The Importance of Connection | Episode 267

Welcome everyone and pull up a seat at the table. It’s Lunchtime in Rome. Tonight’s episode 267 is titled “The Importance of Connection”.  Are there medical reasons to be connected to others?  Are we disconnected from ourselves?  Who is Dr. Gabor Mate'? We’ll be talking about that at The Table this evening.

Pull up a seat at the table and join us!

The Importance of Connection - Gabor Mate

1. Things are out of control

   1. Yes God is in control

   2. Things don’t seem to be 

   3. What is one thing we can do?

2. Create, maintain connections with others

   1. Undervalued

   2. The opposite of Rom 12:15 is brutal

   3. However, when things are bad, we don’t focus on relationships

3. Dr. Gabor Mate

   1. Grandparents killed in Auschwitz, spent 1 year w/aunt

   2. Traumatized upon return

   3. Moved to Canada during Vietnam

   4. English teacher for years then med school

   5. General family practice for 20 years, including many with AIDS and addictions

   6.  Maté defines addiction as the use of any behavior or substance to relieve pain in the short term, that leads to negative consequences in the long term. Without addressing the root cause of the pain, a person may try to stop but will ultimately crave further relief and be prone to relapse. By this definition, many things in modern culture have the potential to become addictive such as gambling, sex, food, work, social media, and drugs.[4] He argues the "war on drugs" actually punishes people for having been abused and entrenches addiction more deeply, as studies show that stress is the biggest driver of addictive relapse and behaviour.[11] He says a system that marginalizes, ostracizes, and institutionalizes people in facilities with no care and easy access to drugs, only worsens the problem.

   7. Disclaimer about Dr. Mate’

4. Emphasis on connections/relationships

   1. But Maté discovered something remarkable:  Your body knows how to heal itself. It just needs the right conditions. The problem? Modern medicine treats symptoms while ignoring the root cause. This is where his revolutionary approach begins…

   2. Reconnect w/ your body - Take 5 minutes of stillness each day.

Notice the tension in your shoulders. The knot in your stomach. The racing of your heart. Don't try to change anything. Just observe.This simple practice starts rewiring decades of disconnection.

3. Why? What we accept as "normal" in society is actually deeply traumatic.

The constant rush. The chronic stress. The endless pressure to achieve.

We're not thriving. We're surviving. And our bodies are paying the price. We celebrate pushing through pain. We admire those who "never complain."

We praise people for working themselves to exhaustion.  These aren't signs of health. They're symptoms of collective trauma.

4. For example - The anxiety that's plagued you for years? It was protection.

The perfectionism? Survival. The people-pleasing? Adaptation. You weren't broken. You were doing your best to survive

5. The Solution?

   1. Real healing happens through connection - with yourself, with others, with the parts you've hidden away. This is why Maté says the opposite of addiction isn't sobriety. It's genuine human connection.

   2. It's messy. It's nonlinear. It challenges everything you thought you knew.  But on the other side of this work is something remarkable:  The chance to finally live instead of just survive.

6. Our thoughts

   1. Emotionally Focused Therapy

   2. 2 Cor 1: 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.