Tag Archives: PTSD

My Father’s Day

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On Pearl Harbor Day, 1996, I came home early from work, and within minutes of walking in the door, my sister called with news of our father’s death. After hanging up, the poet Robert Lowell came to mind. A New Englander who spent his life at odds with an old-school father, Lowell once wrote: I struck […]

As the latest wars wind down, can we do better dealing with PTSD?

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When I was a boy, there were times my father would break into a cold sweat for no apparent reason, and sit frozen in his recliner like death warmed over. Once, he flew into a rage over some minor infraction and started hitting my sister until my mother intervened. He retreated into his bedroom, sobbing like a baby […]