Struggle Well Podcast

For 28 years as a paramedic, Darrell Demers learned to anticipate the worst before it happened. Eventually, that instinct followed him home, affecting his sleep, his health and the way he moved through everyday life. Darrell shares what happened when he finally began talking about what he had carried for decades, and how Struggle Well helped him stop living as though the next emergency was always around the corner.

Navy veteran Carnadi Ford has spent much of his life helping others — as a father, coach, mentor and now Warrior PATHH Guide. But for years, pouring into other people also gave him a way to avoid confronting his own struggles. Carnadi shares how the end of his military career and marriage brought him to one of the lowest points of his life, why he initially believed he didn't deserve help, and how Warrior PATHH gave him practices that helped change his life. Today, he’s giving back to the program that once helped him find his own way forward.

Air Force veteran Brandi McBride has faced combat deployments, divorce, career transitions, and a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. Through it all, she has learned that struggle isn't something to simply endure — it can also be something we grow through. Brandi shares how her experience at Boulder Crest changed the way she understood the weight she had been carrying, why her garden has become a living metaphor for Posttraumatic Growth, and how she chooses to find joy and purpose in the life she has today.

Vietnam veteran and author Art Grau spent decades carrying experiences from war that he rarely spoke about. Art shares what he has learned about growth after trauma, the role storytelling has played in his journey, and how serving fellow veterans through Gilchrist's We Honor Veterans program has given him a renewed sense of purpose.

Jesse McQueen enlisted in the U.S. Army just days before September 11, 2001, beginning a career shaped by war, service, and constant readiness. Years later, he was succeeding professionally while quietly struggling at home. Jesse shares how Warrior PATHH and Posttraumatic Growth changed the way he understood his experiences, strengthened his family, and helped him discover that asking for help wasn't the end of his story. It was the beginning of something better.