Words of Wisdom

America first met Tracey Gold in 1985 when she starred on the hit sitcom Growing Pains. The actress has faced multiple personal crises in the public eye. As a teen she battled anorexia, and in 2002, her son Bailey nearly drowned in the backyard pool.

Then, in 2004, Tracey was in the headlines again. Returning home from a Labor Day barbecue with her family, Tracey lost control of her SUV on the freeway. It veered off the road and rolled over several times down an embankment, injuring her husband and two of her three children.

When police arrived, Tracey was arrested for driving under the influence. Her blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit. She says that coming to terms with her DUI was similar to how she's come to terms with her eating disorder. "The correlation with the anorexia for me was that I've always been the person who's the people-pleaser, the person who tries to make everybody else happy. I've come a long way and I've done a lot of work on myself, and I'm really proud of myself about that. But it's still a part of who I am."

"Things don't just happen out of the blue," she says. "It's not a rock falling from the sky. It happens for a reason. [This happened from] not allowing my [inner] voice to sort of just speak for myself. ... I really, really get it now."