A bit about Wally
G’day everyone.
My name is Wally, I served in the Royal Australian Regiment and saw active service in Afghanistan. After my last time away I decided that was enough and I discharged from the military. I didn’t leave on good terms as I was angry and just wanted out.
At the end of 2014 I was now a civilian again…. This is where my journey began.
I struggled and continue to struggle daily with civilian life, there was no real transition program in place and when I left the military I was told ‘good luck, you will fail and be back’. I made it a point after hearing this that I would not return.
Over the next few years I had a variety of jobs ranging from driving a truck to working in the immigration networks and then doing some security consultancy work overseas. I have had a pretty interesting career and have countless stories from everything I have done. However none of these roles were my passion.
My passion has always been wanting to help my brothers and sisters I had served with however I could, and this is where I started the social media group Help A Digger Out. I saw that countless people would reach out to me and ask for help or advice and the struggles they faced were always pretty much the same.
This began a journey for me to get involved and really help the veteran community out and I had an extreme passion for it. Over the years I have done my best to help people however I can, however at the end of 2019 I had a breakdown and spent a month in a veterans mental health ward. There I was diagnosed with a variety of mental health conditions and on top of this I had countless physical injuries from my Army days that I had never sought treatment for. Overall both mentally and physically I was struggling and even today I am going through this journey.
I wont say I am cured however I am doing my best to seek the treatment I need. I want to share my stories with you all in the hope that you can take something away from them and realise that IT IS OK TO NOT BE OK.
I hope you enjoy my journey and stories and please feel free to reach out if you ever want a chat.
Cheers,
Wally.
