Britney Spears' Latest Nude Instagram Photos Raise Concerns; Mental Health Experts Weigh In

Britney Spears' nude photo Instagram barrage Monday night raised concerns amongst some of her fans who think this time the pregnant pop singer went too far with her uploads. The 40-year-old, who in the fall gained her freedom from a conservatorship managed by her father, posted 12 photos from a vacation showing the "Baby One More Time" singing legend covering her breasts with her hands.

"Photo dump of the last time I was in Mexico BEFORE there was a baby 👶🏼 inside me … why the heck do I look 10 years younger on vacation 🏖☀️ ???," Spears wrote Monday night on one of her Instagram uploads.

And now here we are yet again with some observers left wondering, what's wrong with Britney Spears?

Mental health experts contacted by OutKick say it's hard to tell what Britney's mental state is because we don't have enough information other than behavior that some in the general population see as extreme and outlandish.

"One of the things we could be seeing since she’s pregnant is that the medications that were used to stabilize her, she may not be able to take because it would cause problems with the baby," psychotherapist Dr. Rob Ludwig, the author of "Your Best Age Is Now," told OutKick. "And so doctors might have taken her off certain medications to all medications because it’s not safe for a pregnant woman to be on the medications. It can cause severe damage to the fetus.

“As a result of that, we may be seeing her in this destabilized, decompensated state.”

Dr. Daniel Bober -- a psychiatrist, certified addiction medicine physician, and former mental health policy fellow in the U.S. Senate through the American Psychiatric Association -- says that while we don't know if there have been changes to medications, there is a real risk associated with bipolar patients not being medicated during pregnancy.

"Up to 75% of will have relapses, up to 50% of them will attempt suicide, and women who are bipolar will often have 10 years taken off their life compared to those in the general population," Dr. Bober added.

However, Dr. Bober says there would need to be more known about the intent of Britney's latest photos.

While some of Britney's fans swear the nude uploads are some sort of expression of freedom that she didn't have as part of her conservatorship that was put into place in 2008, Dr. Ludwig isn't ready to credit the freedom for all of the nudes that Britney's pumping out, especially Monday night's Instagram assault.

"I don’t know if we see it as freedom but what is typical of people with bipolar disorder is that they can get overly sexualized. The nude body is kind of that over-sexualization, plus she’s a performer. So she’s kinda showing off her body, there are no inhibitions," Dr. Ludwig explains.

“Yes, I think that her father, it sounds like, had such a tight rope around her that now she is expressing her freedom as she wishes and this is what she’s presenting. It’s mildly inappropriate. It seems like something’s off. And there’s no editing going on. So we’re seeing Britney just say, 'If I want to show my body, I’ll show my body.' There are no boundaries."

Dr. Bober had a similar assessment of the nudes.

"She has a history of extreme behavior in the past, so I think a lot of the things she does are over the top and it may be possible that she’s trying to express her freedom in the most extreme way possible," he said. "So it’s more of a question of taste and preference rather than methodology. Maybe there was some shock value there, but it was done in a sense to express her own autonomy, given the fact that she felt that she was stifled for so long."

A favorite pastime of Britney fans is worrying about her life like she's a family member. Great debates are had by the #FreeBritney movement and those who fear the worst.

But what do the experts think? Are they the least bit concerned by a 12-nude photo Instagram photo dump? Dr. Ludwig seems to be leaning towards the middle and finding balance here.

"It looks like there’s reason to be concerned about some of her presentations. Hopefully, the people she’s working with are aware of what’s going on so that it doesn’t become too problematic for her and her pregnancy," Dr. Ludwig concludes.

Dr. Bober says red flag warnings going forward would be a lack of hygiene, including a lack of showering, eating, drinking and letting everyday responsibilities go by the wayside.

"Is she fulfilling her major life obligations? Or is she neglecting those? I think that’s where the real information would be," Dr. Bober added.

Written by
Joe Kinsey is the Senior Director of Content of OutKick and the editor of the Morning Screencaps column that examines a variety of stories taking place in real America. Kinsey is also the founder of OutKick’s Thursday Night Mowing League, America’s largest virtual mowing league. Kinsey graduated from University of Toledo.