Gee Matamoros’ journey to recovery included some very dark passages. Now he travels a brighter road, and insists on enjoying life as much as possible. Fortunately for us, one of the things he enjoys most is spreading the word about SMART.
In this podcast, Gee talks about:
- How his substance misuse and poor choices landed him in a psychiatric ward
- Why his life was everything to the extreme
- Walking the tight rope of his identity and doing what he was told
- Using substances to cover and sooth impactful moments in his life
- Always running from his authentic self because it wasn’t acceptable
- Finding SMART in rehab, where he could explore other pathways to aid in his recovery
- Sleeping like a baby because of the changes he’s made in life
- How the COVID pandemic helped launch and grow the online Spanish meetings
- What he’s doing now to advocate for SMART and the Latinx community
- Recovery being a community effort – there is support everywhere
Additional resources:
- Albert Ellis Institute
- SMART NYC
- The Buddha
- Unconditional Life Acceptance (ULA) video
- Unconditional Other Acceptance (UOA) video
- Unconditional Self-Acceptance (USA) video
- The Ripple Effect of Recovery blog
- Swimming Against the Legislative Tides podcast
- SMART tools, resources, and meetings, available in Spanish
- Find Gee’s meetings
Click here to find all of SMART Recovery’s podcasts
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If you are interested in addiction recovery support, we encourage you to visit the SMART Recovery website.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you or someone you love is in great distress and considering self-harm, please call 911 for immediate help, or reach out to 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline @ 988, https://988lifeline.org/
We look forward to you joining the conversation!
*SMART Recovery reserves the right to not publish comments we consider outside our guidelines.*
I liked what Gee said about when he worked in advertising it was all about money, and now his highest values are bigger than himself. :O)
hello my name is Terry Davis and I’m interested in participating in your program I have 30 years of being a addict and now I chose to live and turnmy life around.
Hello Terry, thanks for reaching out! The best way to get started is to download the SMART Recovery app on your phone. Then you can learn about us and join a meeting. There is also a “meetings tab” on our website’s homepage where you can find a meeting to join either online or in-person. Welcome to your recovery journey!