The most touching section of the book is the description by the author of the last day he spent with his son. The sage advice had little effect.Ī few weeks before the end, a mysterious aura of serenity and tranquility swaddled Tommy as if he had finally found peace his mind having made a decision was now at rest. Raskin attempted to talk him out of the despondency, quoting Freud’s explication that happiness really means being with friends, family, eating well and working. The comment out of nowhere alarmed his father. Raskin mentions that, in one conversation, his son ruefully remarked that he never expected to be happy. Occasionally, Tommy allowed his anxious parents to peek into the inner sanctums of his mind. He was a regular blood donor and, as the pandemic took hold, he started showing up for blood donations more frequently than before, even risking his health. In the face of these problems, Tommy felt helpless. Secondly, the extreme right-wing policies of the newly elected US president, Donald Trump. First was the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the misery and toll of life it inflicted world-wide. But, ultimately, two developments seemingly upended his fragile mental peace. Working as an intern and teaching assistant, he spent hours tutoring and guiding his undergraduate students. Later, at Harvard Law School, Tommy seems to have regained his self-assurance. The psychiatrist diagnosed depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, ailments that are treatable or at least controllable.
Tommy raskin harvard professional#
Ultimately, his parents got some inkling of the severity of the problem and sought professional help. The sleep problem was treated with the usual sleeping pills but brought only temporary relief. His parents noticed that he was not sleeping well when at home, and when he did so, he had vivid, frightening nightmares. Tommy also never wanted to share his pain or talk about his mental anguish-even to his parents, his two sisters or close friends. There is a long-held stigma associated with mental illness and patients often suffer in silence, preferring never to reveal their personal agony and private hell they live in. In his second year of college, it was becoming clear that all was not well with the seemingly bright student. To address mental health problems, many schools employ mental health experts and counselors with whom students can have frank, open conversations.
Many teenagers go through phases when they feel down and depressed, but in time regain their equilibrium, so his behavior was not considered abnormal. Otherwise, he was a bright student who was doing well in his studies and was able to make friends. Similarly, as a student at the prestigious Amherst College in Massachusetts, he worried excessively about hurting his friends’ feelings, and even obsessed about events that happened years ago. His parents could not disabuse him from this unreasonable concern. He worried that if he drove, he might hurt some person or animal. He went as far as to obtain a learner’s permit, but never applied for a proper license. Unlike most teenagers, who are anxious to learn and drive a car, Tommy was not keen on driving. These were dismissed by his parents as just eccentric behavior on his part. Some early signs of trouble, however, appeared on the horizon when Tommy was a teenager. Born in a Jewish family, he strongly advocated justice for Palestinians and dreamed about winning the Nobel Peace Prize for resolution of the Middle East conflict. The bloodshed in Yemen, like all wars, distressed him. As a high school student, he spent inordinate amounts of time tutoring other fellow students who needed help in mathematics and English, became a vegan, abjured eating all meat products. While growing up, he was a compassionate young man, opposed all conflicts and was especially sensitive to cruelty to animals. Tommy had a normal, happy childhood, loved to tell jokes, laugh, and play pranks on others. In his highly acclaimed book, Unthinkable (HarperCollins), Raskin, the father, describes in painful detail how his son increasingly descended into the abyss of despair. Mental illness often afflicts the young, mostly men, and progressively gets worse. The loss of a child is said to be the single most devastating event from which a parent never fully recovers.Ī brilliant law student at Harvard University, Tommy Raskin had long suffered from debilitating bouts of anxiety and depression that could not be controlled even by the best available medical treatments. It was the last communication from Tommy to his family before he ended his life. These heart-wrenching words were written by 25-year-old Tommy, the only son of the prominent US Congressman from Maryland, a former professor of constitution law, Jamie Raskin. Please look after each other, the animals, and global poor for me.
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