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<p>Or perhaps they tried very hard to help her, but Whitney, being a full fledged adult who made her own choices, resisted it.</p>
<p>From what I understand, Whitney’s mother worked very hard to convince her daughter to get and stay clean. There’s only so much you can do when dealing with other strong willed adults.</p>
<p>As a family member of a hard core addict, I assure you that it’s pretty impossible to “protect someone from themself.”</p>
<p>Piers Morgan and Nikki Stiix picking at the corpse of the dead, like a couple of vultures. Makes me ill. I wonder how many drug addicts Piers Morgan has knowingly interviewed on his show? Or how many artists Mr. Stix STILL plays with who are addicts. Do you think he turns them away to “do the right thing”. But these performers are HIS meal ticket…right?</p>
<p>"As a family member of a hard core addict, I assure you that it’s pretty impossible to “protect someone from themself.” "</p>
<p>I agree 100%.</p>
<p>That is what addiction IS, otherwise it would not be an addiction! </p>
<p>What are the signs that the addict is really ready to do something about the addiction?</p>
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<p>They ask for help, and they do what they have to do to get the help they need. Even then, unfortunately, it is a compulsion, and with the withdrawal of funding for treatment, those without money frequently, actually, CANT get the help they need and want. (not the case for W.H. obviously)</p>
<p>As for her family, her mother actually had her go on TV and say she was retiring and tried to get her completely out of the business. Anyone who “blames” her family for her addiction is looking in the wrong place. It would be like blaming someone’s mother because they killed themselves from depression. It’s very ignorant, though, in the case of those “in the business”, Nikki Sixx isn’t wrong.</p>
<p>Her mother also prevented her from getting into the business before age 18, apparently she had offers earlier and her mother said, “no.”</p>
<p>I’ve been frequenting some perimenopause and menopause boards in the last couple of weeks, and am absolutely dumbfounded how these stages in life can lead many women to self-medicate. I’m sure the same could be said for women with severe PMS, or post-partum depression, but a lot of these posters feel, especially if you’re already prone to addictions/mental illness, etc., perimenopause and menopause can really put women over the edge. And yes, I do believe the speculation came up that Houston may have been doing OK for a while, but then was thrown for a loop with severe symptoms of the transition and began to doctor shop and/or self medicate. </p>
<p>I had no idea that there are women so immensely absorbed by perimenopause/menopause that they basically become housebound, especially if they’re in a rural area with few doctors who are progressive in their treatment options. I read stories from women who have tried and tried to get physicians to listen to them, but blame everything on their psyche. So these women are left to fend for themselves. </p>
<p>If you think about it (and I digress here), when we’re young girls, we are taught by someone (hopefully our family) about the womens’ life cycle, sex, etc. But it’s not until many, many years later that we actually enter perimenopause, so whatever was told to us perhaps 40-50 years earlier is buried deep in the brain. And since it seems like so many women have such a unique experience at this stage (especially more variety in the age at which it starts), there is unlikely to be any two women who go through it in the same way; in essence, when we become vulnerable and need to educate ourselves, there’s no one around to provide that to us like our mothers did (or whoever it was did), so we tend to keep our suffering to ourselves. So while Houston, obviously had addiction problems, part of me now wonders if she was self-medicating for increasing perimenopause issues. </p>
<p>I just really hope the investigations and autopsy report are able to more better clarify what happened.</p>
<p>teriwtt, Just as I am not sure your speculation in your post #250 about potential suicide was helpful, I’m also not sure how getting into things like perimenopause have much to do with this. It’s a tragic outcome and Whitney Houston seemed to be involved with addiction long before the age of menopause. Maybe she was self medicating more but who knows what the reason was? If anything, the stress of getting ready for all of the Grammy hoopla could have been just as much a trigger as anything with hormonal issues. Or she could have had some other medical issue. Who really knows? It’s all just speculation.Suicide is the one thing that seems very unlikely .</p>
<p>Addiction s**ks, and it absolutely can be the cause in & of itself. Why speculate? It is what it is, and we will never know what was in her heart when she left this world. </p>
<p>I heard a clip of an interview she did where Whitney took responsibility for her addictions. She was clearly struggling with her inner demon of addiction, and she acknowledged it. She asked for prayer on her behalf. She did not want excuses made for her; she knew what had a hold on her.</p>
<p>They’re at it again:</p>
<p>[Whitney</a> Houston’s Funeral To Be Picketed By Westboro Baptist Church](<a href=“Whitney Houston's Funeral To Be Picketed By Westboro Baptist Church | HuffPost Voices”>Whitney Houston's Funeral To Be Picketed By Westboro Baptist Church | HuffPost Voices)</p>
<p>I’ve been wondering about something. (Please excuse my ignorance; I know nothing about this and can’t sing at all myself.) Whitney clearly had lost the voice she had in her prime. Is it usual that at some point singers lose some of their capacity? I do remember that Mary Travers’ voice changed quite a bit as she aged, but not as dramatically as Whitney’s did.</p>
<p>I am also assuming that a voice like Whitney’s requires more than natural talent? Didn’t she have to work hard to develop and maintain it?</p>
<p>Whitney’s voice probably went due to her smoking both cigarettes and crack.</p>
<p>The smoking does damage, but she probably did a lot of damage with overuse too. Alcohol is bad for the voice too. Many very common medications can have harmful effects on the voice - many dry out the cords. She was a perfect storm for vocal damage. </p>
<p>You can hear raspiness in her speaking voice from many years ago.</p>
<p>I saw an Anderson Cooper interview with her vocal coach and he said the years of abuse took a toll on her voice, but that with training, she could have regained 95% of her capacity back. This same vocal coach had helped her previously when her voice was in big trouble.</p>
<p>The interview is on CNN.com, titled “Her voice was her life.” I would post the link, but I’m having trouble getting it to load.</p>
<p>I saw that interview. The problem is that, just based on the drinking a couple of nights before her death, and the amount and nature of the meds found in her room, I don’t think she could have recovered her voice to the level he predicted unless she made some serious lifestyle changes. Not sure he was factoring that in.</p>
<p>^^^^I agree.</p>
<p>I also think that aging causes irreversible changes to one’s voice; not necessarily bad changes, but a 50 year old voice is not going to be the same as the previous 18 y/o voice. People may have expected too much from her.</p>
<p>her funeral will be aired on msnbc at noon eastern time</p>
<p>It is on CNN. Something does not sound right with the music played. Choirs can be magical. This cacophony in the first ten minutes has been darn awful. I know it is not a performance, but it seems that better and more respectful songs could be played.</p>
<p>Well, back to the hormonal issue, a woman’s voice changes more dramatically in her perimenopausal/menopausal years than a man’s does at the same age, due to estrogen deficiencies. But yes, smoking can damage vocal cords, too. </p>
<p>The only reason I keep speculating is because, until the official autopsy results come out, it dismays me that everyone automatically assumes it was an accidental overdose. There could be other contributing causes, and because there are other possible causes, no one should be judging her. It could be a combination of things.</p>
<p>But there is a distinction between how much of her voice is possible she might recover (an est. 95%) compared to the liklihood of recovering. A vocal coach isn’t really in the business of lifestyle changes.
It is reasonable to assume her voice changed some due to normal aging, but also admitted use of cigs and illegal drugs compounded the deterioration.</p>
<p>xiggi, I wasn’t feeling the first couple of songs by the choir either. They seemed to go on and on and I also was thinking there must have been better songs out there. But as the service is going on, I think the singing is getting more inspiring and personal- loved
Bebe Winans. Thought Tyler Perry did a great job. It is clear she touched alot of people on a very personal level.</p>