TREE Method Projects and Publications

Wisdom of Trauma

One in five Americans are diagnosed with mental illness in any given year. Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth aged 15–24. Depression kills over a million people a year globally and 50,000 in the US. Drug overdoses kill 70,000 in the USA. The autoimmunity epidemic affects 25–50 million people in the US. What is going on? The interconnected epidemics of anxiety, chronic illness and substance abuse are, according to Dr. Gabor Maté, normal. But not in the way you might think. “So much of what we call abnormality in this culture is actually normal responses to an abnormal culture. The abnormality does not reside in the pathology of individuals, but in the very culture that drives people into suffering and dysfunction.” — Gabor Maté In The Wisdom of Trauma, we travel alongside bestselling author and Order of Canada recipient Dr. Gabor Maté to explore why Western society is facing such epidemics. This is a journey alongside a man who has dedicated his life to understanding the connection between illness, addiction, trauma, and society. “Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you, as a result of what happens to you.” — Dr. Gabor Maté