Dolly Parton says she once went through a period so dark, she understood why people turn to drugs and alcohol. “Yes, I went through a bad period of time back in the ’80s when I was going through the change. I was having some female problems, family problems, emotional problems, and I was overweight. I didn’t feel good about myself at all, so I got myself in a pretty bad bind.” “I understood at that moment how people get on drugs, how people get on alcohol, and how people can commit suicide. I didn’t do that because I kept praying, holding on to God, and hanging on to my friends.” “No business thing has ever been able to get me that depressed. It has to be something very personal, either family or something during that middle-age change of life, when your hormones and everything are different.” “I did have a very hard time, but God, praying, friends, and just trying to hang on helped me. Being Dolly, just being me, I thought, ‘Hey, either get off your fat ass and do something about it, or go ahead and blow your head off.’ And I thought, ‘Nah, I ain’t gonna do that.’” “I believe God meant for me to go through that so I could completely feel for other people about everything.”