Episode April 1, 2024

Modern Life Is Making You Sick, But It Doesn't Have To | Dr. Gabor Maté

From 10% Happier with Dan Harris 10% Happier

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Hidden sources of stress — and how to beat them. Also: the myth of normal, the necessity of being disillusioned, and the disutility of comparing your suffering.

Description:

There's so much to be grateful for in modern medicine. We can all agree that we would not do as well in a world with no Advil or dentistry. And yet, our guest today, who is a renowned doctor, says modern medicine is overlooking something crucial: the pernicious impact that modern living has on our minds and bodies. In other words, we are surrounded by these hidden societal and structural sources of stress and we aren't thinking about how to treat and prevent these factors that are degrading our happiness and our immune systems.

Dr. Gabor Maté is a bestselling author with an expertise on everything from stress to addiction to ADHD. His latest book is called, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Content Warning: This episode has mentions of child abuse, sexual trauma, suicide and addiction

In this episode we talk about:

What he means by "the myth of normal"
How diseases, such as autoimmune conditions, are an "artifact of civilization"
How to begin to tackle what Dr. Maté calls, "the social sources of illness"
His definition of trauma and the difference between "big T traumatic events" and the trauma of "wounding"
How trauma in society is so normalized that we don't even recognize it
Whether the term trauma is overused
Why comparing suffering is a fruitless endeavor
What he means by "the necessity to be disillusioned"
The power and possibility of psychedelics
Why he thinks we should incorporate shamanic medicine into our western medical framework
And what he means by "undoing self-limiting beliefs" and how these beliefs show up in our everyday lives