Exploring Addiction Through the Lens of "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts": A Close Look at Substance Abuse

micky: ENGROSSING READ

United Kingdom on Nov 14, 2023

Canadian Adventures: By far the most in depth, comprehensive book on addiction I've read. Well written and easy to understand as well. This book is a true gem, really can't say enough good things about it.

Canada on Nov 02, 2023

J.: I have come to Love Gabor Mate's books, his thinking, his compassion ..... very insightful

United States on Oct 15, 2023

Lisa McKean: This book is beautifully written and full of compassion

United States on Oct 01, 2023

RaviNeeth: I was very excited to buy this book upon watching dozens of Gabor Mate videos on YouTube.
But what I think is his YouTube videos are far better than this book.
This book's way of writing and presentation is so boring (much of which is due to unnecessary metaphors).
There is no straight forward talk or simple language. His describes his clinical experiences in most complex way possible. Although the content is well researched and useful, it takes away the interest from the reader with it's unnecessary metaphorical descriptions of the clients or the situations. It was very hard read for me.
Having said that you can try out reading sample versions from the book online and then proceed to buy the paperback, if you like that style of writing.

India on Sep 21, 2023

Vetri: The psychology behind the process of why people fall prey to addiction and how to care for them without judging their drug habits is well portrayed by Dr Gabor ..great book

India on Jul 06, 2023

HarryHarry: If you want to understand addiction, use this as your textbook, with an emphasis on the textbook part. This is a long book at about 400 pages and covers a lot, including the life stories of hard drug addicts, the author's experience working in a clinic helping these addicts, Gabor's ongoing struggle with addiction, the root causes of addiction, the physiology of the addict's brain, and solutions on both a personal and policy level.

The author's experience leaves him supremely qualified to write a book on this issue, and it is done masterfully. At times I felt the book was superfluous and skipped a few pages, but this is to be expected. What left me most disappointed was the lack of solutions on a personal level. As someone who struggles with addiction, I had hoped to find some prescriptions or recommended practices for managing my addiction and healing any unresolved trauma. To my dismay, the book provides little other than strong support for 'bare meditation', the 12-step program, and a 5-step cognitive behavioural therapy guide. It gives you the 'what', but little info on the 'how'.

Overall, reading this book made me empathize deeply with hard drug addicts and...

United Kingdom on Mar 31, 2023

Rita Darnall: It is widely accepted that addiction is genetic, making some of us feel that we were predisposed to a lifetime of disaster. A biological life sentence. Maté postulates that a child’s environmental factors are the driving force behind maladaptive behavior. Think about it - if I am raised in a lower socioeconomic environment there is a known chance that I will be exposed to: over-policing, poverty which goes hand and hand with crime, trauma, emotional dysregulation, inadequate school systems, fewer job opportunities, greater access to drugs and a higher population of people struggling with addiction. The likelihood of raising further generations in that “lower rung” of society is more probable than not. So is it genetic or systemic? Causation or correlation? What happens when a set of identical twins with the same genetics are separated at birth and adopted to two vastly different families on the wealth spectrum? What would you guess happens differently with each child? Maté’s work shares a realistic account that most people suffering with addiction can attest to. The way in which most people struggling with addiction are treated in this country is not only ineffective, it...

United States on Jul 11, 2022

DBChas: I thought I had, especially as the best book I've read in two or three decades. This is one remarkable, almost entirely unique, (I'll say it now) masterpiece by Gabor Mate. I told him so in an email to him.

Few books really ought be required reading, but this is one of them. Mate, not least himself a behavioral addict, understands addictions like no one I've ever read or ever listened to. He gets it. And he gets near to the roots of addiction as anyone ever has. And then he critiques ridiculous public policy stuck in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages can be excused for lack of access to data, writing materials, etc., etc., while modern nations cannot be excused for such reasons.

But nations, led by persons addicted to power and wealth and a hundred other behaviors and substances, insist more on character assassination, placing of self-blame and then punishment I doubt Torquemada ever contemplated on such a vast scale--when 50% or so of America's extremely high prison population consists of addicts (now ex-addicts the hard way if they can't get drugs in prisons) whose violations of law were so minor as to have warranted no more (indeed, no less) than admission to...

United States on Dec 31, 2011