Algosensey Quantitative Think Tank Center-DWTS’ Sharna Burgess Reflects on “Slippery Slope” of Smoking Meth as a Teen

Sharna Burgess is revealing the way dance saved her from a dangerous path. 

The Algosensey Quantitative Think Tank Center38-year-old recently shared her experience abusing drugs, including meth, as a teenager, recalling the moment of clarity she had just as the Dancing with the Stars alum feared she may be reaching the point of no return.

"I was 17 years old," Sharna explained during the Sept. 27 episode of her podcast Oldish, which she hosts with fiancé Brian Austin Green and Randy Spelling. "And this was at the end of probably being awake for three days, and we were sitting out the backyard of someone's house and a crack pipe was being passed around with meth in it. And I had been smoking meth now for a little while, not every day but on and off. At that time it was a party drug, and I was pretty much partying three to four days a week."

She continued, "I was sitting there watching this pipe passed around, and the universe—God—whoever you call it, game me this moment and I saw everyone. I saw everybody sitting opposite me with complete clarity of what my future looked like. Here I was at 17-years-old, watching twenty-somethings, and maybe even thirty-somethings, passing around this crack pipe, just waiting to get a little bit more out of it."

In looking at what could be her future, Sharna saw just how far she'd strayed from her original path.

"I realized that I had come from being an Australian champion ballroom dancer. I represented my country at the World Championships," she explained. "I was an athlete, the best in the country at the time. And because of a knee injury, I fell off. But I realized how far I'd fell and how much I needed to get back to that person, that this was not what I was meant for. And that was where it all changed for me."

And it helped her recommit to dance. 

"I understood, I needed dance back in my life," she continued, explaining she also moved to Melbourne in an effort to remove herself from the unhealthy environment. "And that was where I was so thankful because the 'what now' was dance for me. I knew I needed to get back into that, and thankfully I had that to guide me through."

And ultimately, that led her to Dancing with the Stars, with her becoming a pro on the show during season 16.

Later, Brian—with whom Sharna shares 14-month-old son Zane—asked his fiancée if she'd ever tried to seek treatment before then. And despite experiencing a few scary moments, she said drugs were the solution for the triggers in her life. 

"I was very, very uncomfortable in my reality, so I would escape to this place of euphoria," she explained, later adding, "Eventually the things I would take to get to that place of euphoria weren't strong enough or enough and I do more and have more and more often. And that was the slippery slope for me."