IN THE REALM OF HUNGRY GHOSTS, @gabormatemd's incredible book about his long career tending to Canada's most traumatized and addicted community, completely changed the way I understood addiction. His take is infinitely more humane and compassionate, asking not, why the addiction, but why the pain. He expands on his work in THE MYTH OF NORMAL (though you should really read ALL of his books, each incredible for their own dimensions). As he writes: "When it comes down to it, all addiction’s incentives can be summed up as an escape from the confines of the self, by which I mean the mundane, lived-in experience of being uncomfortable and isolated in one’s own skin. Underneath however many surface layers of “normal” functioning, that alienated discomfort can be disturbing to the point of torment: a persistent sense of being abnormal, unworthy, and deficient. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, perhaps the world’s best-known former heroin addict, crystallizes this escape strategy in his autobiography, Life: 'It was a search for oblivion, I suppose...the convolutions you go through just not to be you for a few hours.'" Please listen, rate, and review this week's episode of Pulling the Thread! #addictionrecovery #gabormate #trauma #traumarecovery #addiction