Achille Costacurta, 21 years old, son of former footballer Billy Costacurta and actress Martina Colombari, has decided to get completely naked. Guest of Luca Casadei’s “One More Time” podcast, he told without filters his journey through addictions, diagnosis of ADHD, TSO, a suicide attempt and the difficult climb back towards the light.
A raw story, at times unsettling, but which today transforms into a testimony of strength and rebirth.
“They wanted to fail me for my behavior, then I discovered ADHD”
Achilles starts from the beginning, when no one yet understood what was behind his restlessness:
“In eighth grade they didn’t admit me to the behavior exam. In high school they kicked me out after three months. They hadn’t yet diagnosed me with ADHD. I only discovered it in May last year, in a clinic in Switzerland. They had already understood everything: ‘you wanted to self-medicate with drugs’”.
After the diagnosis, therapy and Ritalin changed everything:
“In the first month I read books in two hours, I wrote fifty pages on the computer. My parents took a course to understand how to help me, and from there our relationship changed from this to this. Before, I broke doors, now it doesn’t happen anymore. They learned to say ‘no’ to me in the right way.”
“Seven TSOs and a destroyed body. But in Switzerland they saved me”
The hardest part comes when he talks about mandatory health treatments:
“I started smoking at 13, at 18 I tried mescaline. Once, under the influence, I had a scuffle with the police. Then they gave me the first TSO. Seven in total. In Milan they tied me to the bed for three days. I couldn’t even ask to go to the bathroom. I peed on myself.”
Then the clinic in Switzerland, the turning point:
“They told me: ‘If you had been out for another ten days you would have died, your heart was beating at 150’. But there they gave me a real choice: ‘If you want to do drugs, go. If you want help, stay here.’ They made me change my life. I don’t do drugs anymore, and I will thank them forever.”
“At 15 I tried to die”
The most touching story concerns the attempted suicide:
“They arrested me at 15 and a half years old for drug dealing. In the therapeutic community I couldn’t stand it anymore. One night I took the keys to the infirmary and drank seven bottles of methadone. The firefighters broke down the door and saved me. No doctor understood how I survived: the equivalent of seven bottles is 40 grams of heroin. People die with one.”
“I only saw my father cry once”
Behind Achilles’ suffering, that of his parents:
“My mother cried a lot. I only saw my father cry once, when they took me away. When they depotted me, I no longer felt emotions. I asked to be allowed to be euthanized. There I saw him cry, and I will never forget it.”
But also moments of hope:
“When I left the clinic he came to pick me up. There was a double rainbow. I cried with happiness and told him: ‘Did you see that we did it? Even heaven tells us so. It was one of the best moments of my life.”
“Now I’m proud of myself, and I want to help others”
Today Achille is a different boy: aware, grateful, determined to transform pain into something useful.
“I’m proud of myself. I’m no longer ashamed of what I’ve experienced. I’ve learned not to forget traumas, but to treasure them. Excesses make you understand what really matters.”
He has a clear dream: to create centers for children with disabilities.
“The only people who make me feel pure joy are kids with Down syndrome. I want to create places for them, with horses, hippotherapy, dogs, the sea. Even for those who are still discriminated against or killed in certain countries. I want to help them.”
A life lesson
The story of Achille Costacurta is not just that of a “son of” who got into trouble and then redeemed. It is the photograph of a profound discomfort that affects an entire generation: kids who grow up in a world where social pressure, the search for perfection and the lack of listening push them to seek relief in the worst ways.
Achilles was labeled “problematic” when in reality he was just a boy who was asking for help in the wrong way. Today, looking back, it shows that awareness is the only true form of freedom: understanding what’s happening inside you, recognizing your suffering and facing it instead of running away from it.
His words are not the usual “rebirth story”, but an uncomfortable testimony that serves to remind us that mental health is neither a luxury nor a trend, it is a necessity. And that often those who fall are not weak, but simply have not found an environment that understands them.
We live in a country where even today those who go to the psychologist are judged, where TSO is seen as a shame, where drugs are talked about only in terms of scandal and not of pain.
But what Achille tells is a powerful message: no one is irrecoverable.
People change if they are listened to.
Its rebirth is an invitation not to look the other way, not to reduce fragilities to gossip or curiosity. Because behind every story like his there are destroyed families, endless nights, and kids who cling to anything to feel something.
Today Achille no longer wants to “run away” from himself, but to use his voice for those who don’t have one. And in doing so he reminds us that true courage is not being perfect, but having the courage to look yourself in the face, accept your scars and decide to live anyway.
“I’m proud of myself,” he says.
And this time it’s not a cover phrase, but the most honest conclusion he could give.
