Texas veteran's struggle with PTSD

Local Veteran's Story of Struggles with PTSD
Concho Valley
11/11/2013

While we support and congratulate our veterans today, we also need to make sure they are being properly cared for after returning home from war.

One of the leading causes of death right now for American Military Forces is suicide. Last year, more members of the Armed Forces took their own lives than those who died in combat.

Michelle Kingston met one man who neared that reality, but found light in his darkest hour.

"He is normally outgoing, friendly, the life of the party, all his friends like him, so he was just so not him. That is when I realized there was something really, really severe going on," Byron Clark's wife, Jamie, said.

She remembers that night well -- the night she realized her husband of five years had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was close to becoming part of a staggering statistic: 22 veterans commit suicide every day.

"I called the VA crisis line and I tried to get him to talk and he told them everything was fine and he hung up," Jamie said.

He wasn't fine.

Byron was hospitalized this past September, just days after this son, Avi, was born. Two weeks later, he was sent home with medication and homework.

"They had what is called a PTSD workbook," Byron said. "You start going through things and then, I barely got done with the first page and I went back into the hospital because it started opening up a lot of things that were, that had happened in the past."

Byron served six years of active combat during the Gulf War. He watched many people die right in front of him.
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