Gabor Maté on the environmental causes of ADHD and Addiction

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http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/149325

His ADHD ~theory~ sounds like another variation on blaming the parents, and of course ignoring all current research. The only correlations are hereditary and to a lesser extent certain environmental causes - if the mother drinks alcohol or smokes cigarettes during pregnancy, this increases the risks. If he wants to propose it's caused by upbringing he will have to account for existing evidence that says the opposite.

So tired of irresponsible doctors and researchers turning selection bias into an income.

His autism comments make no sense, either. I am wondering (and worried) that neuroplasticity will become some kind of magical buzzword. Not that it doesn't exist - it does - but how it's being misused in this article.

Verdandi, could you provide some links to current research? I have to admit that the theory that Gabor presents feels at least somwhat true.

I am also very open to the idea of neuroplasticity. I don't really understand how you think the word has been misused in this article, could you elaborate?

So many times parents are blamed. I can't blame my parents they would have done anything. I'm a parent of adult children and I would still do anything to help them. I don't know what the causes are. I do know the brain is plastic and can be changed. I also know it's very difficult to do the work to change and it's easy to slip back into old paterns. It seems like the brain changes but it remembers the old ways too and when one goes off track it doesn't take long to be really messed up again, especially drug use wise. It's good news that the brain can change but it's not easy to do.

What does "feels correct" mean? How do you determine correctness by feel?

Here's an international consensus statement on ADHD: http://www.russellbarkley.org/adhd-consensus.htm

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I recently have been reading Dr. Mate's book, Scattered. It provides good insight on how ADHD/Autism may be developed: because of lack of attentions to sensitive children.

I now realized that my 3 yearl old son is a sensitive and attention seeking boy that me and my wife have somewhat neglected outside of giving him food and clothing, sometime teaching him how to play with toys, and tuck him to bed.

I have been busy with work (in and outside working hours), and was raised in generally communication-lack environment, so my communication capacity is limited, and I prone to get lost on my own thought.

My wife is the only other person in his life, but she refused to get a maid and do home works on herself, leaving my son on his own many time in the day, watching TV, climbing stairways, or wreaking havocs by pulling things, and being shooed away by my wife if approaching her while in kitchen.

Maybe for other children, it'd be fine, but not for this kind of hyper sensitive, independent, lonely child. Reading the book, now I realize that I need to give him attentions, so much attentions that they come out of his ears.

Will this be the wrong thing to do?

Kinda makes you wonder .....pld story of Nature vs Nurture ...or lack thereof .. ..

This is a really insightful take from Gabor Maté on ADHD and addiction, especially his perspective on how brain development and environmental factors play a bigger role than genetics. His point about the lack of dopamine being tied to motivation and the importance of social connection is compelling. It’s definitely a different lens to view these conditions through, rather than just seeing them as diseases needing medication. Makes you think about how much our environments, especially in childhood, shape us in ways we might not always realize.