Britney Spears says she has permanent nerve damage from ‘forced’ mental health facility stay

Britney Spears poses for a photo at an event

Britney Spears has said she is suffering from incurable nerve damage that causes pain and numbness.

Britney opened up about her health alongside an Instagram video of her twirling and dancing in her living room.

According to the caption, she has “nerve damage on the right side of [her] body” that “causes parts of [her] body to go numb”.

She said: “I wake up like three times a week in bed and my hands are completely numb … nerves are tiny and it feels like pins and needles from the right side of my body it shoots up to my neck and the part that hurts the worst is my temple on my head … it stings and it’s scary.”

She suggested that the nerve damage is related to her 2019 stay in a mental health facility, which she has said she was placed in against her will while under her conservatorship.

“Nerve damage is caused sometimes when you don’t get enough oxygen to your brain … your brain literally shuts down  … blah blah blah old story … in that place I didn’t breathe when I was there … ”

Cerebral hypoxia is condition in which there is a decrease of oxygen supply to the brain even though there is adequate blood flow. In some cases it can cause nerve damage.

Continuing, Britney wrote that when she dances she “doesn’t feel the pain… it’s like my mind literally goes to a place of my inner child. And although I don’t move like I use to … I truly believe my faith in it gave me strength”.

Britney Spears said that fortunately she has “found a medication where [she can] actually feel oxygen going to [her] brain and through [her] neck”.

“My eyes are more open now and I can hold my head up correctly … I’ve done a good job trying to pull it off. Either way I’m getting a lot better, I can breathe … I feel smarter because well, Jesus I can breathe now,” she said.

Britney Spears was in 2021 freed from a 13-year-long conservatorship that stripped control of her personal, health and financial decisions. She has alleged the arrangement was abusive.