Barton Blames Breakdown on Stress, Bad Teeth

Thu., Aug. 27, 2009 1:25 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

They say good teeth make for good health. If only that were the case for Mischa Barton.

With the debut of her new CW series, The Beauitful Life, just weeks away, the erstwhile O.C. star is opening up for the first time about her involuntary stay in a Los Angeles psych ward last month.

In an interview with Time Out New York, Barton explained that the unspecified "medical issues" that led to her hospitalization at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center July 15 were the result of stress from her various work commitments compounded by pain incurred from having her wisdom teeth removed.

"It was like a perfect storm, like everything was happening to me at once," the thesp told the magazine. "The show, travel and then this fairly routine surgery that went wrong—it’s still just healing. But I had to get through it without proper painkillers because I couldn’t take those during work. So it’s been a nightmare."

All we can say is...ouch.

While the four teeth were successfully extracted, the trauma and the job pressures left Barton in a very fragile emotional state. The anxiety was so severe, the 23-year-old actress said, she ended up placing a nonemergency call to police, landing her in the hospital.

"I was down in the dumps about everything there for a while. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom about things and have to get the most stressed-out just to feel better again. I got completely stressed-out and couldn’t handle everything, and now I feel really in control," she added.

When asked whether drugs played a role and if it was an official nervous breakdown, Barton demurred.

"I don’t know. I don’t know. I had a friend who had a quasi-nervous breakdown, but I’m not sure it’s the same thing. I’m not sure I’m capable of a full-on nervous breakdown, but it was pretty bad. It didn’t last that long. It was more about the pain," she said. "I have a newfound respect for people who have chronic pain. I started getting migraines."

Now that she's out and the headaches have diminished, Barton says she's ready to get back to playing Sonja Stone on Life, even if the supermodel character hounded by paparazzi in the Ashton Kutcher-produced series isn't so far from her own tabloid persona.

The Beautiful Life premieres on the CW Sept. 16.

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Glad Mischa's back on the tube? Check out our Snapped on the Set Photo Gallery.