About this episode

Glen Thurston shares his personal journey with mental health struggles and the challenges faced by firearms owners in seeking help.

In this episode, Matty sits down with Glen Thurston, the founder of MentalHunts , for a conversation that goes well beyond hunting. Glen shares his journey through mental health struggles that started early in life, including an attempted suicide at 18, years of self-medicating through alcohol, and eventually hitting rock bottom while running a growing business. From the outside, things looked like they were working, but behind the scenes, it was a different story. What followed was a complete shift. Glen opens up about getting sober, starting medication, and rebuilding his life from the ground up… Including time spent working on a high country farm, reconnecting with purpose, and finding stability again. But the turning point that led to Mental Hunts came later… when Glen made the decision to be proactive about his mental health and was punished for it. After seeking help, he had his firearms license revoked. That experience exposed a much bigger issue, one that affects hunters across Australia and New Zealand, where people are now hesitant to seek help out of fear of losing their livelihood, identity, and connection to the outdoors. From there, Glen set out to create change…

People in this episode

Host: Matty

Guest: Glen Thurston

Topics covered

• mental health
• hunting
• firearms ownership
• personal journey
• addiction recovery
• community support

Keywords

• mental health
• hunting community
• firearms license
• addiction
• recovery
• Australia
• New Zealand
• MentalHunts

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MentalHunts

Places: Australia, New Zealand

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