The Father Wound: Why So Many Men in Recovery Were Boys Without Fathers.

Most addiction in men has a wound underneath it, and for many, that wound has to do with the father. Not always in the dramatic ways people expect. In quieter ways. This piece looks at the four kinds of father absence, the six patterns the wound shows up in a man's ordinary life, and why the addiction so often become a substitute for the father.

6/15/2026