Q&A: Meet Tela Gallagher Mathias, who advocates for recovery with both her story and resources
This was originally published for Hazelden Betty Ford’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive our advocacy emails, subscribe today.
March will mark the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also will mark two years of recovery for Tela Gallagher Mathias. Just days before the world shut down to limit spread of the coronavirus, Tela reached out for help, began a residential treatment experience, and initiated her recovery. While many have struggled amid the pandemic, she has found healing and is now spreading hope to others by sharing her personal story and also investing in the mission of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
Tela, who lives in Maryland, says her goals are to inspire more shame-free help-seeking by making recovery more visible, and to expand access to world-class medicine, care and support — especially through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. She and her company PhoenixTeam, which provides technology solutions for the mortgage industry, are financially supporting many DEI priorities at Hazelden Betty Ford. Tela says she is inspired not only by her own recovery but by the advocacy of her late mother, who was plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case that in 1989 won equal protections for women in the workplace. The case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, is a frequently cited precedent in cases of employment discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community.
Q: What does recovery look like for you, and how has it empowered different aspects of your life?
Recovery continues to be the most important thing in my life. I avoid people, places, things and situations that could compromise my sobriety. For now, I still avoid restaurants, airplanes, airports, hotels and people who use. I take my medications, I work a recovery program, I work with a therapist, I work with others who are in or seeking recovery. The cornerstone of my recovery program is acceptance. Learning to accept the world as it is, people as they are, and circumstances as they are has freed me from the daily struggle. The only things I can control are my attitude, my actions and how I show up. When I stick to that, I can be much more effective.
Q: You and your company support Hazelden Betty Ford’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and we are deeply grateful for that. Why do you feel it’s so important to financially bolster the DEI work within Hazelden Betty Ford? And why is now the right time to do it?
Addiction is a family killer, community killer, and dream killer. I have a level of financial privilege that fewer than 1% of people have, and that privilege gave me access to medicine and care that should be standard for any person who needs it — regardless of socioeconomic status. Sadly, without a lot of money and/or good insurance benefits, treatment and recovery are far less accessible and attainable, and that’s just unacceptable. We also see far too many disparities in outcomes and access to quality, culturally relevant care for underserved populations, including people of color and the LGBTQIA+ community. Now is the time because why not now? Have we not suffered long enough? Have our families and communities not struggled enough already? Unfortunately, the world-class care and recovery medicine available at Hazelden Betty Ford is simply not available to all who need it — I want to change that.
Q: What does it mean for you to share your recovery with others?
I am visible and outspoken about being in recovery because I can be. And because I can be, I must be. So many live with stigma and shame about addiction and the perception that it’s a moral failing or the belief that, because I have addiction, I am “less than.” I share my recovery journey to try to give a voice to those who cannot. To reduce the stigma. To hopefully let just one other person know that they are not alone.
