health.”
After her release, Bynes returned to a quieter life. She’s now sober and has been making her gradual comeback to the public eye.
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
