Amanda Bynes Is ‘Doing Great’ and ‘Working on Herself’ Since Checking Into Rehab
Amanda Bynes is focusing on herself as she continues to get treatment after checking herself into a rehab facility in January.
“Amanda is doing great, working on herself, and taking some well-deserved time off to focus on her wellbeing after graduating FIDM [Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising] in December,” Tamar Arminak, her family’s attorney, tells PEOPLE.
“She’s spending time reading and exercising, sketching for her new line and mostly making sure this time around she puts her needs first,” the attorney adds.
The actress checked into a rehab facility earlier this year after a “relapse” and is getting help and treatment from mental health professionals and addiction counselors for drug addiction and mental health issues, a source close to Bynes previously told PEOPLE.
The source said Bynes started struggling toward the end of last year when she stepped back into the public eye and began pursuing work in Hollywood again.
RELATED: Inside Amanda Bynes’ Ups and Downs — and Her Recent Return to Rehab
Bynes opened up about her previous mental health struggles last November in a cover story for Paper. In the interview, the She’s the Man actress detailed how her drug use led to the spiral, explaining that at 16 she began using drugs and smoked marijuana for the first time.
“Later on it progressed to doing molly and ecstasy,” she recalled. “[I tried] cocaine three times but I never got high from cocaine. I never liked it. It was never my drug of choice.”
While she didn’t use cocaine, Bynes did say she regularly got high on another drug: “I definitely abused Adderall.”
RELATED VIDEO: Amanda Bynes Gets Candid for the First Time About Her Drug-Induced Public Breakdown
Her Adderall use led to her dropping out of the movie Hall Pass, where she remembered being “scatterbrained” from taking the pills. But the real breaking point came after seeing herself in the Emma Stone film Easy A. Bynes recalled being so alarmed by her appearance in the film, which she viewed negatively, that it convinced her to quit acting on the spot.
“I literally couldn’t stand my appearance in that movie and I didn’t like my performance. I was absolutely convinced I needed to stop acting after seeing it,” Bynes explained. “I was high on marijuana when I saw that but for some reason, it really started to affect me. I don’t know if it was a drug-induced psychosis or what, but it affected my brain in a different way than it affects other people. It absolutely changed my perception of things.”
She went on to have several brushes with the law — including two hit and run charges in 2012 and a DUI arrest (though all three charges were ultimately dropped) — she retreated from the spotlight completely and her mom Lynn was named conservator over her “person,” which includes health and medical decision-making, in 2014.
