Dancing With the Stars’ Cheryl Burke is struggling with her sobriety and ‘confessed’ that she ‘feels like drinking again’ in a revealing new YouTube video.
After eschewing traditional 12-step programs for private therapy to help her maintain her sobriety, after more than two years without drinking, Cheryl finally attended her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
The 37-year-old feels it is empowering to be able to ‘confess’ the challenges of staying sober and told GMA that she wanted to speak out before ‘God forbid I relapse.’
Being honest: Dancing With the Stars’ Cheryl Burke attended her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting after more than two years of sobriety and ‘confessed’ that she ‘feels like drinking again’
On YouTube, Cheryl told viewers that rather then check into rehab or participate in a 12-step program she quit drinking nearly three years ago with the support of her long-time therapist.
However, recently, she’s been feeling triggered and wanting to drink more. She turned to sober pal, Backstreet Boy AJ McClean, who brought Cheryl to her first AA meeting.
‘I needed help, I knew that if I didn’t take that step forward to be a part of Alcoholics Anonymous, I don’t know … I don’t know if I’d be sitting here today with you,’ she told GMA.
Adding: ‘The thought of having to be with a new group of strangers in a way really ate me alive. But I’ve realized that I needed to be able to hear other people’s stories, other people who struggle with alcoholism and addiction.’
‘I needed help, I knew that if I didn’t take that step forward to be a part of Alcoholics Anonymous, I don’t know … I don’t know if I’d be sitting here today with you,’ she told GMA.
Her decision to be so candid with the struggle is due in part to finding strength in not feeling like she is dealing with her addiction alone.
‘It is extremely powerful to be able to confess and to do so before anything, God forbid I relapse,’ Burke told the morning show. ‘But I just needed something more to help me feel like I’m not alone.’
The professional dancer first decided to ditch booze after her engagement party back in 2018. It was a recent trip to Hawaii with her husband, actor Matthew Lawrence, that ‘triggered’ her desire to drink.
‘I think us being in Hawaii, you know, just that carefree like feeling of being under the sun, my husband may have had a glass of champagne [and] my senses have come back even stronger ever since I decided to stop drinking,’ she revealed on YouTube.
Support: Cheryl used private therapy to help her stop drinking but has been finding it challenging lately so she turned to sober pal and former dancing partner, Backstreet Boy AJ McClean, who brought Cheryl to her first AA meeting
Adding: ‘So like the smell of it, I missed. But then I just try and like fast forward my life. Let’s say I do have one drink and I fast forward and it just ends up me falling into this rabbit hole of it’s never just one drink.’
Earlier this week, Cheryl noted that she’s felt like drinking again ‘a lot lately’ while chatting with AJ McLean and Rene Elizondo Jr. on their Pretty Messed Up podcast.
‘I’ve realized … how codependent I am on the two of you in a way because I look forward to these conversations of sobriety, of AJ talking about your ups and downs in life, if it’s been rough at times, and you Rene, being that voice of God,’ she said. ‘For some reason, I was thinking, ‘What if this was all over one day?’ And I had so much anxiety.’
During a recent Hawaiian vacation, hotel staff sent Burke and her husband a bottle of champagne to celebrate their anniversary, but they didn’t know she’ didn’t drink.
‘So like the smell of it, I missed,’ she said of being triggered in Hawaii. ‘But then I just try and like fast forward my life. Let’s say I do have one drink and I fast forward and it just ends up me falling into this rabbit hole of it’s never just one drink.’
Lawrence, who previously starred in Boy Meets World, had a few sips and she recalled: ‘Never have I ever been triggered in the last two and a half years until that day.’
She remembered going to a friend’s birthday party after the Hawaii incident and the ‘same thing’ happened, even telling her sister, ‘I’m two seconds away [from drinking].’
Burke explained that she ‘can’t just have one’ drink and ‘might as well just go into this rabbit hole for a couple of weeks.’
‘I have a lot of personal stuff going on right now at the moment, and so it’s been very … I feel like I’m walking on a really tight rope at the moment,’ Burke said. ‘Therapy’s not working right now.’
Doing it for herself: The professional dancer first decided to ditch booze after her engagement party back in 2018 to now-husband Matthew Lawrence