Gabor Maté

I would drop thousands of dollars a day sometimes.

I would lie to my wife.

I would ignore my kids.

So for the sake of my addiction and also for the sake of my work addiction,

which if you go back to my infancy, what message did the world give me when I was an infant?

That I didn't matter, that I wasn't important.

Maybe I'm not even wanted.

And of course, when my mother gives me to a stranger to save my life, that message that I'm not wanted is reinforced.

Well, if you're not wanted, as I've often said, here's what you do.

You go to medical school.

Now they're going to want you all the time.

And every day you get to prove how important you are.

So that becomes an addiction in itself, which means now I'm ignoring my own family.

So what I'm saying is that the differences are obvious, but the similarities between myself and my clients, that's what struck me.

Well, you began this conversation by mentioning how I had to deal with my own challenges and I had my depressions, I had my attention deficit issues.

And as I began to deal with them, I began to realize that all of us suffering humanity were very...

We're just brothers and sisters in the same struggle to be ourselves and to relieve ourselves of suffering.

And when I tell my clients in the downtown Eastside that, you know, I get it.

I spend all this money and I can't stop myself.

They wouldn't say, how can you compare yourself?