This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, hey, everybody. We're back today with a fascinating and somewhat controversial guest, Dr. Gabor Mate. We're going to talk about his argument that childhood stress is at the root of some very common problems, specifically two problems that all of us deal with. The first is our addictive tendencies, and this can range from full-blown

addictions all the way down to everyday addictions, like scrolling and overeating. So that's one of the

problems we're going to discuss. The other is our scattered minds, our distractibility. And again,

there's a spectrum here as well, from diagnosis of ADHD to a sort of garden variety distractibility that I think

many of us deal with. Again, Dr. Matte's assertion here is that both of these very common maladies,

addictive tendencies and scattered minds, have their roots in childhood stress or trauma.

Now, not everybody agrees with Dr. Monta's assertion here,

and you will hear me challenge him on this, but I don't spend too much time on the scientific

debate because what I really wanted to talk to him about is how we deal with our addiction

prone and scattered vines. And in my view, on this score, he very much delivers with lots of practical tools,

including a five-step recipe that you will hear him

walk through in great detail.

Little background, Gabour Matte is a retired physician

who has worked in a variety of areas,

including family practice and palliative care.

He also worked for over a decade with inner city patients in Vancouver

dealing with drug addiction and mental illness. He's written many, many bestselling books,

including in the realm of hungry ghosts and the myth of normal. Real quick, before we dive in,

I want to say a word about taking care of your own mind. A lot of people worry that it's self-indulgent,

especially at a time when it feels like the world is on fire. I, however, strongly believe that

training your own mind is a community service because it allows you to respond more effectively

...