Cheryl Burke is speaking openly about her sobriety, and the challenges she has been facing in recent weeks.
In a YouTube video posted Tuesday, the "Dancing with the Stars" pro admitted she had been harboring thoughts about drinking again, after three years of being clean, and briefly touched upon why.
"I'm here to confess that lately staying sober has been a little bit of a challenge for me. And recently I've been thinking a lot, I have to admit, about drinking again," she said. "So, I decided to hold myself accountable by confessing my anxious feelings."
In the video, Burke revealed that she did not enter a rehabilitation program, but instead quit "cold turkey." To say that she has never looked back "would be a lie."
The TV personality explained that there have been multiple triggers that have added to the challenge of staying sober, and recalled struggling with her sobriety during a vacation in Hawaii with her husband, Matthew Lawrence.
"Us being in Hawaii, just that carefree feeling of being under the sun, my husband may have had a glass of champagne, my senses have come back even stronger," she said. "So, the smell of it I missed."
Burke, who said she was dealing with "something bothering me that I don't necessarily want to feel or face," added that she would usually turn to alcohol when she had any feelings of "doubt, betrayal, uncertainty ..."
"There's so much chaos going on in my life right now. In the past, everyone always used to say, 'How do you do it all?' But I did it all because I was numbing through it all," she continued. "Now, for the first time, through all the chaos, I'm actually having to feel it and be uncomfortable while I'm feeling it."
Last year, in an appearance on "Good Morning America," Burke said the death of her father, who struggled with alcoholism, was what led her to get sober.
"I don't know if it's genetic, but it, you know, it definitely runs in the family, and I didn't want to fall down that slippery slope," she said.
Burke partook in therapy and practiced daily meditation during her road to recovery, yet it still has not been easy.
"When you make a decision, a big decision, a life-altering decision, your friends will change," she said. "And, you know, some people will support it. Some people won't. And at the end of the day, you have to be OK with this."
Speaking in her YouTube video this week, Burke assured fans that she was "committed to staying sober" despite the struggles.
"I know the first thing to do when you have those anxious feelings is to be able to talk about it," she concluded. "Some days can be harder than others. I know that my feelings are completely normal, so I'm trying not to feel shame or judge myself, but it's hard."
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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