Dr. Gabor Mate On Healing From Addiction In Today’s Toxic Culture | The Commune Podcast

In this powerful episode of Commune Podcast, Dr. Gabor Maté challenges how modern culture approaches mental health, addiction, and psychiatric medication.

This clip explores the root causes of anxiety, depression, and substance use, questioning whether mental health medications are addressing symptoms while overlooking trauma, chronic stress, and emotional suppression. Dr. Maté explains how a toxic, high-pressure culture contributes to rising rates of addiction, mental illness, and burnout.

Rather than framing addiction as a personal failure or moral weakness, this conversation reframes it as a natural response to unmet needs, early childhood trauma, and societal conditioning. Essential viewing for anyone interested in mental health awareness, trauma-informed healing, addiction recovery, nervous system regulation, and the psychology of modern life.

ABOUT THE COMMUNE PODCAST
Hosted by Jeff Krasno, the Commune podcast features thoughtful conversations for modern times. Not always comfortable but definitely needed, we explore both humanity and our human-ness. How can we live healthy, purpose-filled lives and be in service of something bigger? Guests include spiritual teachers, poets, scientists, philosophers, and activists for food sustainability, functional medicine, mental and physical health, and collective healing.

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NEW TO COMMUNE?
Hi, I’m Jeff Krasno. I’m the co-founder of Commune, host of the Commune Podcast, writer, dad, and seeker of community and connection. At Commune we explore health, spirituality, purpose, and culture with some of the world’s great teachers and thinkers.

If you’d like to nourish your mind, body, and spirit with daily video lessons and practices that help you live well, explore Commune’s library of 100 wellness courses from the world’s top teachers with a 14-day FREE trial:
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0:00 Forgiveness, Healing, and Releasing Resentment
0:39 What We Call Normal Is Making Us Sick
1:46 Human Evolution, Community, and Cooperation
4:03 Mental and Physical Illness as Normal Responses
5:27 Trauma vs Traumatic Events Explained
6:19 Trauma as a Psychological Wound
8:14 Triggers, Sensitivity, and Emotional Reactivity
10:07 Scar Tissue, Emotional Numbness, and Rigid Behavior
12:06 Rethinking Disease in Modern Medicine
13:04 Illness as a Manifestation of Life Experience
15:59 Can Healing Change the Course of Disease
17:16 Epigenetics, Neuroplasticity, and the Body as Process
18:32 Chronic Illness as a Wake-Up Call
22:05 What Healing Really Means
24:34 Suffering, Meaning, and Human Growth
26:13 Forgiveness, Trauma, and Personal Healing
28:56 Trauma Exists on a Spectrum
29:46 The Path to Agency Through Curiosity
31:47 The Mental Health and Addiction Crisis
33:48 The Myth of Chemical Imbalance
34:54 What a Trauma-Informed Society Looks Like
36:35 Trauma and the Justice System
37:44 Trauma-Informed Education and Child Development
38:28 Compassion as the Foundation of Social Healing