Life Struggles

Martin Lockett is a substance abuse counselor, author, public speaker, and advocate for reducing DUI fatalities. He spent 17.5 years in prison for a DUI fatality that claimed two lives and severely injured another. In an impassioned vow to his victims’ families and friends at his sentencing, Lockett devoted the rest of his life to honoring his victims’ legacies by helping others who struggle with substance abuse.

While incarcerated, Martin earned a BS in sociology, MS in psychology, and served as a mentor and role model to other inmates. He acquired state certification as a substance abuse counselor, published two books (Prison to Purpose Pipeline and My Prison Life), and began telling his story at DUI victim impact panels all within the prison setting.

Now released, Lockett continues his mission and message by helping those in need of counseling for mental health and substance use disorders and sharing his powerful story across the country.

Prison to Purpose Pipeline: How one sentence led to a life of service:https://amzn.to/3by0Hz0

My Prison Life: A Blogger's Insights from the Inside: https://amzn.to/3ypqKBj

Follow Martin on Instagram @martinlockett

Follow Christy on Instagram @thechristycollier and @lifestrugglespodcast

New to Everyone in the United States starting July call 988 from your phone and get immediate help for mental health. It will connect you to the state in which your area code is.  

We start out talking about body image and how that impacted both of us at a young age. When Toni was growing up she felt intimated by her family and a friend of her mother didn't help the situation. Both were constantly putting down her. Her family was all beautiful and she felt pressure starting around the age of 8 to live up to their standards. This led to her eating disorders: anorexia and bulimia.

 At about 12 years old she started drinking at family functions, for example, she was Jewish and would go to family bar mitzvahs, where drinking alcohol was a normal thing for children to do. By 14, she was drinking pretty regularly.

But.... things started really getting out of control when she was going to the University. She began using Meth and a drug called "cat". She even tried running her friends over & ending up on a golf course and that's when she went into rehab for the first time. As in so many cases, she relapsed as soon as she got out. She used whatever it took to get her drugs including one time, assaulting her mom, lying about her brother assaulting her, and then calling her dad and lied about what was happening. Her father knew that she wasn't committed to recovering and sent her into a real rehab. A longer-term, a place she couldn't just leave. Finally, she got some help. She finished rehab, then went into a halfway house and then a sober house. She is now a sponsor herself. She is wanting to help others by sharing her story.

She has started a YouTube channel and shares her stories there. Now her mission is to destigmatize anorexia and bulimia. She still struggles with body dysmorphia and is working on this every day. 

For more on Life Struggles podcast, follow me on social media.

 https://linktr.ee/lifestruggles

For more on Toni visit

https://linktr.ee/toniquinne

https://www.tiktok.com/@toniquinne

Listen and subscribe to Life Struggles podcast and hear real-life struggles from Celebrities and everyday people on Spotify, Apple podcast, Google podcast, Podbean, Acast or any other platform you may listen on. 

Please remember that we are giving opinions of our own experiences and what worked for us but are not specialists. Also to protect some people's privacy, there may be names and places changed. 

Dusty Simmers is definitely a woman on a mission. Winning all the life struggles that have been thrown at her has been a blessing to her mission. She now has the experience to help other women around the world become their bold and authentic selves. That's a positive way to look back at a life of hell. And that's exactly what she is doing. 

Dusty understands the horrible effects that trauma can have on a person's life and because of that, she has chosen her future in helping other women to find the courage to be somebody else instead of a man's punching bag. With her story, you will hear all the manipulation the man she thought loved her, would use, along with his wife, to try and destroy her. However, she stood up and fought back for her life and her son. It wasn't easy though. 

On the brink of suicide, Dusty tells us how she overcame abusive relationships, drug addiction, giving birth to her first baby in the shower, and then losing her second baby after a 3-month fight for his life and then having her baby's father and his wife, fight her for custody of her 18-month-old son. Listen to how her horses kept her going, emotionally and sometimes financially as she overcomes these life struggles.

Follow Dusty on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/beautifuloutlaw or like her page at https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulOutlaw and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thebeautifuloutlaw

If you would like to be a guest on our show and have a life struggle that you have conquered, we would love to hear about it. Just shoot us an email at [email protected] 

You may follow Christy on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thechristycollier and at https://www.instgram.com/lifestrugglespodcast

.Do you have thoughts of self harm? Please visit : https://www.crisistextline.org

Thomas M. Figlioli, a first-time author, grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Pace University in Pleasantville, New York, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Business Management. After a brief run in the financial industry and various jobs, he turned to a career in civil service. Today, he is a fifteen-year veteran of the New York City Department of Sanitation. 

After his lifelong struggle with alcohol and substance use, he finally found his way into recovery. His passion for writing as well as sharing his story with others led him to pursue his dream of becoming a published author and write the memoir, "That's What Junkies Do".

His book can be purchased on Amazon,  Barns and Noble, Kindle, and Audible.

I have a link for you to purchase on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/3Efypnq

How to reach Tommy:

Instagram-tfigg0918

Facebook personal-Tommy Figs

Facebook book page- That's What Junkies Do

Email- [email protected]

To reach out for help in addiction: 

Instagram- parents.addicts.in.need

Christy(Host) and guest Randy chat about marijuana , cocaine, alcohol, all the things that made his low self esteem feel better. Until it didn't. Right before slicing his throat to end this life struggle, he positioned himself in the mirror and lifted the knife in just the right place, and then he looked at his face, into his own eyes and said, "What the f%#k am I doing?".   After listening to his story, go to his website. https://randyspeaks.com/Here's where you can purchase his amazing book called "The Ego Cleanse". https://amzn.to/3x2V8BvRandy also speaks at high schools and colleges, gives webinars and in Orlando in October is having a fun event called the "Self Esteem Fest". It will be held at the "BGrateful  Resort in Orlando. Just subscribe to his website and as all the things are finalized with the event planner, it will be updated on the Website.  Please subscribe and follow my page for more Life Struggle stories. You can also follow me on Instagram. My Instagram name is struggle_winner. You can also follow Randy on Instagram @Randyhaveson Please support us by sharing this to others. You can also listen to my podcast on Spotify, Applepodcast and Googlepodcast. If you or someone you know has a life struggle to share, please email me @ [email protected]

Laura is a 33 year old Disney Dancer in Orlando. On February 22nd of 2020 her life changed. She received the news that she was about to embark on a lifelong journey with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her mission now is to empower chronic illness warriors through mindset, movement and motivation. 

Listen along as we discuss different ways to cope with RA or with any chronic illness. 

Her mission, her passion, now became to help people going through something similar. Having this realization helped her cope with her diagnosis, knowing that it would all make sense some day. She quickly started pursuing that passion through social media to connect with others dealing with chronic illness.

Inside you will hear me give side effects from drugs that are used for this condition. All my information comes from Mayoclinic.md We are not doctors or experts in anything that we suggest or share. We are simply giving opinions. Do your own research and test test test. Remember that you know your body best. Ask questions and don't give up until you find the answers. And remember what might work for one, might not work for another.

You may follow Laura on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/sickandthriving

You may also watch us on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/c/ChristyCollier

Please help us to help others by sharing this to friends and family and give our podcast a rating 

follow me on Instagram. https://www/instagram.com/struggle_winner