Dungeons & Dragons: Slaying the Monsters in Your Head

Nowadays, everyone has heard of Dungeons and Dragons, DND, in some way. Stranger Things on Netflix, Critical Role on Youtube with Matt Mercer and Travis Willingham, along with their other amazing voice actor friends. What a lot of people might not know though, is how much of an impact this role playing game can have on your mental health.

My name is Esmeray and I am a Certified Peer Support Specialist. I work at a mental health company and help others through their healing journey when it comes to trauma, and overall mental health. I run a youth group ages 12 to 17 where we played a DND campaign. In DND, you create your character and create their backstory then role play that character. My youth were so excited and so happy, but they also healed a part of themselves during this process.

When my youth created their characters, we added their mental health goals as part of their backstories. They were healing from all sorts of things and emotions that they didn’t want to admit they felt. They became very close and as the campaign continued, they started to open up more and tears were shed. My youth were allowed to scream at their enemies that had caused them pain, they were allowed to breakdown and cry until they couldn’t anymore because of a loss they had.

My youth were able to overcome these traumatic and hard obstacles through playing a role playing game. Through something that no one probably thought would work because I had an idea to combine something that I enjoyed with my youth group. My youth were also able to communicate and some even wrote speeches to overcome their final boss battles, which was someone from their past. The best part was, none of them chose to fight, they chose to talk through it and to express their hurt. Another part of DND is that you always have a choice. Yes, it is fun to slay dragons, goblins, orcs, and other creatures. There is also something to be learned from choosing instead to talk it out and maybe make an ally when you know fighting isn’t the answer.

My youth walked away with a lot of new communication and social skills, coping skills, and friendships. This role playing game gave them hope, inspired them, and they made real connections with others like them. They walked away with valuable life skills and they didn’t even realize how much they were learning because they were having fun.