Dr. Gabor Mate, who is a family practice physician in Canada has ADD himself. He is the author of the book "Scattered," which offers a new perspective on ADD and a new approach to helping children and parents living with the problems ADD presents.

David is the HealthyPlace.com moderator.

The people in blue are audience members.   

Conference Transcript

David: Good evening. I'm David Roberts. I'm the moderator for tonight's conference. I want to welcome everyone to HealthyPlace.com. I'm glad you had the opportunity to join us and I hope your day went well. Our topic tonight is "Alternative Thoughts About Attention Deficit Disorder." Our guest is Dr. Gabor Mate M.D., who is a family practice physician in Canada. He too has ADD himself. He is also author of the book "Scattered," which offers a new perspective on ADD and a new approach to helping children and parents living with the problems ADD presents.

Good evening, Dr. Mate and welcome to HealthyPlace.com. We appreciate you being our guest tonight. You believe that ADD is not an inherited illness, but a reversible impairment (not a genetic disorder), a developmental delay. Could you elaborate on that please?

Dr. Mate: Hi, thanks for having invited me. I have been diagnosed with ADD, as have my three children, but as you point out, I do not believe it is an inherited disorder.

I believe ADD originates from the effects of stressful social and psychological circumstances on the developing brain of highly sensitive infants. In other words, there is a genetic predisposition, but not a genetic pre-determination.

What modern brain science has clearly established is that the development of the human brain does not depend upon heredity alone, but is heavily influenced by the environment. This includes the circuits and biochemistry of the part of the brain where the problems with ADD are located.

David: When you say, "stressful social and psychological circumstances," what are you referring to exactly?

Dr. Mate: In ADD the part of the brain most affected is a piece of the gray matter, or cortex, in the prefrontal area, near the right eye. This part of the cortex has the job of regulating attention and emotional self-control. Now, like all circuits, this part of the brain requires the right conditions for its development.

In this, it is like all other parts of the brain. For example, vision: an infant may have perfectly good eyes and genes at birth, but if you put him in a dark room for five years, he will be blind. This is because the visual circuits of the brain need the stimulation of light waves for their development. Without light, they would die.

In the same way, the attention regulation and emotional regulation centers of the brain need the right conditions for their development. These right conditions are, chief and foremost, a calm, non-stressed relationship with an emotionally consistently available, non-stressed, non-depressed, non -distracted primary caregiver.

In all cases of ADD I have seen, including that of my own children, there were emotional stresses in the environment that interfered with those conditions.

David: So are you saying that parents are, in large part, responsible for these hostile life experiences that create, or foster, ADHD in their children?

Dr. Mate: I am certainly not suggesting that parents do not love their kids, or that they do not try their best. I certainly love my kids, and always have, however, conditions in present day society have put terrific stress on the parenting environment. Many of us lead very stressed lives, and the supports of extended family, village, and neighborhood that used to be there for parents are largely gone. Hence, we are seeing so much more ADD. So I am not talking about bad parenting, but I am talking about how parenting under stressed conditions does affect the development of brain circuits.

David: Dr. Mate also has ADD himself. He is also author of the book "Scattered," which offers a new perspective on ADD and a new approach to helping children and parents living with the problems ADD presents. You can purchase his book by clicking on this link.

How do you promote the healing process in the ADD child then, Dr. Mate? Would it be to relieve the stressful environment that the child is in?

Dr. Mate: The brain research evidence very strongly suggests that the human brain, particularly the emotional self-regulating circuits, can develop not only in infancy, but also later on, even in the adult.

So the question is not simply how to treat symptoms, and all the behaviors of the ADD child are only symptoms. The question is, how to promote development. And for any living creature, the question of development has to do with the conditions in which that creature (plant, animal, human) must live. So the issue is, how do we best promote the development of our children, not just how we control their behaviors. Very often the things we do to change behaviors actually undermine development. So, my whole book is aimed at discussing and describing the conditions under which children and adults can experience new development.