Bell emphasizes positive decisions – The Lima News

LIMA — Matt Bell has certainly lived both a charmed and a cursed life. A graduate of St. Francis de Sales School in Toledo, Matt sought to further his education with an academic and athletic scholarship to play baseball at the University of Toledo. An athletic injury began his spiral downward. He became addicted to the pills that were prescribed to help him heal. After nine years of addiction, multiple arrests, homelessness and overdoses, Matt shed the negative influences in his life.

Today, Bell serves as the president and co-founder of Teen Recovery. He has been totally sober since 2015. He has opened treatment centers in both Lucas and Wood counties. He has developed a free 24/7 hotline so people can find treatment. Bell uses his past liabilities as assets to reach out to students to whom he speaks and to individuals and families who are suffering.

Bell started the talk by offering all the money he had in his pocket to anyone who would not blink during the entire length of his presentation. Then he had ten students stand and when called upon them, share their name and what they are going to be when they grow up. “There’s a big difference between ‘I’m going to be a doctor’ and ‘I want to be a doctor.’ Everything you guys said you’re going to be, there’s no reason why those things can’t come true. I’m telling you that every single thing that you said you can do, what you want to do, are real, achievable goals. However there are going to be countless decisions that are presented to situations that come into your life between this moment in time and the moment in time when you achieve that goal. Just one decision can stop you. My ultimate goal for this presentation is to present you with information and then, hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes so that you don’t go down the same path.”

Later Bell shared with students that “Good friends are gonna support your decisions. ‘No!’ is a complete sentence. If you don’t want to do something, you don’t need to justify why you don’t want to do something to say ‘No.’”

Bell summarized his presentation. “There’s a lot of different influences out there. So a lot of pressure is coming from a lot of different angles. So making positive decisions around a lot of different things, whether its social media, or places that you go, the friends you hang out with. It really affects your future in life and it could affect other peoples’ lives.”

Matt Bell speaks to schools students prior to the Positive Addiction Run.

Matt Bell shared his experiences with students from Catholic Schools.

Students start the Positive Addiction 5K.

School students race down the street at the beginning of the 2022 Positive Addiction Run.

Reach Dean Brown at 567-242-0409