What happened with Mischa Barton?

You've probably heard by now that Mischa Barton had some sort of episode at her home and had to be taken to the hospital under an involuntary psychiatric hold.

People Magazine has a whole story chronicling all of Barton's 'troubles' and saying she's a 'party girl.' She drank a lot and was often photographed drunk, and she does have one DUI. She took responsibility for that, though, and seems like she handled it well in light of everything. She did have some normal personal issues like breakups with guys, but she's young, and she's always struck me as much more level headed than her peers.

I'm going to wildly speculate what happened, and a lot of people are going to assume it was 'illegal' drugs, but I would bet it was some sort of prescription drug issue, either abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol or some kind of accident or side effect. I have no information whatsoever to make that assumption except for the story that she had dental surgery three weeks ago along with the fact so many people are having this problem lately.

I've seen friends become addicted to painkillers they really needed, their personalities totally changing in the process. Add a couple of cocktails in there and it can cause a person to really lose it. A drug interaction or new prescription can also lead to psychiatric problems that are completely uncharacteristic for a person.

All we know is that a young actress went to the psych ward and we have no idea what she was taking, if anything. When the same thing happened to Britney, though, people were quick to say she was crazy. They ignored the fact that Sam Lutfi was slipping drugs in potentially harmful combinations into her food. She did flip out, but she was also drugged against her will most of the time and people forget that. You mix some of that stuff together and it can really mess a person up. Sure there is free will and personal responsibility, but that doesn't mean we can't show compassion and give someone the benefit of the doubt.

Ten to one Mischa had a bad reaction to something, illegal or not, and she didn't just wig out on her own. We'll have to wait and see if we learn what happened though, and for now this is pure conjecture. The important thing is that she's ok, is under supervision, and will hopefully get proper treatment. Take care, Mischa.

Mischa Barton is shown out on 7/3/09. You can see that the swelling was gone from her face at that point. Her wisdom teeth were removed around 6/27/09.