Britney Spears’ Family Feel ‘Helpless’ Amid ‘Self-Destructive’ Antics: ‘Just Spectators to Her Life Now’

Britney Spears‘ headline-making antics have left her family feeling “utterly helpless,” reveals an insider.

As Star previously reported, entertainment reporter Jeff Sneider observed the “Circus” singer, 44, “screaming and barking” while dining at Blue Dog Tavern in Sherman Oaks, California, on Wednesday, May 13.

“She was clearly on some sort of medication,” he alleged via his Instagram Story, adding that Britney also attempted to light a cigarette inside the restaurant and even “picked up a knife” at one point.

A representative for Britney, however, told People that the pop star was simply enjoying a “quiet dinner with her assistant and bodyguard,” during which she told a story “about how her dog was barking at the neighbors.”

No one is buying claims that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about the troubled Grammy winner’s behavior though, notes the insider. “There were too many eyewitnesses.”

With the exception of sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, Britney is famously estranged from most of her family.

“They’re literally just spectators to her life now,” admits the insider. “If they wanted to enable her, there’s a chance they could be in her life in a closer way” but mom Lynne Spears and brother Bryan Spears “aren’t willing to co-sign this self-destructive path she’s on.”

As Star readers know, the “Toxic” singer voluntarily sought treatment after her DUI arrest in March only to leave after just a few weeks.

“She’s just surrounding herself with people who are willing to support and even help her do whatever she wants,” the source says of Britney, who went on to plead guilty to a lesser charge, per Page Six. “Of course they aren’t trying to stop her.”