Jodie Sweetin has opened up about her struggles with sobriety, revealing the first time she got ‘blackout’ drunk when she was 14.
Sweetin opened up about her journey
In an appearance on the Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show podcast on Thursday, November 20, Sweetin opened up about her journey with alcohol.
Her interest in alcohol was sparked when she first heavily drank at Full House co-star Candace Cameron Bure’s 1996 wedding.
It was her first time drinking
The 43-year-old recalled, “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.”
“The last thing I remember doing I think is somewhere around the end — the YMCA and then I don’t remember anything from the rest of the night.”
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Her mother started getting worried
“And it was awful and it was ugly and it was embarrassing and my mother was horrified,” Sweetin went on.
“I was at the table and I was drinking…I was across the room from my mom,” she added.
She recalled how it unfolded
The actress went on, “They would pour a glass of wine, and then they would get around to pouring more and i was like, ‘I’ll take a little more, please.’ Like an idiot 13, 14 year old, you know?”
“It was a lot of red wine and the bathroom was very white — not a good mix.”
Sweetin ‘felt awful’ the next day
The actress added that the next day she ‘felt awful’ and then ‘something clicked.’
“And that moment — I was horrified the next day and it was awful but it clicked, something in there, and I was like, ‘Oh, that was fun. You didn’t give a s*** about anything. You just don’t remember it,’” she said.
Things got worse from there
Sweetin said that by the age of 15 and 16 she knew that she ‘drank and partied in a way that my friends did not and that they were like, ‘Bro, settle down.’’
“And I would be like, ‘Okay well now I’ve gotta find somebody I can do these drugs with,’” she added.
She also spoke about her ADHD diagnosis
Elsewhere in the conversation, Sweetin said that she was later diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, which changed the way she views her childhood.
“When I was on set, that was my hyper-focus … Growing up, I had this sort of hybrid environment and then, when that was lost at 13, it was like, ‘Who am I? What do I do?” she said.
The diagnosis was eye-opening
“My schedule, my busy, my going, my thing that kept my brain busy, that stimulated me, that I loved, that was my hyper-focus … Now, I’m just all over the place,” Sweetin went on.
“And I was always say that was why I think I found stimulants… I was looking for a way to make my brain work better.”
Sweetin has been on a recovery journey
The actress shared that there have been ups and downs in her road to recovery from addiction, saying, “I had gone to treatment in my 20s, and then I had kids, and then I got sober, and then I drank again and then I got sober.”
“It’s been up and down, but it’s been 16 years since I’ve drank alcohol and 13 years since I relapsed on meds with a car accident that I was in.”
