Gabor Maté very
eloquently explains human destructive behaviors in society and to ourselves in
this short video that will awaken ones mind and bring some understanding to
ones own addictions or pain.
About: Gabor Maté
Canadian physician Gabor Maté is a specialist in terminal
illnesses, chemical dependents, and HIV positive patients. Dr. Maté is a
renowned author of books and columnist known for his knowledge about attention
deficit disorder, stress, chronic illness and parental relations. His theme at
TEDxRio+20 was addiction -- from drugs to power. From the lack of love to the
desire to escape oneself, from susceptibility of the being to interior power --
nothing escapes. And he risks a generic and generous prescription: "Find
your nature and be nice to yourself."
Life & Career
Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1944, he is a survivor of the
Nazi genocide. His maternal grandparents were killed in Auschwitz when he was
five months old, his aunt disappeared during the war, and his father endured
forced labour at the hands of the Nazis. He emigrated to Canada with his family
in 1956. He was a student radical during the Vietnam era in the late 1960s and
graduated with a B.A. from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He
worked for a few years as a high school English and literature teacher, and
later returned to school to pursue his childhood dream of being a physician.
Maté ran a private family practice in East Vancouver for
over twenty years. He was also the medical co-ordinator of the Palliative Care
Unit at Vancouver Hospital for seven years. Currently he is the staff physician
at the Portland Hotel, a residence and resource centre for the people of
Vancouver's Downtown . Many of his patients suffer from mental illness, drug
addiction and HIV, or all three. He works in harm reduction clinics in
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Most recently, he has written about his
experiences working with addicts in In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.
He made national headlines in defense of the physicians
working at Insite (a legal supervised safe injection site) after the federal
Minister of Health, Tony Clement, attacked them as unethical.
In 2010, Dr. Maté became interested in the traditional
Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca and its potential for treating addictions.
He partnered with a Peruvian Shipibo ayahuasquero (traditional shamanic healer)
and began leading multi-day retreats for addiction treatment, including ones in
a Coast Salish First Nations community that were the subject of an
observational study by health researchers from the University of Victoria and
the University of British Columbia. Although preliminary and limited by the
observational study design, the research results showed that Maté's claims of
therapeutic efficacy were well-founded and that participants had significant
improvements in some psychological measures and reductions in problematic
substance use. However, when the conservative Canadian federal government
learned about Maté's work with ayahuasca in 2011, Health Canada threatened him
with arrest if he did not immediately stop his activities with what they
claimed was a harmful illegal drug. Yet, Health Canada's own research on
ayahuasca in 2008 showed that they knew the risks associated with the
ceremonial use of the brew were very low, and that it had considerable
potential value for spiritual and self-actualizing purposes.
Writings & Views
A recurring theme in Maté's books is the impact of a
person's childhood on their mental and physical health through neurological and
psychological mechanisms, which he connects with the need for social change. In
the book In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts, he proposes new approaches to
treating addiction (e.g. safe injection sites) based on an understanding of the
biological and socio-economic roots of addiction. He describes the significant
role of "early adversity" i.e. stress, mistreatment and particularly
childhood abuse, in increasing susceptibility to addiction. This happens
through the impairment of neurobiological development, impairing the brain
circuitry involved in addiction, motivation and incentive. He argues the "war
on drugs" actually punishes people for having been abused and entrenches
addiction more deeply as studies show that stress is the biggest driver of
addictive relapse and behavior. He says a system that marginalizes, ostracizes
and institutionalizes people in facilities with no care and easy access to
drugs, only worsens the problem. He also argues the environmental causes of
addiction point to the need to improve child welfare policies (e.g. U.S.
welfare laws that force many single women to find low-paying jobs far away from
home and their children) and the need for better support for families overall,
as most children in North America are now away from their parents from an early
age due to economic conditions. He feels that society needs to change policies that
disadvantage certain minority groups, causing them more stress and therefore
increased risks for addictions.
The impact of childhood adversity is also noted in When the
Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection. He notes that early
experiences have a key role in shaping a person's perceptions of the world and
others, and in stress physiology, factors that affect the person's health later
on. He says that emotional patterns ingrained in childhood live in the memory
of cells and the brain and appear in interpersonal interactions. He describes
the impact of 'adverse childhood experiences' or ACEs (e.g. a child being
abused, violence in the family, a jailed parent, extreme stress of poverty, a
rancorous divorce, an addict parent, etc.) on how people live their lives and
their risk of addiction and mental and physical illnesses, as seen in a number
of U.S.-based Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies. Having a number of
ACEs exponentially increases a person's chances of becoming an addict later on
e.g. a male child with six ACEs has a 4,600% or 46-fold increase in risk. ACEs
also exponentially increase the risk of diseases e.g. cancer, high blood
pressure, heart disease, etc. and also suicide and early death.
He argues that patients should therefore be encouraged to
explore their childhoods and the impact on their adult behaviors. Overall, he
argues people benefit by taking a holistic approach to their own health. For
instance, he has seen people survive supposedly terminal diagnoses by seriously
considering their "mind-body unity" and "spiritual unity";
going beyond "the medical model of treatment."
He has also spoken about how the rise in bullying, ADHD and
other mental disorders in American children are the result of current societal
conditions e.g. a disconnected society and "the loss of nurturing,
non-stressed parenting." That is, we live in a society where for the first
time in history, children are spending most of their time away from nurturing
adults. He asserts that nurturing adults are necessary for healthy brain
development.
Books
Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of
Attention Deficit Disorder, Toronto, Canada, A.A. Knopf Canada, 1999 (published
in the United States as Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can
Do About It).
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress, Toronto,
Canada, A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003 (published in the United States as When the
Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection).
Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than
Peers, co-authored with developmental psychologist Gordon Neufeld, Toronto,
Canada, A.A. Knopf Canada, 2004.
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with
Addiction, Toronto, Canada, A.A. Knopf Canada, 2008
Gabor Maté – Official
Website
http://drgabormate.com/Additional Links:
Dr. Gabor
Maté ~ Who We Are When We Are Not Addicted: The Possible Human
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLki68uLfjwDr. Gabor Mate on how addiction changes the brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ-FAX4Pz8I
Gabor Mate on The Human Face of Addictive Behaviour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oivcav-voqw
When the Body Says No -- Caring for ourselves while caring for others. Dr. Gabor Maté
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6IL8WVyMMs
Gabor Mate with Rebekah Demirel, Seattle, May 16, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-BPKBnT8sk
