Listening to Democracy Now! yesterday, the host Amy Goodman interviewed Dr. Gabor Mate, a physician at the Vancouver Safe-Injection Site and an award winning writer. Dr. Mate reminded me of how important love is for healthy brain development and functioning.
At the clinic that he runs, most of the drug addicts suffered terrible abuse as infants and children, abuse that prevented their brains from getting what they needed for healthy development. Love, Dr. Mate reminds us, is what enables baby's to grow and not just physically. When baby's receive deep nurturing and attention, the dopamine receptors in their brains learn how to work properly.
(Dopamine is the feel good hormone that helps us to feel pleasure, love, connection, satiation. When not working properly, we are left with a feeling of profound emptiness and disconnection. People turn to drugs, binge eating, alcohol, violence, obsessive shopping etc. to get their dopamine fix when healthful options are out of reach.)
Mate knows about this from a personal and not just scientific level. As a small child, he lost his parents to the Nazi's and with them the security and acceptance that comes from parental love. At his clinic, drug addicts are given a safe place to inject, clean needles, doctors to help if they overdoes. They are also helped to overcome their additions. The "war on drugs", in Mate's view in reality is a war against some of the most neglected and hurting among us. We need to treat addicts with compassion and not disgust. Who among us does not know profound emptiness and loss? Some of us just got enough of what we need (love, acceptance, support) so our bodies and brains don't need harmful life sucking drugs to lesson the pain.
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