I was impressed by all the compassion for Britney and others that are caught in the perfect storm of addiction and mental illness on the combox of my post “Britney: Is Addiction More Acceptable Than Mental Illness?” I especially loved this response from Beyond Blue reader Cathy:

The hard part for all of us who suffer from depression and other mental differences is that sometimes we can’t do what we’re expected to do. Part of me has been enraged recently by articles about her blowing off court-dates. How could she do that?!? But, on some important levels, she can’t control it. She has no sense of herself in the world anymore.
All I want for Britney is for her to finally find the arms of someone gentle, supportive, and intelligent so that she can melt down into that safe knowing and come back into her own life and rebuild it again.

Talking about mental illness or substance abuse or whatever is moot at this point. So many parts of the world have failed this young woman. A decent society would support her as he rebuilds her relationship with herself and her family — whatever the cause for the break.

And this one by Beyond Blue reader Barbara, a therapist’s perspective:

I ditto to the comments of E.L. and have blogged it many times on the various websites that I frequent. Alcohol/drug addiction is acceptable; mental illness is not. A carryover from centuries.
My mother suffered from depression, and died with it…she was always told by the doctors that it was her “nerves,” and none of the family was a part of her treatment. I called her my “horizontal mom because she was always laying down, knocked out by the pills for her “nerves.” It breaks my heart, after becoming a therapist, to see that my mother could have had a quality life, if someone, ANYONE would have cared and not hidden behind the stigma of mental illness.
I’m sorry, Mom, and I’m sorry for all others who are still being laughed at, scorned, ridiculed and sensationalized by the media. Britney Spears can be the poster child for a new America, if only someone will care.?
I just heard that Dr. Phil is doing a program on her on his Thursday program. This is the saddest part of my profession…having these media ‘experts’ try to become more popular and raise their viewers statistics/rates by jumping on these bandwagons. There has to be a special Heaven for these quacks.