A former chaplain from the Canadian Armed Forces is offering some hope for soldiers suffering from something he knows all too well, post traumatic stress disorder.

Jim Short spent 26 years in the forces, including a tour in Afghanistan.

While on the NL Morning News, he spoke of his own experience with PTSD. “It’s going very well for me actually, I’ve been on kind of a journey through 12 years of coming to terms with some of my experience in Afghanistan which, ironically was a really amazing experience for me but it came at a cost.”

After suffering from PTSD himself, he says it is possible to come out of it on the other side. ” in think not only in the military world but in the first responder’s world, I think we’re inching close and closer to understanding that seeing difficult things and experiencing difficult things, especially over a long period of time can impact you.”

“You know, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively but even when it impacts a person negatively it’s possible to move through that and experience what we sometimes call post traumatic stress transformation.”

“In other words you come through that as perhaps a different person with a different awareness of who you are and really we have to get the message out there. It’s a sign of strength, if you need help, to ask for help not only for yourself but for your family.”

“When you talk with people who have had post traumatic stress or morale injury and they ask for help, sure it’s not easy and sure it’s hard work but you know they and their families and their friends in the long run are the winners for that.”

Short stressed how important is it to reach out to other people. “Isolation doesn’t do anything for anyone when we’re struggling. Isolation just drives us farther and farther into despair.”

Short reminds all of us that reaching out is not a sign of weakness but actually a sign of strength.