Cheryl Burke used to drink seven days a week.
Cheryl Burke
The 'Dancing with the Stars' pro, 37, is now celebrating three years of being sober, but opened up about her dark struggles with addiction.
Speaking to Elizabeth Vargas on the 'Heart of the Matter' podcast, she said: "I was a ballroom-by-day type girl and then party- or club-goer at night - for 10 years in a row. I am definitely an alcoholic and addict, yes. 100 per cent."
The star explained she was a "functioning alcoholic" and drank so much that her body stopped responding to the usual effects of alcohol.
She said: "I was a functioning drunk for sure ... I was drinking because I was numbing - and we all know that that's a scary place.
"It was survival mode constantly, seven days a week for me."
On her road to recovery, Cheryl was quick to point out that there was no defining moment in her decision to quit, just an overall feeling of "emptiness".
She said: "[There was just a] feeling of just emptiness, of feeling there's no purpose. I felt disgusting. There was nothing there. I had no identity."
Cheryl - whose father was also an alcoholic, and had a glass of whiskey on his deathbed - made the decision to quit once she suffered an allergic reaction and broke out in hives.
She said: "Obviously, subconsciously, something … it was my body rejecting all this poison after drowning with it for so many year."
The TV star detailed how during the last three years, she has disregarded her old view that sobriety was a weakness.
She said: "I had this saying, 'I don't trust people that are sober.'
"There's obviously some demons that they're living. I was so ignorant to the fact that everything that I thought was weak is actually the most courageous thing you can possibly do."
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