This should be required reading for everyone who encounters people struggling with addictions, and all addicts struggle. Mate tells stories about patients he has known as the physician to many drug addicts and alcoholics, but he also tells of his own and others behavioral addictions. He is sensitive to the people he describes as people and honest about the times his awareness of themas troubled and traumatized people slips into judgement. I have ordered my own copy because this book is inspiring and filled with excellent ideas about harm reduction and addiction. ( )

Full of information and insight, some of which I knew and believed in broadly, but with much less specific knowledge. This is a book that will convnce your parents of the importance of harm reduction and broad drug decriminalization, but may be less useful if you already have a strong understanding of those concepts.
Dr. Maté does occasionally overreach in his analysis--particularly, I noted, in his understanding of overeating as an "addiction"; the passages in which he posits this are some of the most consistently under- or unsourced sections of the book. I also think this book could have used a tighter edit, as it is sometimes repetitious. ( )

enlightening, I understand so much more about addictions now. It shifted my perception completely. ( )

I finished this a while ago but since then have gone back to it on multiple occasions to reread sections, to make notes of things that particularly resonated with me, and to continue processing what it taught me. I have found an awful lot in this book that is of immense value to me. ( )

Awful.