Ronnie Costa joins The Shane Vitko Podcast for a brutally honest conversation about what happens when the streets raise you, violence becomes currency, and survival turns into a full-time identity.

Ronnie grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, surrounded by mob culture, reputation, and a pressure cooker standard of what it meant to be a man. He talks about chasing respect, earning a name, and how crime became his first addiction long before drugs ever showed up.

Then OxyContin hit New England, and everything shifted. What started as an escape turned into a trap. Ronnie explains why he says opiates “saved” his life at first, because getting strung out kept him out of the neighborhood and away from the violence that was going to get him killed. But that same escape turns into heroin, the needle, losing everything, and sleeping wherever he could to make it through the night.

This episode isn’t about glamorizing any of it. It’s about the lie that you’re still in control, the moment the runway runs out, and what it takes to rebuild when your life is already labeled a liability.

We get into shame, identity, the tough guy mask, relapses, and why moving 3,500 miles away actually mattered for him, not as a magic fix, but because he finally did the inner work too. Ronnie also breaks down what he’s seen in the treatment industry, why ethics matter, and why he refuses to “babysit” clients just to keep a check coming.

If you’ve ever felt like your life sentence is already written, this episode is for you.

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