This might come as a shock to some of you, so prepare yourselves – Britney Spears is mentally unwell.

And that might not be new – we guessed that the moment Britney shacked up with Kevin Federline – but Britney Spears' manager Sam Lufti has apparently told Barbara Walters that Britney suffers from "mental issues" that she's seeking treatment for.

And how did Britney Spears celebrate this news? By having a gigantic fight with Sam Lufti and then sobbing on a pavement in front of the whole world. In case we didn't already get the message.

Aside from being that play where Harry Potter got his winky out, Equus is actually a meditation on the role of psychiatric treatment that raises the question 'is it really morally acceptable to entirely change an individual's personality with medication and treatment just because they don't fit society's definition of normal?'

And, in the case of Britney Spears, the answer is 'Yes. Yes, it's absolutely acceptable and frankly we wish that she'd get a bloody move on with it because she's getting right on our sodding tits.'

But finally it looks as if Britney Spears might actually be seeking out help because, according to Britney's manager Sam Lufti, Britney Spears has realised that she's mental. Yes, look, we know that this makes Britney Spears literally the last person in the entire world to realise that, but at least it's a start.

Lufti's assertions that Britney is crazy were revealed by Barbara Walters yesterday on The View. Reuters reports:

Veteran broadcast journalist Walters said she spoke with Lufti by phone after he reached out to her. "He said that Britney is suffering from what he describes as mental issues which are treatable," Walters said on "The View." "He said that she has been to a psychiatrist and that she, I assume, is starting some kind of treatment." Walters said Lufti has been staying with the singer "constantly" and added that Spears has been having "mood swings, she's been having trouble sleeping." Walters said she did not know whether Lufti was indeed telling the truth.

Now we're not sure what exactly made Britney Spears admit to her mental problems – could it be the emotional stress of losing her children, the shocking realisation that she's become a petty shoplifter or the way that, ten months after she called herself the devil and tried to hang herself with a bedsheet in rehab, she got topless, locked herself in a bathroom with her kids and started in yelling in an inexplicable British accent until an ambulance came to take her away? – but she's getting there.

Or at least she would be if it weren't for the gigantic fight that Britney Spears had with Sam Lufti last night that ended up with Britney Spears slumped on a pavement crying her eyes out and clutching her dog until the police, Britney's family and her boyfriend Adnan Ghalib all turned up to turn it into the gigantic circus it was promising to be. But, hey, at least she's getting better. 

And whether Britney Spears is only seeking treatment for these "mental issues" because she wants to convince a court that she can see her children, or whether she's solely invested in getting help for her own sake, Britney has at least admitted that she's got a problem. And don't they say that admitting your problem is the first step on the road to recovery?

Yes they do. However, the second step on the road to recovery is 'put some knickers on for Christ's sake darling, your tatty minge is bringing our lunch up', and we all know how difficult Britney Spears is going to find that. She's not out of the woods yet.

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Spears' manager says singer has "mental issues" - Reuters