Mischa Barton Discusses Her Breakdown, Err “Wisdom Teeth Incident”

Mischa Barton is now talking about her notorious forced mental hospitalization that occurred in July. She says she did not have a mental breakdown, as reports suggested, but rather stress and her wisdom teeth removal put her in a bad place. 

She told Time Out New York:

“Here’s what happened: Before the show [The Beautiful Life] started, I was traveling abroad for contract stuff and I went through a terrible surgery—a wisdom tooth surgery, all four removed. It was a nightmare. I’ve never had surgery before—it all went wrong and I had to have a second surgery and it almost delayed shooting because it was a nightmare to me, because I couldn’t deal with the thought of not getting there on time. So with the travel, and surgery and prep for the show—it was hell… I went through a tough spot where everything compounded on me, and it was like a perfect storm, like everything was happening to me at once. The show, travel and then this fairly routine surgery that went wrong—it’s still just healing. But I had to get through it without proper painkillers because I couldn’t take those during work. So it’s been a nightmare…I was down in the dumps about everything there for a while. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom about things and have to get the most stressed-out just to feel better again. I got completely stressed-out and couldn’t handle everything, and now I feel really in control.”

So did Mischa have a breakdown, or was she just working too hard?
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I had a friend who had a quasi–nervous breakdown, but I’m not sure it’s the same thing. I’m not sure I’m capable of a full-on nervous breakdown, but it was pretty bad. It didn’

t last that long. It was more about the pain.”

Barton also adds, “The funny thing is, if all this happened in New York, no one would care…New York lets you be who you are, and people aren’

t as judgmental. I’m so glad to be back here.” Oh honey, if that had happened in New York the only difference would be that I would be writing that you were locked up at Bellevue rather than Cedars-Sinai. Gossip is gossip.