Why do you think this chasm between medicine and science exists, and why might people be hesitant to accept this information?Ī. You allude to the fact that many doctors and addiction specialists don’t incorporate research about brain development during early childhood into treatment practice even though new research shows that the emotional experience of children and babies (even in utero) can actually cause or prevent addictive tendencies. In many respects we behave in a driven fashion that differs from the desperation of the drug addict only in degree. This sense of lack and this belief feed many addictive behaviors, from shopping to eating to workaholism. We have the belief that if we do this or acquire that, if we achieve this or attain that, we’ll be satisfied. Much of our culture and our economy are based on exploiting people’s sense of emptiness and inadequacy, of not being enough as we are.
In what ways is our culture trapped in this realm? What can society learn from drug addicts who take the feelings of lack that everyone has, to the extreme?Ī. In the Hungry Ghost Realm, people feel empty and seek solace from the outside, from sources that can never nourish. The title of your book has its origins in the Buddhist Wheel of Life. In the following interview, Gabor Maté, MD discusses his work in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with patients challenged by hard-core drug addiction, mental illness and HIV, and sheds light on the motivations behind his book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. Gabor Mate Posted by Talia Shapiro – April 08, 2014 Once we recognize the roots of addiction and the lack it strives (in vain) to fill, we can develop a compassionate approach toward the addict, one that stands the best chance of restoring him or her to wholeness and health.Genes Do Not Cause or Maintain Addictions, Says Dr. Helping the addicted individual requires that we appreciate the function of the addiction in his or her life. Stress, both then and later in life, creates the predisposition for addictions, whether to drugs, alcohol, nicotine or to behavioral addictions such as shopping or sex. Contrary to what is often claimed, the source of addictions is not to be found in genes, but in the early childhood environment where the neurobiology of the brain’s reward pathways develops and where the emotional patterns that lead to addiction are wired into the unconscious. In his recent bestselling book In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts, he draws on cutting-edge science to illuminate where and how addictions originate and what they have in common. Maté was the staff physician at a clinic for drug-addicted people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where he worked with patients challenged by hard-core drug addiction, mental illness, and HIV, including at Vancouver Supervised Injection Site.
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