Focusing on lived experience, this chapter examines daily life within conflict zones, including entry routes, survival strategies, gendered roles, exposure to violence, and disillusionment. It analyses how expectations of religious duty, community, or purpose often collided with the realities of governance, coercion, and brutality. The chapter also explores decisions to exit and return, revealing how fear, fatigue, family concerns, and moral rupture shaped disengagement. These narratives complicate dominant depictions of foreign fighters by foregrounding human vulnerability and agency.