Jodie Sweetin Says Her Addiction Began at ‘Full House’ Co-Star Candace Cameron Bure’s Wedding

Jodie Sweetin is opening up about the first time she drank alcohol — and how it “clicked” with her in a way that launched her struggles with addiction and sobriety.

The Full House star, 43, revealed on Thursday’s episode of the Skinny Confidential Him & Her Show podcast that she first became interested in alcohol after drinking at her sitcom sister Candace Cameron Bure’s wedding to Valeri Bure in 1996.

“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,” Sweetin recalled, saying that while she didn’t remember much from the end of the night, “it was awful and it was ugly and it was embarrassing and my mother was horrified.”

Seated across the room from her mother, Sweetin said she kept asking for more wine every time it was being poured, “like an idiot 13, 14-year-old, you know?” She continued that while she “felt awful” the next day, “something clicked” in her head that would go on to become a problem.

“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 remembered.

Over the next couple of years, the child star “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.’”

Being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, Sweetin said that she was able to make more sense of why drinking and drugs were so appealing to her at that point in her life.

“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 of the end of Full House, which aired its final episode in 1995. “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 said she thinks it’s because of that loss of stimulation that she turned to stimulants, explaining, “I was looking for a way to make my brain work better.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA’s National Helpline is free, confidential and available 24/7.