All over the world today, multiple individuals suffer in silence from mental health issues brought about by various life events and abuses that result in trauma, self-harm, and even suicide. When left unprocessed, a lot of people live unproductive lives ridden with pain, fear, and suffering. Mental health coach, Dylan Sessler, hopes to help these individuals step out of the darkness and overcome their mental health struggles once and for all with the right kind of approaches, insights, and mindset. The rising motivational speaker, author, podcast host of The Dylan Experience, and combat veteran believes that there is hope for everyone who feels like they have nothing else to live for. It just takes one act of compassion to reach out to them and let them know they are not alone.
Apart from his podcast, Dylan Sessler also connected with a lot of individuals through his book titled Defy the Darkness: A Story of Suicide, Mental Health, and Overcoming Your Hardest Battles. He lost his father at the young age of 6 to suicide, and this significant life event prompted him to learn everything that he could about mental health and the many struggles that people go through. Dylan himself almost took his own life when he was 25, when his life spiraled downwards.
“I realized just how limited society’s ability to discuss things like suicide and mental health really was. So I set out to change that to ensure that we can open up the conversation about things like suicide, trauma, and mental health,” Dylan explained.
To create wider awareness about the kind of help that is available to those struggling with their mental health, Dylan Sessler began sharing short encouraging content on TikTok in January 2020. Two years later, he has grown his following to more than half a million. Mostly, his content is centered on having real conversations about the importance of mental health, abuse, trauma, self-harm, and suicide. His commitment to give people hope during the darkest times of their lives is something that he prays will help reshape how society regards mental health.
Through his coaching program, he is offering people a safety net and a more practical solution to the overburdened mental health system in the country that has left many people to feel isolated, misunderstood, and reliant on medication. While he is not against the medical treatment of mental health issues such as PTSD, depression and anxiety, what he offers is an opportunity that can be added to the medical treatment of these conditions.
Dylan Sessler’s life story makes for a very relatable testimony that a lot of people can connect with, from the loss of his father to his own attempt to take his own life, the child abuse, the bullying he endured in school, the traumatic war experience he had in Afghanistan, and dealing with the injuries that forced him into isolation far from home and brought him to the brink of committing suicide himself. For a long time, he struggled with suicidal thoughts and PTSD, and now that he has overcome these challenges, he is trying to help others find their way through their own issues.
There is no perfect formula to overcome things like depression and PTSD, but there are healthy habits that Dylan has disciplined himself to acquire over the years to keep him grounded emotionally, mentally, and psychologically. Overcoming these struggles is a process, and Dylan is opening up his life so others can see that they, too, have the ability to make a life-changing decision.
