Amanda Bynes announces return to acting after revealing substance abuse issues

The former Nickelodeon star said she wants to return to the business 'kind of the same way I did as a kid, which is with excitement and hope for the best'

(Charley Gallay/Getty Images)

Amanda Bynes has said she will return to acting, following years of substance abuse issues.

Speaking to Paper Magazine, she said that she hopes to return to the business “kind of the same way I did as a kid, which is with excitement and hope for the best”. She added that she wants to “try it all” and “doesn’t want to limit myself”, seeking out only specific projects to work on.

Bynes revealed she had ”abused Adderall“, alongside other recreational drugs; in the past, she has famously hit headlines for what was deemed bizarre behaviour and for a stream of tweets that seemed out of character for the former Nickelodeon star, including a sudden announcement that she was retiring from acting.

“If I was going to retire [the right way], I should’ve done it in a press statement — but I did it on Twitter. Real classy!” she said. “But, you know, I was high and I was like, ‘You know what? I am so over this’ so I just did it. But it was really foolish and I see that now. I was young and stupid.”

She said that she has been sober “for almost four years now”, crediting her parents for their help and guidance. Bynes is currently enrolled at LA’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, but said she harbours ambitions to return to film in the near future.

Bynes also said that she became frustrated with the “armchair psychiatrists” that attempted to diagnose her. “That was always really bothersome to me. If you deny anything and tell them what it actually is, they don’t believe you,” she said. “Truly, for me, [my behaviour] was drug-induced, and whenever I got off of [drugs], I was always back to normal.”

“My advice to anyone who is struggling with substance abuse would be to be really careful because drugs can really take a hold of your life,” she said. “Everybody is different, obviously, but for me, the mixture of marijuana and whatever other drugs and sometimes drinking really messed up my brain. It really made me a completely different person. I actually am a nice person.”

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