Why so many celebs are suffering meltdowns. (Star Stories).

Mariah Carey spent time in the psych ward, and Ben Affleck checked in to rehab. Cosmo looks at the reasons more and more stars are coming apart at the seams.

It's no secret that Tinseltown is a hotbed for hysterics, but why have so many celebrities plunged off the deep end in the past several months? On July 9, the Backstreet Boys announced that they were postponing a world tour so that 23-year-old member A.J. McLean could undergo treatment for depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. On July 25, Mariah Carey was rushed to a psychiatric hospital where she was treated for an emotional and physical breakdown. Then on August 3, boy-next-door Ben Affleck checked himself in to the Promises clinic in Malibu, California, to combat a drinking and gambling problem.

As it turns out, it wasn't just a strange cosmic coincidence that caused so many of our favorite stars to unravel simultaneously. The real reason? "Celebrities are more prone to break downs than regular people because the pressures are stronger and their psyches are weaker," says Michael Picucci, director of the Institute for Staged Recovery in New York City, which treats entertainers. Here, Cosmo takes an inside look at the darker side of stardom.

inside the mind of a star

Every meltdown has its own complex causes, but experts say that one of the first reasons celebs are more vulnerable is that their mental foundations are shakier to begin with than those of non-celebs. People who turn to entertainment as a profession are often very needy for approval by nature. As A.J. McLean's mother has admitted, "A.J. is the most insecure person I know." That need means that their self-esteem is based on public adoration, which can be fickle, inconsistent, and beyond their control. And once they reach a certain level of success, it's difficult for them to weather the inevitable setbacks.

Case in point: Even though Mariah Carey has had a whopping 15 number one singles on the charts, her breakdown was reportedly brought on by the bad reviews of her latest single, "Loverboy," and her nervousness about her big-screen debut in the movie Glitter. (And rightly so: When the movie finally premiered, one reviewer called Carey's performance "astonishingly bad; awkward beyond anything one could imagine.") And Ben Affleck was so distraught by the fact that the supposedly biggest movie of his career, Pearl Harbor, was such a box-office bomb that his usual nights out on the town turned into uncontrollable drinking binges. "These celebrities begin to live in a very detached world in which their success is their central focus. They aren't in touch with reality anymore," says Picucci. "So when something goes wrong in their careers, their psyches just can't handle the pressure." As one young starlet, who prefers to remain anonymous, puts it: "People who are in the spotlight tend to become really isolated, then they start to get self-conscious and insecure, and then their self-esteem deteriorates. I think that snowball effect is why so many people go crazy in Hollywood."

friend or foe?