A New York nonprofit group is working to help veterans and first responders get better treatment for stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Alex Othmer served as a Navy Seal for more than eight years. As he wrapped up active duty in 2019, he faced many mental health issues.

“Depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and I’ve seen a lot of my friends deal with the same things. I've lost friends to suicide, and it's a real problem,” Othmer said.

He worked to overcome the challenges and learned what worked and what didn’t throughout his healing journey. Othmer decided to create a support group dedicated to helping others living with the same struggles.

“When you first help somebody and you have that first successful experience guiding somebody in the right direction, providing them with a resource that, you know, actually took effect, it's an intoxicating feeling, and you just want to do more and more and help others,” Othmer said.

The group is called Guardian Revival. They offer four core assistance programs, providing veterans and first responders access to companion dogs, outdoor adventures, music therapy and peer support.

Craig Horsfield joined the Guardian Revival family last fall. He was in the Army and New York City Police Department, but suffered from a life-threatening injury while working as an NYPD detective in 2005.

“I went on this dark journey for a substantial amount of time. And through friends of mine, I was able to be connected with Guardian Revival and its organization and was able to reinvent myself, to say the least, and start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Horsfield said.

He’s now a hike leader with the group. Along with his service dog, Feo, the outdoors is helping Horsfield and others cope.

“It really gets you focused on the now, as opposed to projecting all kinds of unnecessary anticipation. So it really keeps you grounded into the now,” Horsfield said.

They said the key to getting better is to ask for help.

“I was one of those people that refused help, and it really cost me probably five or 10 years of my life of struggle unnecessarily. Every human being has their capacity to handle a lot of stuff, but at some point, it becomes too much. And the average person, unfortunately, doesn't get to experience the traumas that we do on a daily basis,” Horsfield said. 

“I know how dark it can get and how helpless you can sometimes feel. Having somebody there to be with you and to help you out, to me, means the world,” Othmer said.

Although Guardian Revival is based in the Hudson Valley, both in-person and virtual programs are offered to veterans and first responders throughout New York and beyond at no cost to them.