"A Better Existence..."

Today was an amazing day.

Dr. Gabor Maté was in town today to speak about addictions. My agency was one of the hosts so our entire team got to go listen to him lecture.

I've had his book "In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts" for a year now and it was unreal. He is a medical doctor in Vancouver's East Side which is the most concentrated area of addicts in North America. The misery and suffering, and at times, profound hope is incomparable and difficult to understand.

Listening to him speak was incredible. For a medical doctor, he is incredibly grounded and attuned with people and their complexities. He had some perspectives on addiction I had not heard before or explanations that made sense in a very every person sort of way. I urge anybody to with an interest in human condition to read his books.

One thing he summarized was this...and I'm paraphrasing...

Imagine an addict. He's homeless, hungry and in poverty. He hasn't showered for weeks and he doesn't have a safe place to sleep at night. He's infected with HIV, has abscesses from chronic needle use, bloodshot eyes, tracks on his arms and legs, no nasal septum from years of snorting drugs, skeletal due to chronic use and malnutrition. He's been abused, neglected and without support from family and friends for years. He's has no high school education, no job and no skills. Not only is he addicted, he has profound mental illness. He has the stigma of "addict", a spectre of shame and guilt that hovers in his mind.

Now you tell me what his bottom is? What is a negative enough consequence for him if all of those other things haven't stopped him from ravaging his body and soul with powder, pills and needles? Only death and that is a result, not a consequence, because he won't be around to know it.

Addicts dont need to hit a bottom, they are already there. What they need is the belief and idea that their existence can be better, that their life can be better.