Embraced by the Needle by Gabor Mate - Essay Example

Embraced by the needle, Gabor Maté, M.D., observes how all addictions are usually brought on by unhappiness or emotional voids. Relating his experiences, while working as a staff physician at a non-profit harm reduction facility, he describes how most of the clients or patients there, who are addicted to one substance or another, were pushed on to drugs to overcome the emotional void that was within them.
Describing how opiate receptors work in our brains, by giving opiates or drugs a site to bind at, Maté states that the growth of these receptors is promoted by the production of endorphins in our brains. These endorphins, he explains, are produced or released in our brains as a result of “warm, non-stressed, calm interactions with the parenting figures” (2007). Maté explains that those individuals who did not have enough endorphin-enhancing experiences in their infancy, as well as their early childhood, seek to obtain the experience from other external sources. This need, resultantly, makes them highly vulnerable to addictions.
Maté observes that addicts, especially those from skid rows, are distinguished by the extreme level of stress they underwent in their early childhood. Describing traumatic events from the childhood lives of his patients/clients, he illustrates this point further. Most, if not all, of them, have harrowing childhood tales of abuse. However, Maté points out that childhood abuse is not the only case where addiction rears its head. There are scenarios where there was no abuse; rather the parents did their utmost to give their children a stable home and environment, yet the child grows up to be predisposed to addiction. This, Maté alleges, is because of the stress the parents faced themselves; whether economic pressure or emotional unhappiness, the stress the parents undergo is, Maté, alleges, transferred to their children subconsciously because such parents have problems in instigating such open and endorphin-releasing communication with their children. Read More