NEOSHO, Wisc. — Many pro athletes are larger than life and local pro wrestler Adam Scherr is one of them.
At 6'8 and 350 pounds, he's brave enough to admit he has experienced mental health issues like anyone else. Scherr is a big guy with a big heart, and currently lives in the countryside of Neosho.
"You see this image that I portray in real life, this outer shell, but I'm an onion," Scherr said. "I got layers. Everybody. Everybody has layers. I went through a lot of bullying when I was a kid because I was a fat little kid. A little husky kid. (I) didn't understand why and then (I) had a reading disability when I was younger, so that was another thing. We didn't have a lot of money growing up. My family, we just didn't. So I would wear different clothes and oh, you're poor and getting picked on. That's stuff I think everyone has to deal with. The unfortunate thing is, bullying is never going to go away."
Scherr said he is motivated by people telling him he can't do something.
"I had teachers that told me I was never going to amount to anything when I was in high school," Scherr says. "My very first action figure I got I signed and said to that teacher, thank you for everything. So I had things like that and people, and that was, that's still one of the things to this day that pushes me and drives me, is telling me that I can't do something. Like, oh, da, da, da. There's limitations of whatever. I don't even care if it's getting in a little car, like alright, I'll prove you wrong."
Scherr said the internet and experiences he has had in public affected his mental health.
"There's been times even with my career when I was with WWE when things weren't going well and I started getting in my own head, because you're constantly being verbal badgered by the internet and social media," Scherr says. "You're being attacked every way you go. You go out to eat dinner and people are hounding you when you're out here, and I started to develop social anxiety because of it."
But now, Scherr has social media help to help you.
"We just launched an app called Diskuss," Scherr says. "It's a mental health app that gives you licensed certified professional therapists, counselors, life coaches in the palm of your hand, 24 hours a day via audio, video, text messaging services. It's fully encrypted so all your information (is) safe. But, it gives you the capabilities and the comfort of doing it in your own home. If people would like to speak with someone, we're offering a free 24 hour text messaging session by using promo code 'let's diskuss.' So let's diskuss will give you a free opportunity to try the app out for 24 hours via the text messaging service for anybody that would like to try it if they need to reach out and talk to somebody."
