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?

I'm due a blood test next week to check levels, I tend to vary between 150 and 200, not sure why it varies but I know when it is too low and I'm pretty sure it is right at the moment so not expecting any changes this time. I have more energy than I had 20 years ago, I'm 70 by the way. While I was waiting to be diagnosed, i.e. while GP was insisting I was depressed, I was exhausted all the time. I can remember going to the supermarket and had to recline the car seat and sleep for a while before I could drive home, 10 minutes away. Now I can do a 400 mile round trip to visit a relative in a care home. Quite a difference.

I hope everything is going well with you, one thing worth noting is the advice to take tablets first thing and nothing to eat or drink for at least 30 minutes. If I slip up with that one I really notice the difference.

@Iwasafool thank you I appreciate that. I have other conditions eg crohns, short bowel syndrome and I had no visible lump so the thyroid cancer came as a shock. They very much downplayed it until my results came
Back and it had spread to my lymph nodes. I had long (11 hour) operation to get it all out. Am still having treatment.

I find the levo stuff quite odd as a lot of my symptoms could be explained by other things. I do find the exhaustion difficult and need to keep on top of B12 injections too.

Thanks for your advice about when to take it.

He keeps popping up on my YouTube recommendations, but I get very strong Jordan Peterson vibes from him.
Funny you’d say that as a number of times I sold books by both together but then both are always pretty much charting

I think he's a bit of a misogynist tbh

Lots of parent (mother) blaming for disabililities etc

Where in my post did I say illnesses should not be treated? You are misrepresenting and misinterpreting my point. Modern medicine should be used where appropriate, simultaneously with a holistic approach, where that is also appropriate. And also note my use of the word "many illnesses" rather than "all illnesses".

I follow Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle, he is an expert of childhood trauma and a survivor himself and I feel like he is describing the inside of my head when I read his posts!

So while looking for the root cause what do you do about the symptoms and how do you decide when you look for the root cause and when you actually treat the symptoms in front of you?

Forgive my scepticism but I went through hell with my symptoms being ignored due to my non existent depression, even worse for @Stomacharmeleon of course when symptoms of cancer were ignored.

There are a lot of studies showing that stress and trauma may be one factor in triggering autoimmune diseases that also have a genetic component, which from what i have read is all that Mate claims. Understandable that some people who have encountered the more extreme and unscientific stronger claim that all physical illnesses are the result of thinking the wrong thoughts are sensitive to the topic though. And maybe some of the woo-er end twist what he says. I only know his work on addiction, which I find very wise and humane.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2685155

Sorry to hear your situation was not great but it just sounds like your Dr was not good enough.

A "holistic" approach means everything should be looked at simultaneously - medical symptoms thoroughly checked out and tested, and treated where appropriate, whilst also looking at lifestyle, background, current and historic issues etc. And yes I do believe that it is important to treat illnesses as they are diagnosed rather than waiting to look into all the other stuff. Why shouldn't these both these sides of the coin be looked at simulataneously?

From a personal perspective having had loads of issues and been waved out the door by Drs it's been in reverse. I've had to do my own healing of my own conditions (autoimmune stuff like alopecia, yellow sweat, not being able to walk properly, functional neurological disorder and many other horrible stuff) having had them minimised and waved out the door by GPs offering sweet FA. Pursuing my own therapy, lifestyle changes, trauma approach etc has been the only thing that has helped as GPs have been precisely zero help to me.

for anyone interested in reading further on the mind body effect I highly recommend this book by Bessel Van der Kolk all backed up with scientific studies and decades of research:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748

"Bessel van der Kolk (born 1943) is a Boston based psychiatrist noted for his research in the area of post-traumatic stress since the 1970s. His work focuses on the interaction of attachment, neurobiology, and developmental aspects of trauma’s effects on people. His major publication, the New York Times bestseller, 'The Body keeps the Score', talks about how the role of trauma in psychiatric illness has changed over the past 20 years; what we have learned about the ways the brain is shaped by traumatic experiences; how traumatic stress is a response of the entire organism and how that knowledge needs be integrated into healing practices."
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The autoimmune/childhood connection as a contributory factor is interesting to me. I will explore this, as I had quite a bit of childhood trauma. I know my childhood has hampered me in life, but I only know that with hindsight. As a young adult, I made some awful decisions and didn't realise what a low self-esteem I had and how that had come about. The fact that this could also have contributed to my illness is an eyeopener for me.

I liked his book the scattered mind - his take imv was that adhd is genetic but how it manifests itself can be affected by childhood so siblings can have same genes but different childhood due to parental health/divorce etc

However his views are unproven by scientific testing so not accepted by the establishment.

I’d be surprised if U.K. GPs diagnosed childhood trauma as a cause if anything - there’s never time to go anywhere near trauma etc in life - it’s just a quick diagnosis of symptoms.

My experience was it is much easier to say "depression" than to do a blood test and find out what is actually going on.

In which case, surely the opposite is also true. Physical ailment which starts in another part of the body than the brain can impact the brain, causing emotional stress and exhaustion, self pity or anger etc. It's not one way.

@StarTrek6 well when you have a trauma diagnosis on your records, your "trauma informed care" doesn't look any further than that... it is all down to trauma, even though trauma can create physical illnesses (and vice versa).

Patients physical symptoms should always be checked out and escalated, regardless of their backgrounds.