{"id":31447,"date":"2025-11-11T22:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31447\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T22:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T22:00:09","slug":"pennsylvania-veteran-helping-other-veterans-with-ptsd-through-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31447\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania veteran helping other veterans with PTSD through fitness"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. Army veteran in Pennsylvania revived her life with fitness, and now, she’s sharing her strength with others.<\/p>\n

Erica Liermann joined the Army after 9\/11 and eventually came home with post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a>, which she now manages with working out and empowering others.<\/p>\n

That includes leading classes at Dub Fitness<\/a>, her gym in King of Prussia.<\/p>\n

Fitness is Liermann’s salvation. She says it helps her cope with PTSD from her time in the Army as a military police officer.<\/p>\n

“I was stationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” Liermann said. “I was in Korea, I was in Baghdad, Iraq; Al-Asad, Iraq.”<\/p>\n

The Montgomery County mom says her time in the military left her with invisible mental health wounds and a long struggle with anxiety.<\/p>\n

“A lot of us just suppress it, which then makes it worse,” Liermann said.<\/p>\n

Liermann says she’s better now, thanks to these classes and support from the Military Warriors Foundation<\/a>\u00a0and Wells Fargo, which helped her launch her post-military journey.<\/p>\n

“I feel really fortunate to be here,” Liermann said.<\/p>\n

Fitness gives Liermann physical strength and helps keep her mind clear and focused on giving back.<\/p>\n

“People come from all different walks of life,” Liermann said. “But in here, we are all like one team.”<\/p>\n

Liermann shares the power of fitness with the women she trains, knowing how it helped her.<\/p>\n

“I look back and I say it may have saved my life,” Liermann said. “Suicide was a thought. I used to think about suicide.”<\/p>\n

Now, it’s all about positive energy that comes from working out and sharing inspirations written on the wall.<\/p>\n

“If you can’t beat fear, do it scared,” Liermann said. “And if you’re tired, do it tired.”<\/p>\n

Her warriors in fitness have become a sisterhood of strength and empowerment. Liermann says she’s especially grateful to Wells Fargo<\/a>, which helps veterans transition successfully to civilian life through vehicle donations and mentoring.<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A U.S. Army veteran in Pennsylvania revived her life with fitness, and now, she’s sharing her strength with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1057,200,28,30,29,19964,2349,15041],"class_list":{"0":"post-31447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-montgomery-county","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","12":"tag-pennsylvania-news","13":"tag-ptsd","14":"tag-veterans","15":"tag-veterans-day"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}