"I was just making the wrong decisions and I was very depressed."
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is opening up about his time in rehab.
The 33-year-old Jersey Shore star tells Us Weekly that he sought treatment for depression and alcohol abuse at HeadWaters Origins treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida. He stayed in the center for a month, departing on Feb. 10.
"My state of mind when I went in, I was just very depressed, just very angry, resentful to myself about a lot of things that I've done over the last year, or even years." he admits. "... I'm not really proud of a lot of stuff... I was definitely in a place where I just didn't know how to control my life anymore."
A large part of his decision to seek help came from wanting "to be a better person" and a "better father" for his 10-month-old daughter, Ariana.
"I decided to go to treatment because... I was just making the wrong decisions and I was very depressed," he says. "And when I was depressed I would turn to drinking and then when I would drink, bad things would just continue to happen because I wasn't reacting the way I should."
“Eventually, all the bad decisions I was making were going to lead me to places that I didn’t want to be," he adds. "I wanted to be led to the place that I am now -- that’s happy, healthy and the best role model for my daughter.”
Ortiz-Magro decided to go to treatment after drinking on-and-off for years.
"I would drink and then I wouldn't drink. You know, I would work out, get healthy when we were filming or travelling and then all of the sudden you start up again and it's worse than when you stopped," he reveals. "And then you stop and you start up again and it's worse than when you stopped. And you're just like, 'Wow. I thought I had this under control.' But at the end of the day, it has full control over you."
Ortiz-Magro says he's "still struggling" with the "chronic... progressive disease."
"I'm going to struggle for the rest of my life. It's a monkey that's on your back and it's never going to get off. You know, it pops its head in, eats the banana in front of you and is like, 'Alright, what do you want to do today?'" he says.
Ortiz-Magro's stint in rehab came just after he and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jen Harley, had relationship drama, eventually involving the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Last month, the LVMPD told ET that Ortiz-Magro is a person of interest in an alleged break-in at Harley's home. According to police, on Jan. 1 at approximately 2:15 a.m., patrol officers responded to a residence in response to a report of a possible burglary and destruction of property.
Upon arrival, officers learned that the victim had an argument with her boyfriend at a club prior to her getting home. Officers observed that several items in the home were damaged including a television and picture frames. Officers could not locate any forced entry and it is unknown if the victim’s boyfriend is the suspect. The case remains under investigation.
Following the alleged break-in, a LVMPD spokesperson told ET that a man came to a LVMPD substation to file a battery domestic violence report against his girlfriend. According to the man, the alleged battery occurred on December 31, 2018, at approximately 11:43 p.m. inside of a business located on the 6000 block of Dean Martin Drive. The alleged battery is currently being investigated by detectives.
While the police could not confirm it was the Jersey Shore star, multiple reports confirmed that it was in fact Ortiz-Magro.
Watch the video below for more on Ortiz-Magro and Harley:
RELATED CONTENT:
