The 18-year-old "Hannah Montana star sparked outrage on Friday, December 10 after film footage of her smoking a huge pipe, allegedly containing the legal high Salvia, was posted on TMZ.com. She was subsequently slammed by anti-drugs groups for being a bad role model to her impressionable fans and now "Celebrity Rehab" host Pinsky has branded Cyrus a "child in trouble" and urges her to seek medical help.
He tells Access Hollywood, "We know that she's going to be acting out now because her family's in trouble, so it's not unusual to see depression manifesting as various kinds of acting out behaviors. "Adolescents don't get depressed the way adults do. They don't get sad and cry and withdraw. They often act out and become irritable, they act out with drugs and� get in trouble and she seems to be suffering."
"If I had a child that was doing that or if I was advising a parent, I would say get professional help immediately. This cat is out of the bag. This is a child who is in trouble and who is suffering and this is her way of trying to manage that. Get professional help."
The singer's parents, Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus, filed for divorce in October.
