Spears Takes Strides Toward Treatment

The following italicized article is taken from www.eonline.com:

Britney Spears appears to be on the receiving end of both personal and professional help.

The "Gimme More" star's manager-pal Sam Lutfi has confirmed that the troubled singer has begun treatment with a psychiatrist and is back in contact with her estranged mother, Lynne.

Lutfi chose The View den mother Barbara Walters as his vessel for the news.

"I can't vouch for this," Walters qualified Lutfi's information by saying. "He said that Britney is suffering from what he describes as mental issues, which are treatable. He said that she has been to a psychiatrist and that she, I assume, is starting some kind of treatment.

"She's been having mood swings, she's been having trouble sleeping, and also she is in touch with her mother—because we had heard she wasn't—and her mother has been very supportive of whatever Britney is going to do."

Sources tell E! Online that Lynne was "instrumental" in persuading the 26-year-old to seek treatment. Both Spears women are once again on speaking terms and Lynn has agreed to "help her through it."

Lynne Spears arrived solo in Los Angeles Sunday night and was photographed talking on a cell phone.

Britney had not spoken to either her mother or father Jamie Spears since her Jan. 3 meltdown. A source close to the situation says that Britney had chafed at her parents' insistence to begin treatment.

"She still isn't convinced she has a mental problem," the source said. "But she knows this is what she has to do to get her kids again."

Now, however, the Blackout artist is amenable to begin taking medication, should the psychiatrist recommend it. Spears spent about an hour at a Santa Monica psychiatrist's office on Friday.

The source adds that Brtiney hasn't been happy for quite some time "and she wants that to change, too."

Spears has not seen sons Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 3, since earlier this month, when she refused to return the children to Kevin Federline. A court commissioner subsequently stripped her of all visitation rights.

Walters, meanwhile, said on The View Monday that she believed the beleaguered pop star has "moved away" from her relationship with paparazzo Adnan Ghalib. The two have been off-on in recent weeks, and over the weekend, Spears, Lutfi, former assistant Alli Sims and new hanger-on Chad Hardcastle—but not Ghalib—were spotted late Sunday taking in a showing of 27 Dresses in Los Angeles. (Then again, maybe the shutterbug doesn't like chick flicks.)

Sims herself recently spoke out about her feelings toward Ghalib after he shared private voicemails left for him by Spears during long interviews with Entertainment Tonight and The Insider last week.

"He's been around, what, three weeks?" she told People. "I don't really see the point of that...I only know him from him following us around for eight months. I don't personally know him. But I don't like that vibe."

Source: E! Online