While Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can occur after any traumatic event, it is commonly perceived as a disease found in men and women returning from combat. Contrary to this perception, PTSD affects just 20 percent of returning service members.

Service members suffering from PTSD have problems will anxiety, avoid thinking about the traumatic event and may avoid places that may remind him or her of the place where the trauma occurred. For retired Army Sergeant, Michael Drummond, these symptoms ring true.

Drummond served in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a squad leader with Charlie Company, 1^st Infantry Regiment, 2^nd Brigade Combat Team. He, like many others before him, suffers from PTSD, an invisible wound. For Drummond, it started when he arrived in Iraq in 2003, near the start of the war.

“I believe that the PTSD originated from my first night there,” Drummond said. Drummond said he and his fellow soldiers killed a family and then shot down a man who tried to run them down in a BMW. Several days later, his vehicle was hit several times by IEDs and small arms fire.

Drummond said that after a couple of months in country, he had trouble sleeping and started realizing the complexity of his issues. He said he was suffering from “superman complex,” since he believed he couldn’t be killed and volunteered for every mission.

Drummond said a friend told him to go see the doctor and get help. He was given the prescription drug Zoloft, which, according to Drummond, didn’t help. After he returned from Iraq, he continued having trouble sleeping. He was anxious. He avoided thinking about or talking about the events he had lived through. These difficult circumstances caused he and his wife to divorce and he soon retired from the Office of Children and Family Service.

While at OCFS, Drummond met his current wife, Melissa.

“I believe that Mike’s PTSD has actually brought us closer,” Melissa said. “I met Mike when his PTSD was at its worst. He needed someone in his life to talk to because he didn’t have anybody.”

Melissa said it helped them establish a deep relationship and taught them how to talk to each other.

Drummond says he copes with his PTSD with medication and therapy. He’s also working as a volunteer firefighter in Taberg, NY, which he says provides the adrenaline rush he has missed from being in combat.

As a recent veteran suffering from PTSD, Drummond was recently invited to Liberty Lodge Outfitters in Locke, NY. Liberty Lodge is a nonprofit organization that offers wounded veterans from Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom and Afghanistan a chance to participate in outdoor activities.

“My mission is to take one bad memory and replace it with a good one,” said Liberty Lodge founder Kevin Workman. Participating in activities at the lodge gives service members a way to share experiences and know of others suffering from PTSD.

 “It’s not about the killing of an animal, it’s about the camaraderie, the brotherhood, and you stop and take these wounded service men and women, there’s a kind of brother hood that y’all joined, weather y’all want to or not,” Workman said. Workman can relate to his clients because he also suffers from.

“Going to Liberty Lodge helped me by telling me that I was normal and that I was just another person,” Drummond said.

Drummond said Workman was there to help no matter what the situation. He said the staff at the lodge made him feel comfortable and there was no pressure to do anything he didn’t want to. Drummond said they just sat there and listened if he needed to talk.

“When Mike got the offer to go to Liberty Lodge, I told him to go for it,” Melissa said. “Because that stuff to me is really important just to be around people that have been in war and know what he’s going through.”

Places like Liberty Lodge offer a sanctuary to those suffering from PTSD. In Drummond’s case it allowed him to feel normal again even if only for a short period of time. This furthers his recovery by enabling him to try to regain some sense of normalcy that’s been missing since he returned from combat.

Drummond said he’s grateful for the experience and knows it’s one more step in his road to recovery.

“It was an amazing event.”