Gabor Mate

[Chickenkeev]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabor_Mat%C3%A9

Does anyone else listen to him? I've never felt as 'understood' as when i've listened to him. It sounds batshit, but what he says really makes so much sense to me. I had childhood trauma, so i suppose it's possible that what he says just suits my 'agenda', but really i don't think it's that. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts?

Yes absolutely. The danger is when people attribute all diseases/conditions to trauma/psychological suffering etc. At best it can be unhelpful and at worst downright dangerous and harmful physically and psychologically.

What exactly is 'the healing world' and does it include anyone with actual medical qualifications?

I wonder what he thinks autoimmune disease is caused by in men? I have autoimmune disease (am female).

This...

But (just speaking for myself here), i could see that my anxiety could well be a result of my upbringing. I found GM quite enlightening that way. Better than the (possibly shit?) counsellors i've been to. If it strayed into physical ailments, i think i'd be more wary and take all the drugs

The holistic healer in the video I posted is hilarious.

Utter bollocks.

It was my genetics.

I really enjoyed Gabor's work. He is brilliant in many areas and has a vast amount of experience in trauma.
I don't agree with everything he says. Just like I don't agree with everything other authors have said regarding health and illness.
Some of the information is valuable.

No one is arguing that.

But claiming genetic diseases are caused by trauma etc is quite ffrankly dangerous.

Be interested in his theory of how my DH has a predominantly female related autoimmune condition where only 1 in every 1000 sufferers will be male. He must have some pretty potential suppressed female anger going on there. No wonder he protests so much about washing up! 🤣

I don't think he sells himself as a 'healer' though? IDK what his 'title' would be tbh. But more helping people to understand themselves. No harm in that?

I'd never heard of him (or not registered it if I had) before this, but suggesting that chronic illness stems from emotional trauma sounds like absolute nonsense to me. I believe we can subconsciously talk ourselves into experiencing certain symptoms, yes, and excessive stress and heartache can certainly take a physical toll on our bodies, but most people with diseases and chronic conditions haven't experienced horrific, soul-scarring trauma, and there are biological, genetic explanations that make far more logical sense than suggesting that it's linked to the psyche.

Those of us who experience these health issues or care for someone else who does will obviously find this suggestion offensive.

I agree.
There is so much more beyond the medical model.

You cannot separate 'physical' and 'mental' illness, or 'physical' illness and 'emotional' trauma. Had there not been a Dark Ages need to appease the Church, then this mind-body dualism would not exist.

It's as nonsensical as having a split between 'liver illness' and the rest of the body.

Every thought and emotion you have is mediated by neurotransmitters and hormones - the brain is a huge excretory organ. So to believe that these do not affect your body is unscientific.

So for example, inflammatory bowel diseases are known to be related to alterations on the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis - and that is stress-mediator involvement right there.

When it comes to 'trauma' - rmemebr that children can be traumatised by things that an adult would not find traumatic, and indeed will often accept as perfectly normal. Neglectful parenting, physical punishment etc.

Not to mention possible epigenetic inheritance of trauma, which whilst not 100 per cent proven has an increasing body of evidence around it, particularly in mammals.

The biggest tragedy of this historical mind-body dualism is that people feel that to suggest an emotional/mind component to disease is to make it 'all in the mind' and thus somehow 'lesser'.

This is the last remaining 'mental health' taboo and stigma - that 'physical illness' exists with no 'mental health' component and that to suggest otherwise is an insult. Thus stigmatising using useful therapies

I don't think that's what people are disagreeing with, though.

My dd with adhd has had no trauma. This just blames parents for neurological conditions.

GM is not a holistic healer, though. He's a former longtime GP, who then worked in a palliative care unit at a hospice and in an addiction treatment centre -- he's interested in the biopsychosocial side of illness, where disease and social and psychological aspects of ill health meet, with a particular interest in trauma from his own background (Hungarian Jew born during WW2, family killed in the camps, father in a labour camp, mother had to hand him off to a stranger when he was an infant to keep him safe while she went into hiding).

I think he lost credibility with some people when he got interested in ayahuasca as an addiction treatment and the Canadian government shut down a study.

I know nothing about his interaction with Prince Harry, but I realise that is because I doubt Harry is more than some kind of tiresome royal optical illusion, and not actually real. If he were real, with the childhood and upbringing he had, quite apart from his mother's death, it would hardly be surprised if he were pretty psychologically unwell.

I am not against exploring other ideas myself. When I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affected my ability to breathe, I was terrified, and the future looked pretty grim. I didn't want to go on steroids and delayed it longer than I should have. My lungs would be in better condition had I listened to my doctors.

But I still explored other ideas, looking for answers, trying to find out if I could help myself alongside the doctors' treatments.

I am not saying anything against Gabor Mate, as I don't know enough about him. But I do know that there are many charlatans out there taking advantage of people's fear and confusion when they are ill and making big bucks out of them, while simultaneously telling us that it is the doctors that are making big bucks out of us.

It's horrible to be ill and then to add insult to injury be preyed upon as well.

Here is a useful site to check out credentials of some people you may come across. Note how many seem to be chiropractors for some reason! They often have their own range of unregulated products to sell.

Home Page | Quackwatch

You need to go quite far down the page to get to specific names. I see someone I used to think had all the answers. Joseph Mercola, who has been told to stop making illegal claims. I think he lost his youTube account because of it? He had a range of products to sell too, if I remember correctly.

NB: Once again, I am not referring to Gabor Mate particularly in this post, just the whole thing in general.

What if autoimmune disease is the switching on of a gene that you already had, but unsupressed anger or stress was ONE mechanism that could turn that gene on.
Like stress seems to make stuff worse right.

Lol I’m not saying I agree either way - just there’s a lot of stuff we don’t understand.
Like the role of prior Epstein Barr virus infection and it’s links to ME, MS, RA and Long Covid etc.

Could insulin inbalance also switch the gene on - like with something like HS which can be controlled in some cases with metformin and diet.

He absolutely does not say adhd is a result simply of parental neglect

Ive read his book on adhd and he explains its an interaction if genetic condition with specific environmental factors. He has adhd as do his children he is very clear it is genetic.

Of course its also influenced by environmental factors and parenting

He is not a quack in the slightest

What is 'the healing world' and how are type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis 'well known' to be caused by trauma? I'm interested.

@koalaknickers Lots of them are chiropractors because chiropractic is based on techniques chanelled from a dead person!

It sounds crazy, but it is true. Myles Power does a good explanation:
https://mylespower.co.uk/2019/08/11/chiropractic-quackery-hiding-in-plain-sight-2/

I was going to say similar, I am no expert but my understanding of epigenetics is that people have genetic potential for particular illnesses but then lifestyle factors can determine which genes are switched on and which are not.

To me it makes perfect sense that our emotional state causes illness, because our physical and emotional heath are inextricably linked.

Trauma doesn’t need to be a major incident, children can be significantly affected by a generally caring but often emotionally unavailable parent and this long term stress of course would affect physical and emotional health.

I haven’t read loads of Gabor Mate but I rate him, OP.

Interesting.

Off my own back, when I was diagnosed, and without being influenced by anyone else, I felt so strongly stress was at the root of my issues. I felt it instinctively in my case. Now, I will never know for sure and I "knew" something was wrong long before I was diagnosed. I had just had one of the most stressful years of my life. You know those "stress calculators" where they add up points divorce/moving/close relative dying/depression etc. I had the full house - bingo!

The doctors could not see anything wrong to begin with. Later, my issues became more advanced and my deteriorating breathing became so obvious that it couldn't be ignored any longer. I delayed taking steroids even then though, which I regret now.

I think the danger is saying that "all" autoimmune diseases are caused by stress/anxiety/trauma, and I think there are few medics/pyschologists etc who would claim that. There seems to be some evidence that some people develop some diseases because of stress/trauma etc, but that doesn't mean that every autoimmune disorder has that as its cause.

I don't think it's an "all are or none are" debate