Amanda Bynes is back!

Cape Town – Amanda Bynes is back and is ready to set the record straight on drug abuse, losing control on social media, and living in a “dark, sad world”.

It’s no secret that the former Nickelodeon star has had more downs than ups in the Hollywood spotlight, but after 8 years in seclusion Amanda is ready to return and is doing it in PAPER magazine’s annual “Break the Internet” issue. 

READ MORE: A timeline of Amanda Bynes' dramatic downward spiral

HERE ARE 5 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM AMANDA BYNES TELL-ALL INTERVIEW:

1. Focusing on Education

Amanda has been enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising since 2014 and is receiving her Associates of Art degree in Merchandise Product Development. She plans to enroll in a Bachelor’s degree immediately thereafter.

READ MORE: Amanda Bynes goes back to fashion school

Speaking of her course, Amanda explains; “It’s a class on mark-up percentage, mark-up dollar, retail cost and everything about selling your product. I never really liked Math before, but I like this class.”

But while Amanda has focused on her studies and would love to design her own line one day, she admits: “I want to get back into acting first.”

2. Drug abuse

While Amanda was never really into drinking alcohol, she started smoking marijuana when she was 16, she reveals to Paper’s Abby Schreiber.

Amanda adds that through her use of marijuana, she started experimenting with stronger substances including “molly, ecstasy” and three failed attempts at cocaine. The one drug she got stuck on, Amanda reveals was Adderall.

Speaking of how she learned of the drug, she says: “[I remember] reading an article in a magazine that [called Adderall] ‘the new skinny pill’ and they were talking about how women were taking it to stay thin. I was like, ‘Well, I have to get my hands on that.’”

After retiring from acting, Amanda admits that’s when things started to go downhill, saying her life became a cycle of being “stuck at home, getting high, watching TV and tweeting.”

“I got really into my drug usage and it became a really dark, sad world for me,” she adds.

3. Losing control on social media

Perhaps Amanda’s biggest regret is her actions on social media.

While declining to go into details about some of the hurtful comments she made towards her family, other celebrities and fans – including when she shared a long list of celebrities she thought were ugly or plotted to murder her family – she does take responsibility for her actions.

READ MORE: Amanda Bynes reveals the truth behind her 'plot' to murder her family

“I'm really ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said. I can’t turn back time but if I could, I would. And I'm so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me. It makes me feel so horrible and sick to my stomach and sad.

“Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter,” Amanda says.

4. A misdiagnosis

Amanda was put under involuntary hold in a psychiatric hospital in October 2014. Shortly thereafter she revealed that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was on the mend.

READ MORE:  Amanda Bynes reveals she is bipolar

In her tell-all interview she explains it was all a misdiagnosis and it was actually the drugs she was on, causing her erratic behaviour.

“Truly, for me, [my behaviour] was drug-induced, and whenever I got off of [drugs], I was always back to normal. I know that my behaviour was so strange that people were just trying to grasp at straws for what was wrong.”

5. Back on track

Amanda has been sober for four years now. In 2017, the 32-year-old gave her first interview in four years and gave an update on her well-being.

“I miss acting. I am going to start acting again. I want to do TV maybe a few guest spots on some shows that I am a fan of. And maybe a TV show where I am the star of it in the future,” she told Hollyscoop at the time.

READ MORE: Amanda Bynes does her first interview in four years

Offering advice to anyone who may be struggling in anyway, Amanda tells Paper magazine: “My advice to anyone who is struggling with substance abuse would be to be really careful because drugs can really take a hold of your life.

“Everybody is different, obviously, but for me, the mixture of marijuana and whatever other drugs and sometimes drinking really messed up my brain. It really made me a completely different person.”

And what does Amanda have to say about her future?

“I think that's kind of how I go about [life] now — like, what's there to lose? I have no fear of the future. I've been through the worst and came out the other end and survived it so I just feel like it's only up from here.”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL INTERVIEW.