The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

From our most trusted, compassionate authority on stress, trauma and mental well-being-a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing.

In the richest, most technically advanced, most health-obsessed society ever, all is not well. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, chronic illnesses were on the rise. Nearly seventy percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, over thirty percent of the population suffers from hypertension. And everywhere, adolescent mental illness is on the increase. So what is really "normal" when it comes to health?
   Over four decades of clinical experience, Gabor Maté has come to recognize this version of "normal" as misleading, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of life in the modern world, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all its expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, which in turn stresses the body, burdens the immune system and undermines emotional balance.
   Now, Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of commonly held myths about what makes us sick, and connects the dots between personal suffering and the pressures of modern-day living. Filled with stories of people in the grip of illness or in the triumphant wake of recovery, The Myth of Normal is Gabor Maté's most life-affirming and urgent book yet.
 

A renowned speaker, and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development. Dr. Maté has written several bestselling books, including the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction; When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress/Disease Connection, and Scattered: How ADD Originates and What You Can Do About It, and co-authored Hold on to Your Kids: Why Parents Need To Matter More Than Peers. His works have been published internationally in nearly thirty languages. Daniel Maté is a musical theatre lyricist and composer whose work has been honoured with the Edward Kleban Prize, a Jonathan Larson Foundation Grant and the Cole Porter Award for Music and Lyrics. He is the producer and host of the YouTube program "Lyrics To Go". With his father Gabor, Daniel regularly co-leads the popular workshop Hello Again: A Fresh Start for Parents and Their Adult Children. He also runs a "mental chiropractic" service called Take A Walk With Daniel (walkwithdaniel.com).