'Full House' Child Star to Talk at EIU about Alcohol, Drug Addiction
Apr-02-2007
Jodie Sweetin, best known as "Stephanie Tanner" on the sitcom “Full House,” will discuss her post-series battles with alcohol and drugs when she visits the campus of Eastern Illinois University.
Admission to her talk, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, in the Grand Ballroom, MLK Jr. Union, is free and open to the public.
Following her show’s eight-year run (September 1987 through May 1995), Sweetin joined the Orange County High School of the Arts, and participated in musical theatre productions. She enjoyed the students in the program, and being in a creative atmosphere was a comfortable place to be during her high school years.
After high school, Sweetin attended Chapman University in Orange, Calif., earning a liberal arts degree in May 2004.
But during her high school and college years of “experimentation,” Sweetin also discovered alcohol and drugs -- substances she now realizes that she cannot handle. For years she fought her addictions, causing serious destruction to her life.
Sweetin recently admitted to a methamphetamine addiction, which reportedly resulted in an intervention staged by her former “Full House” co-stars, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, John Stamos and Bob Saget. After losing her two-year marriage and experiencing tremendous personal loss, Sweetin checked herself into a rehab facility for intensive therapy in March 2005, and has been clean and sober since.
She has been working diligently to put her life back on track “one day at a time,” and is committed to helping others avoid the choices that cost her so much, and to encouraging addicts and alcoholics to get the help they need.
Sweetin will discuss how her life changed after the end of “Full House,” and how she got sober after her battles with alcohol and drugs. She’ll also talk about how rehabilitative therapy has changed her life, and inspire all listeners to combat challenges head-on.
