“Britney’s family knows that her life will never be right until she gets help,” says the insider. “They’ve been working on this for the last month. [Her mom] Lynne’s return to LA was the first step.

“Her family had two secret meetings with lawyers on Tuesday to figure out how to make this happen.

“They’re afraid her body is shutting down. She hasn’t been eating for almost a week. She can’t sleep, even though she’s been taking sleeping pills. She stopped taking her medications because she thought they weren’t working.”

Speaking of her body shutting down, Britney was photographed buying laxatives at a Rite Aid pharmacy in LA on Jan. 29. "Along with not sleeping, she hasn't been going to the bathroom. She's been peeing, she just hasn't been, you know, going to the bathroom," says the insider.

As for what went down at Brit’s house this morning, “The shrink went to Britney's house. Brit thought it was for a session, but the doctor explained, ‘Honey, after 60 hours without sleep you can start to hallucinate. If you're out there driving under those conditions, you are a danger to other people on the road. You've got to go to the hospital for help.”

The insider adds, “Another part of this plan is to get Sam Lutfi out of her life. Her whole family thinks he’s one of the biggest problems in here life. So it was no accident that Lynne went to the hospital with [her on-again-off-again boyfriend] Adnan [Ghalib]. It was a message to Sam to make it clear that he’s not calling the shots. And then Sam got turned away at the hospital.”