This comment from reddit
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Yes, it was very frustrating to read her justify all the wild things she did. Even more frustrating is people buying into her narrative.
For example, she talks about how she almost drove her car over a cliff while doing a 360 turn so she could “feel alive,” yet claims she doesn't know why she was restricted from driving.
She dismisses the infamous 24-hour Vegas marriage as just two friends “having fun,” chiding her management and parents for pushing her to get an annulment. She somehow twists this wise decision that saved her from losing millions to the loser she married without a prenup in place into an example of how her team was abusive and controlling.
She continually minimizes her addiction to over-the-counter energy supplements and acts like her daddy forbidding her from taking them was a great injustice. Britney has bipolar disorder, and stimulants will cause her to ramp up and catapult toward mania. This is also why she was banned from coffee, energy drinks, excessive sugar consumption etc (which she often rants about on her IG).
She strips all agency from herself and paints Justin as the big bad who forced her to have an abortion.
She lies so many times, forgetting pap websites like TMZ and X-17 Online basically live-streamed her year-long manic episode in 2007, capturing all of her out-of-control behavior. This includes all the times she entertained the paps, went out of her way to hang out with them, etc.
Also, she inserted so many needless and easily disproven lies, which shows how delusional she is (her breasts aren't fake, her natural hair color is black, she only made out with Wade when she cheated, she only smoked weed once when she was 17). Like ma'am, we’ve all seen you and Kevin high as hell in Amsterdam on “Chaotic,” we’ve seen your childhood photos with brown hair etc.
I was also disturbed by how she was gunning for her sister, literally characterizing her as a 12-year-old “witch.” She talks openly about how she resented that Jamie Lynn wasn't abused like she was. Like whatttt?!
Most disturbing was her trying to repaint the events of the night where she locked herself in the bathroom with one of her sons as an innocent event that wasn't cause for alarm. A manic stimulant addict who was openly suicidal was locking herself in a bathroom with her child and refusing to release him to Kevin for his court-ordered visitation. She was testing positive for drug and alcohol abuse at that point, which is why she had limited custody. Yet she somehow turned herself into the victim. That's absolutely wild!
Re: Britney’s account of being forced into rehab by her father and “imprisoned” for weeks, I'm hoping to provide some insight. Everything she described—from the weekly blood draws (to monitor her levels because she was on lithium), to being supervised 24/7 and forced to sit through classes all day (therapy like CBT and DBT), and restricted from leaving—is exactly what happens when someone is admitted into a psychiatric facility due to a suicide attempt. This treatment is called one-to-one, which means you must be supervised by someone all day every day. Yes, that includes while bathing and changing. I know this because I admitted myself to a psych ward years ago to treat my PTSD. Though I didn't experience one-to-one myself since I self-admitted and wasn’t a suicide risk, many of the people I became friendly with in the unit did. This tells me that this rehab stay was a misguided attempt at saving her life and helping her stabilize. In fact, it sounds like they created this experience so she didn’t have to go to a psych ward, which is understandably way more traumatizing. I have no doubt her father is a narcissistic abusive alcoholic who relished in the opportunity to assert dominance over Britney and punish her for achieving a level of success of which he couldn't dream. But I also believe the conservatorship started as an earnest attempt to save her life. Her criticisms of her “rehab” experience should be seen as an indictment of how the psychiatric industrial complex mistreats and mismanages patients, not of her idiotic hillbilly family.
It may seem like I'm a Britney hater, but I’ve been a huge fan since I was a kid. I've always rooted for her, and part of that is admitting that she's a very mentally ill woman who needs help. Part of that help is being held accountable so she can make positive changes in her life. It's sad to see her fans, the media and all these talking heads seemingly take her story at face value. It only feeds her delusions and prevents her from actually healing.
One positive of this book was that it provided insight into the mind of an addict/people with personality disorders. I never fully grasped how delusional they are, and how they could continually justify their destructive behavior. This made me realize that they truly believe their own lies and sense of victimhood. Though delusional, they truly do suffer beyond belief, even if it's at their own hands. I gained a lot more compassion for them.
Britney is undeniably a victim of abuse. But as is often the case, she too is a perpetrator of it (as we see with her sons). The many injustices she faced as a child and adult are absolutely not her fault. But they are her problem and responsibility to heal from. Holding someone accountable is not victim-blaming.
I hope Britney finds peace and healing, but if this book is any indication of her trajectory, that won't be anytime soon.
