Britney: "I Totally Lost My Way"

You can call Britney Spears a lot of things — pop star, mom, tabloid queen — but don't call her a victim.

"I don’t like that... 'the victim'," Brit explains in the upcoming documentary For the Record. "I've been placed in that category for some reason."

The 26-year-old singer also isn't a big fan of the comeback kid label that's been slapped on her since she began her miraculous turnaround this past summer.

"I’ve been here the whole time, you know," she says. "I’ve taken some time off for myself and I’ve been recording for a while, I haven’t been completely in the spotlight but I’ve been doing what I’ve always done."

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As for those dark days of late 2007 and early 2008, which saw Britney first under the influence of "manager" Sam Lutfi and then photographer boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, she's surprisingly candid about her mindset at the time.

Recalls Britney: ”I totally lost my way. I lost focus... I lost myself. I had that type of nature within me that wanted to bail out. I’ve never wanted to become one of those prisoner people. I always wanted to feel free… I think that was always a part of me that kind of got me in trouble.”

??And while she doesn't mention Sam or Adnan by name, she does admit, "There were certain people in my life that were just bad people... I was lonely and I really paid the consequences for that."

A surprisingly thoughtful Britney adds, "I feel like when you do something wrong, you learn from it and you move on... But it’s like I'm having to pay for it for a really long time.?"

Be sure to check out For the Record when it airs on MTV, Nov. 30 at 10pm ET.

CLICK HERE for OK!'s Ultimate Britney Gallery!