Deaths of despair: Gabor Maté urges empathy during B.C.’s toxic drug crisis – CTV
August 26, 2025
He’s a best-selling author with millions of people around the world watching his TED Talks and interviews, but Dr. Gabor Maté still calls Vancouver home and wants his fellow British Columbians to educate themselves about the many factors leading to drug use and what he calls “deaths of despair.”
Long before he became a world-renowned expert on addiction and trauma, Maté was a family physician working at St. Paul’s Hospital and the Downtown Eastside. He repeatedly witnessed the effects childhood trauma can have on the brain.
“The more stress, trauma, instability there is in an environment, the less these circuits develop properly,” he explained. “The more traumatic experiences people have in childhood, by far, the greater the risk of addiction.”
Those traumas can range from an acrimonious divorce between parents to sexual assault. Multiple studies outline the link between trauma and addiction, and those with lived experience are increasingly voicing their personal struggles confirming that’s the case.
“Don’t ask ‘why the addiction,’ but ‘why the pain?’” said Maté. “People are desperate to soothe their pain, so desperate that they’ll take the risk of taking lethal (illicit) medications. Well, what is that if not despair?”
