Dan Reynolds Reveals The Two Things That Saved His Life

Dan Reynolds is opening up about his mental health struggles and when he realized he was different than the kids around him. The Imagine Dragons frontman recently spoke to Inc. about the challenges he faced with his mental health as a child, including when he finally understood he had depression.

Reynolds knew something was off when he lost interest in things he used to like and felt "numb," but it wasn't until he became a teen that he knew there was a word for it.

"I didn't have a name for [depression] in my teen years, but I knew that I was different than the kids around me. I was just different, and I didn't quite know what it was," he said. "When I got into high school, I certainly started to know, 'OK this is depression.' Anybody who's been depressed knows that it's not [just sadness]. There's a big difference between, 'Hey, I'm sad my girlfriend broke up with. I'm heartbroken and I'm sad,' and depressed."

When he discovered his passion for music, that's when things started to get better.

"When I started to deal with mental health issues, music was therapeutic for me in a way that nothing else was," he said. "I felt like I could communication in a way that I wasn't able to [as] an adult, or to anyone, really. That's why I say [a music career] kind of chose me because I really didn't have a choice. If I was going to stay alive, I was going to do music. I genuinely feel like music saved my life in that way."

He continued, "Two things have saved his life: music and therapy. So I believe in both, and I live both every single day. That being said, I also think somethings you just have to go on a path, and everybody goes on a different path."

Imagine Dragons are preparing to hit the road for their Mercury Tour next year, kicking off the tour with a stop in Miami in February.