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After years of being open about her addiction struggles, Jodie Sweetin is shedding light on the first time she blacked out at 14 years old.
During an episode of “The Skinny Confidential” podcast, the 43-year-old “Full House” alum recounted an “embarrassing” incident at co-star and friend Candace Cameron Bure’s 1996 wedding — a moment she described as the point when her addiction took control.
“Well, the first time I ever drank, I was like 14 and it was at Candace’s wedding, and I was just a blackout drinker,” she said. “The last thing I remember doing is somewhere around the ‘M’ of the ‘YMCA’ and then I don’t remember anything from the rest of the night. It was awful, and it was ugly, and it was embarrassing. My mother was horrified.”
“I was at the table, and I was drinking, and — I was across the room from my mom. So they would pour a glass of wine… and then they’d get around to pouring more, and I was like, “I’ll take a little more, please.’ It was a lot of red wine and the bathroom was very white.”
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Jodie Sweetin blacked out at Candace Cameron Bure’s wedding in 1996, marking the beginning of her addiction struggles. (Getty Images)
Sweetin admitted that while she was “horrified” the next day, something clicked.
“I was like, ‘Oh, that was fun,'” she said. “I’d say around 15, 16, I knew that I drank and partied in a way that my friends did not, and they were like, ‘What, bro? Settle down.’”
“I would be like, ‘OK, well, now I’ve got to go find somebody that I can do these drugs with.’ Or, you know, it was like finding different people that didn’t make you feel so bad about what you were doing,” she added.
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Once “Full House” wrapped, Sweetin said she went through an identity crisis.
“I was all over the place. I think that’s why I found stimulants. I would be more sober than anyone else in the room. I was looking for a way to make my brain work better.”
As her addiction continued, the mom-of-two said she knew she was headed down a dangerous path.
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Jodie Sweetin spent most of her childhood on television before having an identity crisis post “Full House.” (Getty Images)
“I knew for a very long time that I was heading down a road where it was either going to be jail, institutions or death,” she said. “I was getting very close. I did not think I would see my 30th birthday the way I was going in my mid-20s …life changed. I got married again and quickly found out I was pregnant and was like, ‘Okay this is what we’re doing.'”
“I haven’t had a perfect journey, but that was the thing that changed everything,” she said of her first pregnancy. “Like party time is done.”
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Sweetin found sobriety in 2008 after 15 years of abusing drugs and alcohol.
In 2021, the actress and comedian opened up further about her addiction and the importance of de-stigmatizing the topic.
“The thing about anxiety is, people think of panic attacks, but there can be a raging screaming voice in your head all the time that you just can’t get quiet,” the actress told Allison Kugel during an episode of the “Allison Interviews” podcast. “You just don’t want to listen to this voice, and especially when mental health wasn’t talked about, it’s worse.”
The “Full House” alum said everything changed the moment she found out she was going to be a mom. (Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)
“Having that wiring in your brain, something switches on when you’re an alcoholic,” the mom of two continued. “It feels like there is never enough. I can’t ever fill this hole because there is a bottom missing in the cup, and I just keep trying to fill it. I think that is something I’m really grateful for now, is the de-stigmatization of talking about mental health. That was my whole journey through sobriety.”
Sweetin noted that she was determined to turn her life around. Sobriety is not a simple fix, but rather an ongoing work in progress.
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“A lot of it is really looking at yourself and what are the things that I do, or behaviors that I’m trying to use to cope with my life?” said Sweetin. “How do I do this better? How do I interact with people better? How do I hold myself to a higher standard? How do I go back and make some of those things right so that I can alleviate that shame and terror that comes with all of it? Then, how do I go about life, not creating those situations for myself in the future? That is a huge part of it.”
“I’m always very honest that, for me, medication has been key,” Sweetin shared. “Otherwise my struggle was so bad I wasn’t getting out of bed. Now that I know when I need to speak up for myself, even into my 30s, feeling like I needed some therapy and I probably need a psychiatrist for some meds, and all of these things to start taking care of myself.”
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this post.