Despite their fame, money and glamorous lifestyle, celebrities are just people too and they have their problems and distress. Sometimes, it’s the family issues or work stress that causes problems, and sometimes stars are not in their right minds due to drug or alcohol abuse. Whatever the reason, we have witnessed a number of celebrity meltdowns over the years. Here are the most memorable ones.

Mel Gibson

 

 

 

 

 

Mel’s struggle with alcoholism has had some terrible consequences. In 2006, he was arrested for drunk driving and the Anti-Semitist comments he made back then will never be forgotten. In 2010, tapes were released showing the actor screaming and abusing his then girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. The recordings featured Gibson screaming profanities and threats at the mother of his child, including saying he was going to burn her house down. Gibson later claimed the tapes were heavily edited and said “you have to put it all in the proper context of being in an irrationally, heated discussion at the height of a breakdown, trying to get out of a really unhealthy relationship.”

Britney Spears

 

 

 

 

 

Spears had a dramatic meltdown and it was widely publicized by the media. She shaved her head on camera and allegedly overdosed on prescription drugs. The singer was paranoid that the drugs she was taking would be found in her hair and that her children would be taken away, a threat her then husband had acted upon. She went into rehab to be immediately treated for post-partum depression.  Since then, she has calmed down and got her life back on track.

Martin Lawrence

 

 

 

 

 

During filming his directorial debut, The Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Lawrence suffered a breakdown. He reportedly lashed out in a violent rage and had to be hospitalized. His mental state only declined from there. A few months later, he was arrested after waving a pistol around in an intersection on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, and screaming “They’re trying to kill me!” His PR rep stated exhaustion and dehydration as the causes of the episode, but Lawrence was arrested again a few months later for carrying a loaded weapon in his suitcase at the Burbank Airport. He followed that up with being arrested for punching a man in a Hollywood club. His downward spiral culminated in a 3-day coma caused by heat exhaustion after he went jogging in several layers of heavy clothing. His near brush with death inspired him to clean up his act.

Anne Heche

 

 

 

 

 

The day after Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres ended their relationship, Heche was found wandering the streets of Fresno. She knocked on a suburban door, told the homeowners her SUV had broken down and asked to take a bath their house. Things got even worse from there, as when the cops showed up she told them that she was God and would be taking them back to heaven. Since the breakup, Heche became straight again and started dating men. She also said that her aunt helped change her sexuality.

Kanye West

 

 

 

 

 

During the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, the rapper rushed on stage while Taylor Swift was accepting her award for Best Female Video, grabbed the microphone from her hand, interrupted her speech and declared to everyone that his choice, Beyoncé, should have won instead.

Tom Cruise

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Cruise’s 2005 breakdown began with the actor’s appearance on “Oprah,” where he jumped up and down on couches and declared his love for Katie Holmes. Then he followed that up by shocking the world in an interview with Matt Lauer, in which he chastised Brooke Shields for using antidepressants to cope with her postpartum depression. Cruise labeled psychiatry a “pseudoscience” and he repeatedly told Lauer he was “glib” and didn’t know the extensive history of psychiatry.

Mariah Carey

 

 

 

 

 

In 2001, singer Mariah Carey made a bizarre appearance on TRL where she showed up wearing nothing but a T-shirt, and later stripped down to her shorts and a tank top, handed out popsicles to the audience and made incoherent chatter: “All I know is I just want one day off when I can go swimming and look at rainbows and eat ice cream. And maybe like learn how to ride a bicycle.” The singer was hospitalized days later for “extreme exhaustion” and a “physical and emotional breakdown,” and she stayed under medical supervision for two weeks.

Charlie Sheen

 

 

 

 

 

Charlie was hospitalized in 1998 following a cocaine overdose, but that did not inspire him to clean up his act. His second wife, Denise Richards filed for divorce in 2005, accusing Sheen of drug and alcohol abuse, and threats of violence. After getting sacked from Two and a Half Men, Sheen went on a series of rants against the network and the show’s creators. His highly publicized meltdown included television interviews where he suggested he was a “warlock” with “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA”.

Amanda Bynes

 

 

 

 

 

Ranting on Twitter calling celebrities “ugly” and showing up to court wearing ridiculous wigs – Amanda Bynes did celebrity meltdown like no other! In 2013 she was arrested after starting a fire in someone’s driveway, and was hospitalized under a 72-hour mental evaluation hold. Her mother was granted conservatorship over her medical care and finances as Amanda lacked “the capacity to give informed consent to medical care.” She has since been released and seems to be doing better. She announced her retirement from acting in 2012, and is now hoping for a career in fashion.

Shia LaBeouf

 

 

 

 

 

In the past few months, Shia LaBeouf has made strange public appearances, acted erratically and got himself arrested. In February, he appeared at the Berlinale International Film Festival with a bag over his said saying “I am not famous anymore”. On June 26, LaBeouf was arrested after being kicked out of a Broadway musical. He was so disruptive that he was hauled out of the theater and taken to jail. Witnesses stated that he was smoking inside the theater, slapping random strangers on the rear end, and spitting at the police officers, which caused him to be placed in a face mask. Hours before, Shia was spotted yelling at a homeless man, claiming he stole his hat.