"Every time I left America, I felt like I was coming up for air."

Andie Eggiman spent over a decade in a high-control religious environment — one that slowly dismantled her confidence, buried her career ambitions, and told her exactly who she was allowed to be.

She gave up a full-ride scholarship to her master's program because the church told her she was "a wife now." She got married young, started having kids, and learned to question her own instincts.

But as Andie slowly deprogrammed and found her way back to herself, she began noticing those same high-control patterns — the demand for hierarchy, the narrowing of identity, the use of ideology to justify control — spreading across the broader American landscape. She recognized it immediately: she wasn't just escaping a church. She was escaping a country moving in the same direction.

So she and her husband packed up their family of seven — including children with significant developmental delays — and moved to Portugal.

In this episode of 101 Ways Out, Andie shares:

• The slow, invisible mechanics of high-control environments
• How she and her husband deprogrammed and rebuilt a true partnership of equals
• What actually made them take the leap — and how they went from "accidentally nomadic" to planted in Portugal
• The logistics of moving a family of seven abroad, including kids who needed extra support
• Why aging parents and kids at home don't have to be dealbreakers for living abroad
• How she went from drowning in America to breathing freely

This conversation is a masterclass in reclaiming identity.

Time stamps:

• 00:00 – "I feel more alive than I've ever felt before"
• 01:08 – Introducing Andie: trip designer and move-abroad expert
• 03:02 – The #1 limiting belief: moving abroad with kids
• 19:46 – Getting pulled into high-control religion in college
• 20:15 – "Religion isn't a problem. High control religion is."
• 23:24 – Getting married young and quitting her master's degree
• 32:45 – The long road of deprogramming
• 42:05 – Christian nationalism and recognizing the pattern
• 48:08 – "Every time I left America, I felt like coming up for air"
• 51:39 – Becoming "accidentally nomadic"
• 57:30 – Portugal: first stop, now home for three years
• 1:00:22 – "I'm able to be present to my life a lot better here"
• 1:09:04 – Was it scary to leave? (Two very different answers)
• 1:15:45 – Happiness or success — which would you choose?
• 1:19:26 – Most liberating decision: "Learning to listen to myself"
• 1:26:23 – Where to find Andie

Follow Andie's Work

• 📷 ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, & ⁠Threads⁠: ⁠@OneDaringAdventure⁠
• 🌎⁠ ⁠Get Me Out of Here Workshop⁠⁠ — a first step for anyone wondering if life abroad could work for them

Listen to more stories of reinvention: 🎧 ⁠Subscribe to 101 Ways Out

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