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A redheaded kid called a nobody, a 22-year-old worker broken by a boss’s spit-flecked tirade and a silent drive past home to a crowded Blue Mountains lookout. A moment when the clouds parted, a late Nana’s voice rang clear and a single phone call lasted four and a half hours. Adam’s story is tender, raw and unflinching about suicidal ideation, the mental fog before the act and the impossible-to-name pain that makes you want only one thing...for it to stop!

What follows is a decade of deliberate change. A GP visit leads to severe depression and anxiety diagnoses. Three years of “speed dating” therapists finally lands on the right ally. A blunt truth reframes everything, that metabolic health is amplifying mental distress. With blood sugars spiking and a specialist warning of death by 34, Adam chooses gastric sleeve surgery. It’s not a shortcut, rather it’s a stake in the ground. Habits shift, identity catches up and purpose arrives through service with the local fire brigade.

Perspective deepens on the ridgelines of Gallipoli and the Western Front. Standing at the grave of a 22-year-old, the same age he was at the cliff, Adam discovers that ageing is a blessing denied to many. That clarity births a mission, to honour veterans and first responders with care and precision. When a mate won’t host him, he launches True Blue Conversations and keeps going. 130+ episodes later, guests now come to him and trust becomes the metric, not downloads.

2025 tested every gain: a stillborn niece, a father’s dementia, floods, lost work and public shaming by peers. The black dog returns and a plea to the night sky is answered by two shooting stars. The next morning, he joins flood clean-ups and service regrounds him. From there, a holistic routine steadies the mind and body including prayer, visualisation, gratitude, grounding, meditation, cold showers, strength and cardio, protein-forward meals and ruthless sleep hygiene. He quits comparison, limits social media and measures progress in “two millimetre shifts.”

The heartbeat of this conversation is simple and lifesaving "it’s not weak to speak". One answered call can change a life, one honest check-in can keep someone here. If you need a sign to stay, let this be it. Share this episode with someone who needs hope and leave a review to help others find it.

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Music Credit: Cody Martin - Sunrise (first 26 episodes) then custom made for me.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions, and stories shared on this podcast are personal to the host and guests and are not intended to serve as professional advice or guidance. They reflect individual experiences and perspectives. While we strive to provide valuable insights and support, listeners are encouraged to seek professional advice for their specific situations. The host and production team are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

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Big sights drew us in, but the small moments did the heavy lifting. Across seven weeks we threaded a tight Tokyo layover, San Francisco’s storied streets, the bright blur of Las Vegas, sweeping Texas plains and the deep hush of New Mexico caverns, collecting memories and lessons that linger.

From Alcatraz after dark and the Golden Gate’s twin vantage points to a misty walk in Muir Woods and a driverless Waymo ride, we balanced iconic landmarks with intentional pacing and small-group tours that kept our nervous systems calm and our curiosity high.

In Nevada, the sensory crush of F1 weekend forced honest boundaries. We found calm by day and wonder at night with Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson One, then reset in the desert at Seven Magic Mountains, Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon’s humbling edge.

Texas brought belonging and breadth, a veteran’s plaque on a wall of remembrance, the charm of prairie dogs & museum hits and misses and a behind-the-scenes tour of Texas Tech’s Jones Stadium that showcased the scale and pride of college sport. We slowed right down in Ransom Canyon, off-roading with family and watching the lake catch sunset, then chased texture with day trips through oil country, Route 66 nostalgia in Amarillo and spray cans at Cadillac Ranch. Waco’s Magnolia delivered a design-lover’s dream, balanced by the Texas Ranger Museum, Topgolf laughs and a Dr Pepper history fix.

Not everything went to plan. A delayed domestic flight, non-linked bookings, and limited insurance coverage cost us $5,000 and a 36-hour slog home. The takeaways are practical and clear, book true connecting flights on one record, read your insurance fine print and assume delays. Yet the trip still gave us what we needed, gratitude, resilience and the reminder that meaning often shows up between the big moments.

If you’re planning a long-haul adventure, you’ll walk away with smarter travel tactics and a fresh lens for finding joy on the road. If this story resonated, follow the show, leave a quick review and share it with a friend who loves purposeful travel. Tell us your best travel hack or small moment that changed a trip, we’d love to hear it.

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Thanks for listening in!

Contact me directly at https://everydaywarriorspodcast.com.au or head to
Instagram https://www.instagram.com.au/_trudie_marie or
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/trudie.dwyer

Support the Podcast - Buy me a Coffee

Buy my Book here

Apply to be a guest here

Music Credit: Cody Martin - Sunrise (first 26 episodes) then custom made for me.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions, and stories shared on this podcast are personal to the host and guests and are not intended to serve as professional advice or guidance. They reflect individual experiences and perspectives. While we strive to provide valuable insights and support, listeners are encouraged to seek professional advice for their specific situations. The host and production team are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast.

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How a marriage slowly tightened into coercive control. We sit down with Manisha to trace the subtle beginnings of abuse, rules about food and clothes, isolation disguised as tradition and the long arc toward reclaiming safety, dignity and voice. What starts as cultural expectation becomes gaslighting, invisible bruises and sexual coercion designed to leave no evidence. The most searing image arrives when her eight-year-old stands between parents, arms wide and Manisha decides to change the story.

Across this conversation, we unpack how abusers test limits, how communities can unknowingly enable harm and why “why didn’t she just leave?” misses the complexity of risk, finances, visas and the law. Manisha shares the quiet tactics that kept her children safer, the calculated steps to rebuild employability and savings, and the strategic move to a country where protection was possible. Freedom, she explains, wasn’t a finish line. After the move came the crash of CPTSD, depression and the hard work of therapy that shifted shame back to the perpetrator and named sexual violence for what it was.

What emerges is a grounded roadmap for survivors and allies to recognise patterns of narcissistic abuse, document and plan, learn your legal options and build a discreet support web. We talk about raising strong kids after violence, reclaiming identity beyond roles and finding meaning through advocacy. Manisha’s lens is clear and hopeful, if 20 years were taken, the next 20 can be lived at full volume. Listen for practical insight, hard-won wisdom and a reminder that safety, healing and autonomy are possible.

If this story resonates, subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more listeners find Everyday Warriors. Your support helps amplify voices that save lives.

Support the show

Thanks for listening in!

Contact me directly at https://everydaywarriorspodcast.com.au or head to
Instagram https://www.instagram.com.au/_trudie_marie or
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/trudie.dwyer

Support the Podcast - Buy me a Coffee

Buy my Book here

Apply to be a guest here

Music Credit: Cody Martin - Sunrise (first 26 episodes) then custom made for me.

Disclaimer: The views, opinions, and stories shared on this podcast are personal to the host and guests and are not intended to serve as professional advice or guidance. They reflect individual experiences and perspectives. While we strive to provide valuable insights and support, listeners are encouraged to seek professional advice for their specific situations. The host and production team are not responsible for any actions taken based on the content of this podcast.