Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of addiction, substance abuse and suicidal ideation.
‘Jersey Shore’ star Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is opening up about the mental health and substance abuse issues he battled this year before getting sober with the help of the plant-based medication Ibogaine.
As The Ashley told you last month, Ronnie revealed in an Instagram post that he’s been sober from drugs and alcohol for four months. The 40-year-old credits his sobriety to an organization called “Beond,” which provides “medically supervised Ibogaine treatment for people living with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and chemical dependency, with physician oversight, continuous cardiac monitoring, and structured preparation and aftercare.”
“It’s been 4 months,” Ronnie told fans last month. “I haven’t had to take any depression meds, anxiety, bipolar and touched a drink or drug. Never too late to start over. My journey starts now!”
Six months before Ronnie shared his sobriety news, concerns for his health and wellbeing were raised by fans after the reality star was seen closing his eyes, nodding off and leaning forward during a cast interview with ‘Stars on Sirius.’ Ronnie later explained that his behavior during the interview was simply his response to medication he was taking for his mental health issues. (You can watch a clip from the interview below.)
On the latest episode of ‘The Journey’ podcast, Ronnie shared more details about the “episode” that happened earlier this year, while revealing that he was severely struggling with depression at the time.
“It was dark, man,” Ronnie said. “It really was, because I’ve always battled the addiction, but it was always like, I still enjoyed life, you know? I still f**king enjoyed life, I love my daughter, I f**king would go on vacation, I love to work, and then the depression kicked in, and then the addiction on top of it and it was just like, f**king game over … .”
Despite what the public suspected at the time, Ronnie maintains that he “was not high during that interview.” However, he admits that his drug use did resume after receiving so much backlash from the viral moment.
“My drug of choice was always cocaine, so for me to be high in an interview, I wouldn’t have been nodding out,” he explained. “Like, I really was suffering with depression, and my medication … I would miss days so it would take extra days for it to [get back on track] … and then, yes, after that happened, I started to do drugs again, because it was like, f**k, I feel shameful now. I feel even more depressed. I let myself down. I let my friends down, I let my daughter down.”
Ronnie said he began to “numb” himself from the pain he was feeling every day, but eventually, the things he was doing to numb himself stopped working. It was then, he explained, that he made the decision to seek treatment at Beond.
“ … I was like, I’m gonna reach out to these [Beond] people in Mexico and I’m gonna try this ibogaine, because it was like that or I was gonna kill myself, dude,” Ronnie revealed. “Like, I was Googling ways to, like, take my own life.
“ … every day I would wake up and it’s like, I don’t want to do this anymore, you know?” he continued. “And it’s like, but why? We have such a great life and we have so many blessings and you could keep saying that to yourself all you want, but there’s just something inside of you that’s just not listening, it’s not connecting.”
Ronnie said he did his research before going into the program and was “so hopeful” that it would work for him based on the information he found online. As it turns out, the experience exceeded his expectations.
“I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it wasn’t for it, honestly,” Ronnie revealed on the podcast.
FYI, according to CNN, Ibogaine is a psychoactive compound made from the roots of an African shrub with anti-addiction properties that reduce cravings. It is also believed to help with mental health issues. It is illegal to prescribe or possess in the United Staes, but is available in Mexico.
Last month on social media, Ronnie defended his decision to use Ibogaine, insisting to a fan on Instagram that he didn’t “trade one drug for another,” due to the fact that, “Ibogaine isn’t a drug.”
“You don’t take ibogaine and go run around in the woods with your friends,” Ronnie wrote. “You go in with a purpose and come out with results. It’s not legal in America because they can’t monetize it yet. What happens to the rehab business if they introduce a medicine that works. That means no more rehabs charging insurance outrageous prices, no more pumping patients full of medication so that affects the big pharmaceutical companies. Ketamine was a Schedule 1 drug now it’s used for depression legally … .
“[Ibogaine] isn’t something [you] enjoy,” he continued. “It’s not a weekend trip to burning man. There’s people in there that are 1 day away from taking their lives. [Then] when they are done they are ready to take on the world again. Ibogaine works on your brain for 3-4 months. There’s no drug that does that. Rehabs are a way to keep the person sick so they have to keep coming back. The average person has to go to rehab 4-7 times to get clean. And you still leave sick. [Your] brain is still broken, [you’re] depending on meds and you’re living in fear every day bc nothing changed except detoxing [your] body. The disease is in your brain.”
You can watch a clip from Ronnie’s interview on ‘The Journey’ podcast below.
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(Photos: Instagram; YouTube)
