Cheryl Burkeis getting candid about her sobriety.
TheDancing with the Starspro said in a YouTube video Tuesday that though she’s been sober for nearly three years, she has been struggling recently with thoughts of drinking again.
She added that she never went through a rehabilitation program when she first decided to become sober, saying: “I basically quit cold turkey, but to say I’ve never looked back would be a lie.”
Recently, there have been multiple “triggers” in her life that have made it harder for her to stay sober, including “something bothering me that I don’t necessarily want to feel or face,” Burke said.
Cheryl Burke.Kelsey McNeal/ABC via Getty
She revealed that she struggled 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.”
She added that in the past “when I [had] any feelings of doubt, betrayal, uncertainty, those for me [were] red flags…My go-to is booze, is anything that numbs and gets me out of my head.”
“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. Now, for the first time, through all the chaos, I’m actually having to feel it and be uncomfortable while I’m feeling it.”
Burke went on to list reasons that she is choosing to stay sober, including hearing stories from other sober people.
She also said that using her platform to be “vulnerable” with her followers has helped keep her accountable.
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“I am really committed to staying sober, and 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.”
Burke has been quite open about her journey to sobriety, attributing her decision to stop drinking to her late father, who fought and overcame alcoholism in his life.
“I was a party girl,” she recalled during aninterview last year withGood Morning America. “I was on TMZ every day practically going out seven nights a week, and then I just took it to the next level and it became an issue. And it became an everyday thing for me.”
“I don’t know if it’s genetic, but it, you know, it definitely runs in the family,” she continued. “And I didn’t want to fall down that slippery slope.”
source: people.com
