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We know remote and regional Australia has often been a space where mental health and abuse can fester untreated, and Brendan Cullen’s story is a prime example of this.

Brendan has always lived and worked on stations outside of Broken Hill, but his life has been much more than just managing stations.

With his diagnosis of depression from the steps he took up to the Broken Hill hospital, he has found himself not only living a happier life but having opportunities he could never have imagined. From these opportunities Brendan has become an Ambassador for Lifeline Regional SA & Far West NSW and a Champion for the Royal Flying Doctor Service South Eastern section We’ve Got Your Back initiative.

In this episode he shares:

- His childhood growing up in the bush and the freedom that came with that life

- What it was like being sent away to boarding school from a young age

- The childhood sexual abuse he experienced and the impact it had on him for decades

- How trauma shaped his ability to read people and the world around him

- The effect of carrying secrecy, fear and shame for so many years

- How alcohol, overwork and constant pushing through became part of how he coped

- The warning signs of depression that were building long before he asked for help

- What happened when he finally walked into hospital and was diagnosed with depression

- The tools and mindset shifts that helped him begin healing and quiet the noise in his mind

- Why sharing his story through his book has opened the door for others to speak about their own trauma

Key Quotes

“I was flogging myself by running. I was flogging myself working. And then I was self-medicating at night, so I was just burning myself out totally.”

“The closer I got, the worse I felt and I just thought it was my schooling, but I know that it was the abuse that I'd felt anxious, the uneasiness about all of that, and that feeling lasted for about 30 years.”

More about Brendan

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: support@challengesthatchangeus.com

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE.

We’ve heard before about receiving a diagnosis later in life, but imagine the confronting experience of being admitted to a psych ward as an adult and being told you have bipolar disorder.

Laura Schiller is a self-proclaimed hot-mess wife, mom of 3 and retired lawyer.

Five years ago she was a content wife, mom, lawyer, and successful entrepreneur and then she found herself unexpectedly in a mental hospital.

She is thankful for the experience and learned so many great lessons in the mental hospital. Now she signed on with a publisher for her book about her mental health journey.

In this episode she shares:

- Her life before hospital

- Her experience of going to hospital

- How the psych ward differed to the mental hospital

- What she wishes she knew back then

- If she sees signs in your past that you had bipolar disorder

- What happened when they told her she had bipolar

- Her book and what she hopes to do

- What it was like leaving the hospital

Key Quotes

“They put me on suicide watch. I had never been more confused in my life and I didn't know I was on suicide watch.”

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: support@challengesthatchangeus.com

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE.

TW: child sexual abuse and trafficking

This is part 2 of Robyn Cameron’s incredibly traumatic story of abuse, and trafficking inside a cult and continues to share the trauma she experienced and how she has come out the other side.

own healing journey in the 1990s, combined with lived experience, inspired the creation of Golden Keys Healing, which she later supported with formal training including rehabilitation counselling and ongoing professional education.

In this episode she shares:

· Robin’s description of what trafficking meant in her childhood and the strict systems that enabled it

· The horrific abuse she endured from a very young age and the way it was normalised within the cult structure

· The pain she still carries about other children who were also victims and her attempts to protect them

· How she survived by creating inner parts and protective personas to cope with overwhelming trauma

· Living with the contrast of appearing bright and bubbly on the outside while crying herself to sleep each night

· How suppressed trauma resurfaced through powerful body memories later in life

· Her determination to research and gather evidence to validate the experiences many people once dismissed

· The long and complex process of waking up from cult conditioning and unlearning its ideology

· What it meant to leave the cult and be completely shunned, losing her entire community overnight

· The moment she describes as finally feeling “alive” at 46 and beginning the process of truly living

Key Quotes

“The hidden reality of my teenage years was living outwardly bright and bubbly, but inwardly I cried myself to sleep every night.”

“Leaving the cult meant losing my entire community and identity overnight, which was extremely isolating and difficult to navigate.”

“Father was forbidden to rape me before I was three.”

More about Robyn

You can follow Robyn on Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook and her website.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: support@challengesthatchangeus.com

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.