The prevention of substance abuse needs to begin in the crib

“The prevention of substance abuse needs to begin in the crib—and even before then, in the social recognition that nothing is more important for the future of our culture than the way children develop. There has to be much more support for pregnant women. Early prenatal visits should be an opportunity not only for blood tests, physical exams, and nutritional advice but also for stress inventory in the woman’s life. All possible resources should be mobilized to help her experience a pregnancy that s emotionally, physically, and economically as stress free as possible. Employers and governments need to appreciate the crucial importance of these gestational months to the infant’s developmental well-being and, even more so, the crucial importance of the first months following birth and the first years. From any point of view—psychological, cultural, or economic—that is the most cost-effective approach. Children who are emotionally well nurtured and brought up in stable communities do not need to become addicts.” –Gabor Mate, MD, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

What is Addiction?

“What is addiction, really? It is a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.” – Alice Miller, Breaking Down the Wall of Silence

“If our society were truly to appreciate the significance of children’s emotional ties throughout the first years of life, it would no longer tolerate children growing up, or parents having to struggle, in situations that cannot possibly nourish healthy growth.” – Stanley Greenspan, MD

Their Brains Never Had a Chance.

“We know that the majority of chronically hard-core substance-dependent adults lived, as infants and children, under conditions of severe adversity that left an indelible stamp on their development. Their predisposition to addiction was programmed in their early years. Their brains never had a chance.” –Gabor Mate, MD, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous

"Its faith-based 12-step program dominates treatment in the United States. But researchers have debunked central tenets of AA doctrine and found dozens of other treatments more effective." - Gabrielle Glaser


Read it here.

“Addiction is always an attempt to soothe severe emotional suffering which is often rooted in childhood emotional loss or trauma.” - Gabor Mate

Psychic Numbing

“Psychic numbing means never having to feel anything. Refusing such anesthetization and unearthing our passions means facing our emotions, especially those that have been the most anathematized, such as rage, female pride, and self-love. In short, it entails embracing monsters. Lesbian novelist Bertha Harris tells it truly: Monsters express what ordinary people cannot: feel. Monsters are emblems of feeling in patriarchy. Monsters represent the quintessence of all that is female, and female enraged. The monster most emblematic of feeling, most communicative of female rage, is the Gorgon. Many people, consumed by fear, simply cannot meet her gaze. Others, steeped in greed, ignorance, fear, and self-loathing, quite frankly want to lose their senses. Rather than look into the Gorgon's all-seeing eye, they turn themselves to stone - that is, they become psychically numb. Yet those of us who are sick of pretending, denying, suppressing, and repressing our knowledge, our emotions, and our powers journey to her island of rock and stone and there face a laughing, welcoming, and gorgeous Gorgon. As we do, we turn not to stone, but to sentient flesh, sensual mind, and boiling blood.” - Jane Caputi; Gossips, Gorgons and Crones