Full House Star Jodie Sweetin Says She Knew She Was Alcoholic At 14

Jodie Sweetin has opened up about the addiction struggles that followed her years as one of television’s most recognizable child stars.

Full House ran for eight seasons from 1987 to 1995 and became one of America’s most widely syndicated sitcoms. The show helped launch several careers, with the Olsen twins becoming famous as infants on the series, while Bob Saget and John Stamos became even more closely tied to their roles.

Sweetin played Stephanie Tanner, the family’s bright and rule-following middle child. Although she did not become the same kind of household name as the Olsen twins, she was still a major part of the show and grew up in front of millions of viewers.

Sweetin was only five years old when Full House began, and she was 13 when the series ended. By that point, she had spent most of her childhood working on a hit TV set.

Years later, she returned to the role for the Netflix sequel series Fuller House. But the gap between the two shows included a much darker chapter in her life.

Sweetin has said she became addicted to drugs and realized she was an alcoholic within about a year of Full House ending, after she started drinking at 14.

The difficult years after Full House ended

For many viewers, Sweetin was still remembered as Stephanie Tanner, the young girl from a comforting family sitcom. Away from the screen, though, she was dealing with the pressure of growing up after early fame.

That shift can be hard for former child actors. The public may still picture them as the character they played, while they are trying to figure out who they are without the structure of a long-running show.

Sweetin has spoken about that period with unusual honesty, making it clear that her addiction did not appear out of nowhere. It became part of her life during the years when she was moving from childhood fame into adulthood.

Sweetin started drinking at 14 and says she knew early that she was alcoholic

During an appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, Sweetin spoke about realizing at a very young age that alcohol was going to be a problem for her.

She said alcoholism ran in her family, which made the warning signs feel clear to her even as a teenager.

For Sweetin, the realization did not come years later in hindsight. She says she had already connected the dots when she was around 14 or 15.

Sweetin appeared on a podcast to frankly discuss her addiction battle Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum

She said: "I always knew [alcoholism] was there. And because I also knew that alcoholism and all this stuff ran in my family, I knew from the time I was like 14 or 15, I was like, 'Oh, I'm an alcoholic.'"

"Like I knew it, but now suddenly I was like, 'oh okay, all of this stuff was now in my brain and it becomes a lot harder to deal with to deal with.'" Sweetin also clarified that she did not drink while working on Full House. Her drinking began after the show had ended, not while she was still on set.

By her early 20s, she said she was taking 'something' every day. Sweetin also described having a bowl at her house where visitors would leave whatever pills they had, and she would take whatever she pulled out.

Jodie Sweetin was just a child when she started on the show, and began drinking a year after it ended Bob D'Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Sweetin entered rehab in 2005, but that was not the end of the struggle. She later relapsed and admitted that there was a period when she was still using drugs while publicly saying she was sober.

That part of her story is one of the hardest details, because it shows how addiction can continue even when someone looks like they are doing better from the outside.

Why the public version did not match the private reality

Sweetin’s story also shows how difficult it can be when recovery becomes part of someone’s public image. If people already believe you are sober, admitting that you have relapsed can feel even harder.

That pressure can make a person feel trapped between the truth and the version of themselves that everyone else expects to see.

Sweetin has since spoken about those moments with more distance, but the details remain painful. She was not only dealing with addiction; she was also trying to keep up the appearance that she had already beaten it.

Sweetin cried during a speech about being sober while secretly coming down from drugs

Sweetin has also opened up about one painful moment at Wisconsin's Marquette University, where she addressed a crowd during a time when the public believed she was sober.

In reality, she was still taking drugs and, by her own account, had been 'getting loaded'. She was also coming down from a two-day binge involving meth, cocaine, and ecstasy.

She later wrote about the moment in her book, unSweetined: "I talked about growing up on television and about how great my life was now that I was sober, and then midspeech I started to cry."

"The crowd probably thought that the memories of hitting rock bottom were too much for me to handle. Or maybe they thought the tears were just a way for an actor to send a message that drugs are bad. I don't know what they thought."

"I know what they didn't think. They didn't think I was coming down from a two-day bender of coke, meth, and ecstasy and they didn't think that I was lying to them with every sentence that came out of my mouth."

In her newer interview with Michael Rosenbaum, Sweetin said she is now long-sober. She also said drinking and drugs no longer appeal to her, while offering a compassionate message for anyone who has relapsed or feels stuck.

Sweetin has been sober for years now Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Her message now is about second chances

Sweetin’s comments do not treat relapse as something simple or easy to explain. Instead, she talks about it as part of a longer recovery process, where shame can make people feel like they have already failed.

That is what makes her message stand out. She does not frame change as something reserved for people who got everything right the first time.

Her point is that awareness can still matter, even after mistakes. If someone knows they need to change, she believes that can be the first step toward doing something different.

She said: "Too often we back ourselves into a corner and think that everyone else will judge our mistakes so harshly that we're not even worth a second or third or tenth or fifteenth chance. But really, you are. And if you're thinking it, you can you can make a change. You can do something if you're aware of it."

Sweetin has since returned to acting through Fuller House, but her work now goes beyond being a former sitcom star. She is also an activist, a podcaster, and has completed a degree as a drug and alcohol counselor.

Her story remains tied to her time as a child star, but it is also about recovery, honesty, and building a life after addiction.