One of my favorite sessions so far is Veterans for Peace by Mr. Phillip Butler. Hearing such a story from the person who experienced it was very interesting. Mr. Butler shared with us his life before the Vietnam War, his life during the war as a prisoner in Vietnam, and his life after coming back to the United States. Hence, the title of his book “Three Lives of a Warrior”.
His story and the way he split his life time into three different parts made me think a lot of my own life and the lives of people affected by trauma. We have the same three parts: our life before the trauma, our life during the trauma, and our life after the trauma. In my short life, I got to discover that the transition from the life of trauma to the post-trauma life is the hardest. It is difficult to accept that your life before the trauma is gone, and it is hard to convince your brain that the trauma event is over. I spent a lot of time trying to take myself back my first life. I focused all my efforts on becoming my old self which failed and made my life worse. I hope to make my third life as productive as Mr. Butler. He took the pain he went through during his second life to ensure it doesn’t happen again to other people. It is a positive example of dealing with the trauma. He didn’t try to act like he didn’t go through one and he didn’t cling to his past life. He accepted the fact it happened and dealt with it in an active way. I would like to know more about his transition process and how he dealt with his trauma stress.
