In this episode of the Warriorside Podcast, hosts Diego Ugalde and Noah Galloway sit down with Sam Juan, a former military Cultural Support Team leader attached to SEAL Team 6 Red Squadron in Afghanistan. Sam details the intense psychological toll of operating within a high-stakes combat environment, sharing a raw account of a night raid where she had to suppress her own humanity and empathy to follow orders during a devastating airstrike and a subsequent, heart-wrenching hospital interrogation of a grieving Afghan woman. She explains how this deep emotional disconnection forced her body into an automatic survival response that night, leading her to draw chaotic chalk patterns on her tent's plywood walls—a creative outlet that gave her repressed childhood trauma a voice and marked her first step back toward her authentic self through art. After transitioning out of the military, Sam details how she hid behind a high-achieving corporate facade and a curated online influencer persona to mask ongoing substance abuse and the pain of childhood sexual abuse. She recounts hitting a dangerous breaking point during the pandemic curfew that ultimately drove her to seek help and participate in her first traditional Peyote ceremony with a Mojave roadman, where she confronted the terrifying visage of her past abuser, purged decades of lingering trauma, and began a profound, honest journey toward genuine integration and healing.