She's lost custody of the kids, worn her old wedding dress in public, held Jayden James hostage, fought naked with the police and has shacked up with a pap. And that's just over the last few weeks.

But, as things continue to get worse for the troubled star, Ahlan! asks - is a debilitating mental illness behind Britney's breakdown?

"Popping pills"
Friends say Britney was "popping pills" on the day she held Jayden hostage in the master bathroom of her LA mansion, and police sources say that they found the mood-stabiliser prozac, in the Toxic singer's bedroom.

And bar staff at the Rosario Beach Hotel in Mexico, where Brit recently stayed with Adnan, also revealed how the star seemed "high" during her trip when she was spotted singing to an empty bar. "She looked like she was on drugs," revealed a hotel source.

Suicidal thoughts
Sources reveal that Brit's longtime pal, Sam Lutfi, found a suicide note penned by the singer only days before her standoff with police, in which she'd written, "Perhaps it would be better if I was dead."

"The letter was filled with reasons why she shouldn't live," divulged an insider. "She went on and on about wanting to just rest in peace."

Her bizarre British accent
As her sanity slips away, Brit's been heard adopting a British accent, baffling friends and family. The singer, who's dating Brit pap Adnan Ghalib, told snappers to "Please stop it... Leave me alone", in a strong British accent, last week, as she got into her car. And she was also using her new accent on the night she was taken to hospital after her three-hour standoff with police.

Careless about the kids
Seen laughing wildly as the ambulance took her away earlier this month for a mental evaluation, Brit seems to have lost all sense of reality - something she exhibited when she turned up four hours late for last week's custody hearing.

And this wasn't the first time Brit showed signs of this type of behaviour, as she once left her kids in her parked car as she shopped for chandeliers.

"I'll kill myself"
Britney is so convinced she doesn't have a mental problem that she's revealed to pals that she'd rather die than seek medical help. "They're not sending me to the nut house!" she allegedly shouted to a friend. "No one can make me go if I don't want to go - and I ain't going!"

And the 26-year-old also vowed, "I'll kill myself before I let them lock me up again!"

Getting naked in public
Brit's odd behaviour saw her strip in front of staff at a fashion store in LA, last week. Grabbing a Betsey Johnson dress, Brit entered a fitting room, only to reappear - completely naked.

"I was blown away. Britney's private parts were right in front of me," said a shocked shopper.

And Brit, who was spotted in her old wedding dress recently, apparently wants to marry her already married pap boyfriend

Planning A Fake Death
Britney may have been banned "indefinitely" from seeing her young sons, Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, last week, but it seems she's already hatched a plan to get them back - by planning her own death!

"Britney's been discussing all these wacky plans to reinvent her life and convince the courts she is a good mother," spilled a close source. "She has discussed in depth a fake death, moving abroad and even plastic surgery." Adding, "She believes she could spend six months away and make a comeback as ‘Britney the world's best mother'."

Her Wild Mood Swings
During her three-hour standoff with police, Britney was seen switching between tears, laughter and screams - prompting sources to suggest that she's bipolar.

"There is no question she is bipolar - she's had manic episodes for years," revealed one source. While a medical expert added, "People who show patterns of behaviour like Britney [have] a bipolar disorder."

Sources close to Brit have also suggested that the singer also suffered from post-natal depression, saying, "She had [it] after both births. [And] she might have multiply personality disorder."

Who is Adnan?
Originally an Afghan refugee, 35-year-old Adnan Ghalib moved to England in 1977, and to LA in 1996, where he reportedly managed a strip bar before starting work as a paparazzo.

Sources close to Adnan, who is still married to American model AzLynn Berry, describe him as "a womaniser and egomaniac", while Brit's cousin and former assistant Alli Sims wishes he "would just go away", saying, "I think he only has bad intentions. [He] creeps me out."

An unlucky inheritance?
Mental illness seems to run in the Spears family. Britney's paternal grandmother, Emma Jean Spears, committed suicide aged 31. Emma, who had suffered from depression, had tried to commit suicide three times before eventually shooting herself.