Britney Spears: "I'll kill myself before I let them lock me up again!"

Troubled Britney Spears reportedly made a series of terrifying calls to a close friend in which she threatened: "I'll kill myself before I let them lock me up again!"

Britney is said to have made the alarming calls while driving erratically on Tuesday night - the day before she fled the country to hide in Mexico.

And it was also the day reports flooded the internet about how Britney's parents were considering drastic action to get Britney taken into psychiatric care - even using courts and police if needs be.

"They're not sending me to the nut house!" Britney screamed to her friend, according to a report in the U.S. "No one can make me go if I don't want to go - and I ain't goin'!"

Britney is said to have made the call to "a close friend" while being chased by paparazzi - with her driving getting increasingly erratic and dangerous. "See that? I just went through another stop sign!" Britney shrieked. "See what you made me do? I'm gonna hurt someone out here!"

While the friend was trying to reason with her, Britney then made the chilling promise: "I'll kill myself before I let them lock me up again! So tell Mama and Daddy I said so!"

Just before she hung up, she uttered a final few words. "Oh, my God," she moaned, "it's over for me."

The chilling words were repeated to biographer J Randy Taraborrelli, who says he has "known and liked Britney for almost a decade," He told the New York Post: "I find what she had to say utterly chilling.

"In one short week, it seems, Britney's life has become a living nightmare, turning a troubled young star into a woman on the brink of insanity."

Meanwhile, Spears' relatives say they are worried about the influence of new man Adnan Ghalib and fears that he is using the star to make money. "She's used to people exploiting her," says one of her relatives. "She once told me: 'If I cut everyone out of my life who has tried to make a buck off me, I'd have no one.'

"She feels she's been exploited by lovers, assistants, managers, her ex-husband, her parents. This girl needs help, badly."

The fearful relative continued: "Actually, it's been this way for months. People assume that she's been on illegal drugs, and, of course, she has been accused in the past.

"But most of that stopped months ago when the court ordered frequent drug tests in the child-custody case between her and Kevin.

"What no one in the family wants to admit is that she's probably bipolar."

Her behaviour in hospital after her alarming stand-off a her home would also seem to reflect mental issues - with the star bizarrely speaking in a British accent while going through severe mood swings. "At times she was very quiet, then other times absolutely frantic," said one of the nurses who treated her. "Everyone was afraid for her -and even of her.

"At one point, she was crying about her sister being pregnant, saying she would now be ruined, too.

"She was railing against her parents for screwing up both her life and her sister's. I mean, she was a real mess.

"Then, 15 minutes later, she would be sound asleep. She'd then wake up feeling very calm and happy.

"It was all very sad."

Britney's father rushed to her bedside, where he pleaded with her to agree to psychiatric treatment. But the star merely screamed at him, "You're not going to lock me up! You can forget it! I'm not going!"

Her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, are now said to be considering drastic action - which could even include going to court and get an order that would force Britney into care.

The star also has a crucial court hearing today (Mon) in which those close to the star say the outcome could be crucial to her health.

She is expected to be either re-assigned visitation rights with her two sons - or told she will remained banned from seeing them until April. "The kids are her life," said one of her confidantes. "She told me that she has no reason to live if she can't see her kids.

"So, yes, I'm afraid, very afraid."