CASSVILLE, W.Va. – Charles Case is a father, husband, Army veteran and a student at West Virginia University. He began a YouTube channel, FoReel Fishing, where he shows off his fishing skills and combats Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression.

When Charles came back from his six-month tour in Afghanistan, he thought he was going to move on from the experience, but as time went on, he began to notice that he wasn’t in the best state of mind.

After a couple of years, Charles was medically discharged from the Army with PTSD and depression as a result of serving in Afghanistan.

“I thought I was going to skid on by and not be one of those guys like a “statistic” and turns out I ended up being one. I got really angry after awhile, especially after I got out.” Charles Case

Charles said that after months of being so angry and dealing with the stress of a newborn child and managing school is when he realized he needed to get some help.

Despite the fact that he attends a weekly therapy session, he said that his struggles are never going to fully go away. That’s where fishing comes in to help separate himself from his struggles.

When Charles was a kid, he would always go fishing with his father. As he got older, he kind of grew apart from fishing but then after he got out of the military his wife suggested that he should start fishing again.

There was a spark for fishing that he forgot he had. He said, “There’s this love, this passion, it’s not knowing what’s going to bite the hook at the other end of the line and it put this drive in me.”

Charles kept going fishing as much as he possibly could, and he would take his children and his wife with him. He started watching Youtube videos to get back into it and to learn new techniques.

When he decided to make his own channel, he wanted to use it as a record to see where he went from to where he is now. He said that fishing is the best kind of therapy for him.

He started out barely knowing anything about fishing, but now he can use complex fishing gear and has over 200 subscribers on Youtube.

Despite the fact that Charles has to deal with PTSD and depression, he said he doesn’t regret his decision to join the military. He said, “Just be honest with how you’re feeling and the sooner you can get help, the better.”