In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts PDF

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!1 of !3 In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

- Gabor Mate • Born in 1944 in Budapest, Hungary • Relatives traumatized by the Holocaust • Emigrated to Canada in 1956 with his family • Student radical during the 1960s • Started career as literature teacher • Recurring themes in his work include focuses on early childhood adversity, calls for social and cultural change, and explorations of his own struggles with mental health

- Works at the Portland Hotel in a neighborhood in Vancouver that is facing a lot of disinvestment and is home to a lot of homeless

- Chapters 1-3: Vision of Treatment • “What makes the Portland model unique and controversial among addiction services is the

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core intention to accept people as they are - no matter how dysfunctional, troubled, and troubling they may be.” Chapter 1 - The policies and treatments in place for those with addictions put forward a sort fo definition of what addiction is in the yes of those creating in the policies/treatments. What definitions or theirs about addition do the Portland Hotel program reflect? • Shows respect for the human person - allows people to make that decision for themselves • Weren’t necessarily trying to fix their patients but instead trying to be in relationships with them and hear their stories What seems to be motivating people to work at the Portland Hotel? - Patients can tell if doctors genuinely care about their well being or if they just want them out the door • People are there because they genuinely care - You get to see the results of what you are doing when it is occurring • Doctors generally want to be doctors because they want to help people - Sometimes it is hard for even individuals to know what their personal motivations are “Like patterns in a tapestry, recurring themes emerge in my interviews with addicts: the fraud as emotional anesthetic; as an antidote to a frightening feeling of emptiness; as a tonic against fatigue, boredom, alienation, and a sense of personal inadequacy; as a stress reliever and social lubricant.” Chapter 2 - Why does Mate provide so many life narratives and anecdotes of his patients? • Stories give you something to latch onto - Every reader can related to at least on story • Humanizes the stereotypical addicts - Does the repetitive nature of their stories have some king of effect on the reader • Chapter 2 is impressive because you hear so many stories about death that they build on each other • Shows trials and reputations so it adds credibility to whatever argument he makes “I asked 57 year old Richard, an addict since his teens why he kept using. ‘I don’t know, I’m just trying to fill the void,’ he replied” Chapter 3

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- The term “void” is used in the book to describe the feeling of emptiness people feel.

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What might this void represent from a psychological standpoint? • Lack of ambition or purpose - They might feel like they don’t have much going for them - What typically fills peoples “voids”? • Substance abuse • People can also use exercise or other people • Everyone fills their void in a different way - Roxane Gay filled her void with food • Some people might be able to fill their void by being passionate, but others are not which can lead to addition - Everybody has a void but some people can fill it with family (etc.) but other people aren’t quite so lucky • “Hello my name if Gabor and I am a compulsive classical music shopper”. Chapter 9 - How does this chapter help us understand Mate’s theories about addiction an human nature? Mate’s Theory of Addiction • “The question is never, ‘Why the addiction?’ But ‘Why the pain?’ “ • Nature vs. Nurture - He focuses almost exclusively on nurture • What is creating the void in these people Mate’s Theory of Addiction: Etiology • Early childhood trauma - Obesity, heart disease, almost anything can be linked to early childhood trauma • Gene-environment iteration (Epigenetics) - He sees as the future of medicine - Licking rats study • One group of rats that the mothers licked their young and were nurturing • In the other group the mothers tended not to do these behaviors as much • Studied the genes and found that it changed certain ways that their genes were presented - If children aren’t just learning but also having their genes impacted • Dopamine and addiction - Dopamine rush when you do things that are pleasurable - Low dopamine levels=predisposition • Correlated with people who had lots of early childhood trauma • People with low dopamine levels are likely to develop addictions - Once you have gotten a huge rush of dopamine your body has trouble creating it afterwards - His theory is that the playing field isn’t fair • Some people start of with really low dopamine levels which makes them crave something to raise their levels Addiction: Diathesis-Stress Model

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• Diathesis - Early childhood experience - Biological predisposition - Other mental illness • Stress - “Pain” - These people are not pleasure seeking they are trying to self-medicate - Defining the Addictive Process • Compulsive engagement with the behavior • Impaired control over the behavior • Persistence/relapse despite evidence of harm • Dissatisfaction, irritability, or intense craving when the object is not immediately available...