If you grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, chances are that Amanda Bynes was one of the people you looked up to. She starred in several children’s TV shows such as “All That” and “The Amanda Show”, before successfully transitioning into teen and young adult productions.
Although everything looked good from the outside, Amanda slowly but surely spiraled down into drug addictions and self-image issues, eventually leading to her sudden retirement from acting. The media quickly turned Amanda’s misfortunes into a paparazzi fest, with the young actress struggling to keep afloat.
Amanda’s rise and fall is still a topic of discussion when it comes to the troubled experiences of children’s stars behind the scenes, especially given the controversy which documentaries such as Discovery’s “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” have caused in recent years.
So what happened to Amanda Bynes leading to her fall from her starlet status? Keep with us to learn more!
Contents
Amanda’s Troubled Youth
Almost every kid in the 2000s could have attested to Amanda Bynes’ acting talent and on-screen charisma. Her appearances on TV started in the mid-1990s with her debut on Nickelodeon, taking her not very long to get her own show and become a staple of children’s television at the time.
However, most people were unaware of the struggles Amanda was going through as her fame increased. According to a 2003 article in Variety, Amanda’s relationship with her parents Rick and Lynn wasn’t the best when in her mid-teens, leading to her requesting her lawyers and representatives at the time to help her emancipate, to take control over her career.
Once Rick and Lynn caught wind of it, they fired her team for not informing them about it. That incident resurfaced amid the controversy caused by the 2024 documentary “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV”, which had several former Nick stars and staff attesting to the mistreatment, discrimination, and sexual abuse they received on the set of many shows produced by Dan Schneider.
Schneider defended himself in a YouTube video, and confirmed his closeness to Amanda while she was young, claiming he and his wife tried to help the then-teen actress during her constant fights with her parents, which took place around the time that she sought emancipation.
How Problems Started
It was a dark time for Amanda Bynes through her late teens and early adulthood. As the actress confessed in a 2018 Paper Magazine interview, she began smoking marijuana when she was 16 years old, though it’s unclear how aware of this habit her parents were back then.
While Amanda admitted that smoking marijuana went against her ‘good girl’ image at the time, it wasn’t a full-fledged addiction for her at the time. A couple of years later, she began consuming ecstasy and even tried cocaine a couple of times, but didn’t become addicted to the latter, because ‘it didn’t get her high’, as she told Paper Magazine.
In 2007, Amanda’s life took a turn when she discovered Adderall, an amphetamine-containing drug meant to treat narcolepsy and deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Amanda grew interested in it after reading in a magazine that it was used by trendy young women to lose weight. She got an Adderall prescription after faking ADHD symptoms to a psychiatrist, and began abusing it from then on.
By the time she began filming “Hall Pass” in 2011, the Adderall addiction had already taken hold, and stopped her from performing and remembering her lines. She eventually quit the movie.
More Issues & Rehab
Besides her consistent and growing drug addiction throughout the late 2000s, Amanda Bynes also began experiencing serious self-image issues. According to her 2018 tell-all with Paper Magazine, the movie “She’s The Man” threw her into a months-long depression after seeing herself on screen during the premiere. As it happens, her role in the movie as Viola Hastings had her dressing up as a boy as a cover-up for her brother, but Amanda wasn’t happy at seeing the way she looked as a boy, describing the experience as ‘super strange’ and ‘out-of-body’.
Within a couple of years, Amanda’s self-image issues had worsened and added to her growing drug addiction. One of the reasons she left “Hall Pass” was because she couldn’t stand seeing her image on the screen, a sentiment which came to its peak with her last movie “Easy A”, leading her to quit acting altogether, announcing her decision through an infamous Twitter (now X) post.
All of these issues led to a series of drug-related scandals for Amanda, such as being charged with driving under the influence in 2012. She was also charged with reckless endangerment for smoking marijuana in a public space in New York City, and at some point even set someone’s driveway on fire. It was the latter that in July 2013 landed her in a mental health evaluation for the first time.
Amanda Bynes leaves rehab. Here's where she is headed: http://t.co/eDH3X84OZo
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) December 5, 2013
Recovery & Revelations
During the time Amanda Bynes was on psychiatric hold following her arson incident, her parents Rick and Lynne successfully obtained temporary conservatorship of her, thus allowing Amanda to receive psychiatric treatment in the late months of 2013, finally being released in December of that year.
While Amanda didn’t go to jail for her marijuana-smoking episode, she still went through a lot of tough situations in the months following her rehab release. At some point, she took to Twitter to insult famous people’s physical appearances, and accused her father of sexual abuse, which she later denied by affirming it was a ‘microchip on (her) brain’ which caused her to say that. After a series of public scandals, she started on the social media platform and her reckless behavior in public, and was then put into a conservatorship in late 2014. Around that time, she also affirmed that she suffered from bipolar disorder and manic depression.
Following a new stay in a psychiatric facility, Amanda remained sober for several years, during which she enrolled at the California-based Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, from where she graduated in 2019. In her Paper Magazine interview from 2018, Amanda denied that she suffered from any mental illness, and that her erratic behavior had been ‘drug-induced’. She also apologized for her past Tweets allegations, and revealed her intentions to retuen to acting.
Where Is Amanda Now?
Shortly after the release of her Paper Magazine interview, the media reported that Amanda Bynes had relapsed and re-entered rehab. This was vehemently denied by her lawyer though, affirming that Amanda was not dealing with an addiction and was instead seeking psychiatric treatment at a facility.
In 2022, Amanda Bynes ended her years-long conservatorship after being deemed capable of making her own decisions. The news was welcomed by her family and fans, who were ecstatic at seeing her improvement.
In early 2023, Amanda willingly entered a psychiatric facility twice after suffering from psychotic episodes. She was released in June andwais reportedly set to receive further treatment. Amanda started a short-lived podcast, and revealed her intentions of becoming a nail artist. These days, Amanda has an active Instagram account, but nothing else is known about her current projects.
All in all, it’s been difficult to see Amanda going through so many difficulties, so there’s nothing else for us other than to wish that she’s healthy and continues to do well.
