What’s missing from the way we treat issues like addiction, anxiety, depression, and trauma? According to physician and author Gabor Maté, healthcare professionals too often ignore the impact of social and environmental factors in favor of a heavily biological, mostly individualized approach.
In this clip from his Networker Symposium keynote address, Maté makes the case for a more expansive, integrated form of care.
“We need to be looking more at interconnections than individuals,” Maté says. In his Networker interview, he explains the importance of taking a broader look. He explains that studies show nearly two-thirds of drug-injection use can be tied to trauma. “Not everybody who’s traumatized becomes addicted,” he says. “But I do say that everybody who becomes addicted was traumatized.”
Gabor Maté
Gabor Maté, MD, a family practitioner for over three decades, is the author of four bestselling books, including When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection and In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. His upcoming books include The Myth of Normal: Illness and Health in an Insane Culture.
