insisting on humanity

“from my point of view, the question is not why the addiction, but why the pain?” -Gabor Mate, M.D.

if you have yet to hear dr. gabor mate

speak about addiction

&

the completely humanistic conclusions which he

draws from

spending years working with those whose lives

most would describe as

destitute,

then you

should---

because when you listen to this man talk

even the tone of his voice

insists

on humanity---

that is to say,

what mate speaks of is not the societal norm that is

held so high by

lawmakers & those

who profit from throwing individuals in

prison,

but instead, he places no blame on the

individual who is addicted---

he has seen those in the east end section of

vancouver for a

decade,

and if asked about his work,

without hesitation, not having a moment’s pause,

he mentions that

“for one thing, addiction takes on a human face.”

 

the equation is as follows:

if addiction can take on a human face,

and you & i have human faces,

then we are no different from those addicted to certain

drugs, which we have been fortunate enough

to avoid

thus far in our existence---

“it takes away the otherness of the addict.”

 

do you know a shopaholic?

they are addicts.

do you know a workaholic?

they are addicts.

 

mate points out that

tobacco,

a legal drug,

has killed more individuals than all of those massacred in the

genocidal acts of the nazis

throughout the whole of world war II---

and so,

why is heroine, cocaine, crystal meth, etc.

thought to be so much more

negative,

in consideration with those drugs that are legal and

used by the majority of us on a daily basis?

why do these drugs & not others carry with them such a stigma?

 

what has happened to us when we were young molds us for the experiences of our lives,

&

“life long emotional pain”

is

“soothed by the drugs” we choose.

 

if some of us have a different circuitry in our brains,

which make some of us more susceptible to certain kinds of

addiction than others,

it is not our fault,

and those that tell us different do so because they do not see that

human face

which is brought into a room

whenever an addict enters.

 

understand that you cannot separate the human from the addict.

 

mate states that before the whites came to north america,

alcohol, tobacco & peyote

were all being used by the native population,

but they were not addicts.

 

it was the trauma

which the native population underwent for generations

which when passed on,

created a need for

soothing---

a way out of the pain brought on by the destruction of their

culture.

 

when you see a politician

pass another law

which is meant to strengthen the

hopeless &

futile

“war on drugs”---

make sure to look in their eyes

because you may find they have become

less

human.

 

with 5% of the world’s population &

25% of the world’s jailed population residing in the united states

alone,

you know that the cold eyes of this person representing no one but

vested financial interests,

knows no compassion,

and is not interested in any kind of real

healing

amongst those who desperately need it.

 

compassion + science = the only successful approach to this problem.