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Gabor Mate

@gabor-mate · 4 positions · 0 changes of mind

Physician and author on addiction, stress and childhood development. Wrote In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and The Myth of Normal, and developed the Compassionate Inquiry approach.

Everything they publish, on ppll ↗

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  1. Childhood trauma is the template for every addiction, including the socially rewarded ones.

    Childhood trauma is the template for addiction-any addiction. All addictions are attempts to escape the deep pain of the hurt child, attempts temporarily soothing but ultimately futile.

    BEYOND DRUGS: The Universal Experience of Addictiondrgabormate.com

    TraumaAddiction

  2. Addiction is neither a choice nor an inherited disease, but a response to pain: the question is not why the addiction, but why the pain.

    It is time to realize, then, addiction is neither a choice nor an inherited disease, but a psychological and physiological response to painful life experiences.

    BEYOND DRUGS: The Universal Experience of Addictiondrgabormate.com

    Addiction

  3. Treating an addiction without treating the pain underneath it is treating an effect rather than a cause.

    to treat the addiction, which is a symptom, without treating the pain that underlies it is to deal in effects rather than in causes, and therefore dooms many to ongoing cycles of suffering

    BEYOND DRUGS: The Universal Experience of Addictiondrgabormate.com

    Addiction

  4. Trauma is not confined to terrible events: a child whose parents were too stressed or distracted to see them has been traumatized too.

    But trauma is not restricted to horrific experiences. It refers to any set of events that, over time, impose more pain on the child than his or her sensitive organism can process and discharge.

    BEYOND DRUGS: The Universal Experience of Addictiondrgabormate.com

    Trauma