Below is a link to a lecture given by Dr. Gabor Maté to a Canadian First Nation group. He gives a great overview of some of the science behind substance addiction. He also gets to the root of passing the behavior to our children. This lecture is very educational and explains some of the “causes and conditions” that lead from substance use, to abuse, to addiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpHiFqXCYKc

This is a great example of a professional in the drug treatment industry with an enlightened view: examining not only the symptoms, but also the “causes and conditions” that lead to substance abuse. By understanding why we behave as we do, we can learn new skills and retrain how we think. Through this understanding and acceptance we can overcome self destructive behavior.

Thank you to Darren Littlejohn, The 12-Step Buddhist, for passing this video on to me.

About Dr. Maté: Vancouver, Canada-based physician and author. He is staff physician at the Portland Hotel Society, which runs a residence and harm reduction facility as well as Insite, North America’s only supervised safe-injection site. His four books, all bestsellers in Canada, include Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It, When the Body Says No, and his latest, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.