Amanda Bynes opened up about how social anxiety led to her dropping out of school
After a tumultuous few months, Amanda Bynes is getting back on track—and getting her degree! On May 24th, the actor wrote on Instagram that she’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) after “social anxiety” forced her to drop out.
“Update: Getting my Bachelor’s degree from FIDM. Taking online classes, trying to get a 4.0 GPA :] Looking forward to starting my online store in the future #goals,” she captioned the post.
Bynes also wrote that she’s spent the last two months in treatment, where she’s learned “coping skills to help with social anxiety that caused [her] to drop out of school months ago.”
According to People, Bynes previously sought treatment at a mental-health facility in January 2019, following her return to the public after an initial “breakdown” in 2014. In March 2019, the magazine reported that the She’s the Man star “had a ‘relapse’ and [was] getting help and treatment from mental health professionals and addiction counselors for drug addiction and mental health issues.”
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In 2018, Bynes opened up to Paper magazine about her history with drug abuse and mental health issues. She told the magazine that she started smoking marijuana when she was 16, which later “progressed to doing molly and ecstasy.” She also developed an addiction to Adderall which, in part, motivated her decision to quit acting after her appearance in Easy A. After that, she said that she started “hanging out with a seedier crowd and isolated a lot.”
“I got really into my drug usage and it became a really dark, sad world for me,” she said. This ultimately led to Bynes seeking and undergoing professional treatment. But Bynes has had some happier news to share over the past few months, too.
In March 2020, she posted on Instagram that she was celebrating “a year and two months” of sobriety.
In her most recent post, she wrote that she’s “still engaged to the love of my life Paul,” whom People says she met at a former sober-living home in 2019. (The couple briefly broke up two months ago.)
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Now, Bynes said she’s “living in transitional living and doing therapy during the week,” adding that she’s “back on track and doing well.” We couldn’t be happier to hear it.