Gabor Mate - Miami - A wonderful night of addiction science

Josh and I were able to get away for a rare mid-week night out, to see Gabor Mate speak. We had made these reservations months in advance, and were thrilled to finally listen to the author. His work has certainly shaped the way we see addiction, and assist clients in healing. Here are the most salient notes and quotes from the talk.

Here are 20+ of the most salient points and powerful quotes extracted from the text, which is a transcript of a talk by Dr. Gabor Maté on trauma, chronic illness, emotional repression, and healing:

Salient Core Points:

1. Mind-Body Unity:
   “It’s all one. Our biology is inseparable from our psychology, from our emotions, and from our social relationships.”

2. Medical Blind Spots:
   “Thousands of studies show the role of emotions in potentiated illness, and yet medical schools still don’t teach it.”

3. Historic Wisdom:
   “In 1939, a Harvard physician declared that emotional and psychological factors are as important as physical ones in the causation of illness—and must be treated as such.”

4. PTSD and Physical Illness:
   “Women with severe PTSD had double the risk of ovarian cancer. The milder the PTSD, the lower the risk.”

5. Parental Stress Impacts Children’s Health:
   “The emotional states of the parents affect the physiology of the child—even before birth.”

6. Racism and Disease:
   “The more episodes of racism a Black person experiences, the greater the risk for asthma and other chronic illnesses.”

7. Treatment Contradictions:
   “We treat inflammation with stress hormones. Shouldn’t we ask whether stress had something to do with the disease in the first place?”

8. Autoimmune Conditions and Gender:
   “80% of all autoimmune disease sufferers are women. That’s not genetic—it’s social and emotional.”

9. Attachment vs. Authenticity:
   “As children, we often have to choose between attachment and authenticity—and we will always choose attachment for survival.”

10. Disease and Personality Traits:
    “People with chronic illness often share traits like emotional repression, people-pleasing, and over-identification with roles.”

11. Suppressed Emotions Cause Disease:
    “Repression of healthy anger suppresses the immune system. Emotional suppression is not benign—it makes you sick.”

12. Multiple Personality and Physiology:
    “People with dissociative identity disorder can have different immune responses, allergies, even brain waves depending on the personality state.”

13. Illness is Not the Person’s Fault:
    “I’m not blaming people for their illness. These are not conscious choices—they are adaptive patterns rooted in trauma.”

14. Mental Illness as Adaptation:
    “Depression isn’t a disease—it’s the pushing down of emotions. ADHD is a tuning out response to overwhelming stress.”

15. Addiction is a Response to Pain:
    “Don’t ask why the addiction—ask why the pain. Addiction is a response to trauma and a desire to feel normal or in control.”

16. Healing Through Compassion:
    “Only when compassion is present will people allow themselves to see the truth.”

17. The Body Keeps the Score:
    “The nervous system, immune system, and emotional system are not separate—they are one survival apparatus.”

18. Cultural and Racial Impact:
    “Black and Indigenous women have dramatically higher rates of illness—not due to genes, but due to stress, oppression, and trauma.”

19. Emotions and the Immune System Share a Function:
    “Both let in the good and keep out the bad. Suppress one, and you compromise the other.”

20. Healing is Possible:
    “People can reverse chronic illness not with a magic cure, but by developing a new relationship with themselves.”

21. Final Plea:
    “The greatest stress in modern society is trying to be something that you’re not—so for God’s sake, just be yourself.”

Selected Quotes (Verbatim or Closely Paraphrased):

• “To talk about mind-body medicine at Harvard is to jeopardize your career.”

• “People go to doctors for reasons that have to do with the questions doctors never ask.”

• “This automatic regard for others’ emotional needs while ignoring your own is a major risk factor for illness.”

• “She had no ego. She just blended into the environment. That’s not a virtue—that’s emotional suppression.”

• “Healthy anger is essential for life. Without it, the immune system suffers.”

• “To be a Black American is to live in a state of suppressed rage.” — quoting James Baldwin

• “Kids who lose their gut feelings in childhood will regret it as adults—but it was never a choice.”

• “You can have attachment or authenticity—but not both. And children will always choose attachment.”

• “The immune system is the same system as the emotional and nervous systems. It’s all one.”

• “Depression is not a brain disease—it’s a suppression of emotion.”

• “What’s right about addiction? It provides relief, connection, control. Wonderful things. That’s why people use.”

• “There is nothing spontaneous about spontaneous healing. These people changed their relationship with themselves.”

• “A woman in an abusive relationship isn't choosing abuse. She’s reenacting attachment patterns learned in childhood.”

• “Emotional expression is not a luxury—it’s a necessity for life and health.”

• “I’m addicted to looking forward to life now.” — video testimonial from a death row inmate named Howard

• “It’s not about being ‘woke.’ It’s about what the science shows.”