If there’s anything that our current globalized society is, it’s definitely not normal. In fact, we’ve strayed so far from what’s healthy that our very environment has become highly toxic, both figuratively and practically speaking. This book is another one of those that opened my eyes and really taught me something. A shift in world view and a reaffirmation that whatever it is we do, we need to take care of ourselves not just physically, but mentally as well.

The Mind-Body Connection

Modern medicine has little regard for our mental state and (past) trauma. Gabor Maté shows us in this book just how important it is for doctors to look beyond just the body and symptoms of our diseases and argues that all doctors should be taught how to incorporate looking into their patients past and mental situation to better determine the root cause of their ailments, so that a better treatment can be applied.

The thing is, it all seems so obvious, when we really think about it. Somehow, over the years we started to see the mind, body and soul as separate things. Just as how we aren’t seperate from our environment and nature, everything is connected. Especially our mind and body, and thus they should be handled as a single entity, not something seperate. We are, after all, the sum of our lived experiences.

Big Trauma and little trauma

Gabor Maté also explains the toll all different kinds of trauma can have on us. Trauma can also be inherited, which is something I am looking into myself for the past few months, in order to better understand why I get triggered by certain things, when there’s really no reason for me to be, at least not on a surface level.

Trauma can also determine our health and if we don’t deal with it properly, it can cause all kinds of deteriorating effects on our bodies. But I was especially astonished by the fact that studies showed that (especially) women who were “too nice” were prone to certain diseases. Because being too nice really meant not putting your own (mental) health in the first place and neglecting oneself. As I said before, when you read it like that, it makes so much sense.

Trauma comes in all forms and sizes and even the little things that we might shrug away as something that just happened, really makes it clear that these kinds of trauma might just be more detrimental to oneself. For instance, growing up in an environment where “boys don’t cry” and you are pushed to continue onward, really does something to you in the long run. You won’t be able to express your emotions well when you’re older if you were taught to supress them as a kid. Which shouldn’t surprise everyone.

How to change the world

After exposing the current world’s biggest problems Gabor Maté offers the reader several ways in which a drastic reform of our world could take place. This last part of the book also helps you to do some self-reflection. For me, personally, it’s been abundantly clear that my childhood was not as normal as it seemed and that perhaps there is some lingering trauma, that I still have to deal with. Especially at about the time when I was a young adult.

The most important take-away for me in the last part of the book is that we really should change how society and especially healthcare works (or rather doesn’t work). There needs to be a larger focus on our mental wellbeing and we need to create a society where we can all thrive and deal with trauma in a healthy way. If anything, I think we all would love to live in the world that Gabor Maté presents to us in this book and it definitely exposed to me just how toxic our current society is for us and why we need to change our lifestyles. Yes, the world overall has improved a whole lot over the past centuries, but at the same time you can see that there’s a big regression going on when it comes to the amount of mental problems we have overall.

Conclusion

Life has become increasingly complex and technology is a bit of double-edged sword. It has brought us many good things, but it has also sped up our way of life in such a way that we haven’t been able to adapt to it properly. Overall humanity hasn’t been quite able to adapt to the increasingly fast developments. We need to go back to our roots and learn how to take care of ourselves and each other. As humans we need contact with others to thrive and if we are willing, we could make this world such a pure and beautiful place. All it takes is the willingness to change and say goodbye to the toxicity that has emerged from our current soeciety and start anew.

As you can probably tell from this review I can’t recommend this book enough. For me it’s essential reading and I would urge you to find a copy and dig in.

Happy reading!

Jeffrey