Music Therapy: An Impact On Stress And Mental Health Issues

“Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.”-Elton John. Like the world renowned English singer Elton John and as a musician myself and others alike, we’ve relied on music during the stressful and dreadful days. From the works of Bach to Django Reinhart, Pink Floyd and others, they’ve become tools for anytime the mind is going to explode either from stress or daily depression and anxiety. With the way music affects us daily, I’m sure the question of “does music’s effect on stress and coping?” spawned eventually.   From numerous research journals and articles as well as personal experience, I support the claim that music can help with stress and coping.

Music has an impact on stress

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Listening to certain songs or even as far as playing an instrument could be considered therapeutic. It can alter moods and make a bland environment enjoyable or irritable to some. Classical music is most popularly associated as the stress reliever genre due to its soft tone’s and slow characteristics. Though music may impact stress with its effects, it certainly is no cure for more serious matters. Music has been shown to be an effective method of reducing psychological stress and anxiety. (Thoma, et al., 2013)

Though the study is relatively new in its field there have been several studies over the past few decades. All testing several subjects by playing them music and monitoring the brain’s reaction. In some instances, even, different levels of stress were implemented to see the music’s effect.   In fact, “Countless studies overtime has shown music’s effectiveness on migrating stress.” (Covarrubias, 2017, P. 8)  Overtime new data will come to light as more experiments are conducted.

We’ve always heard stories of the tortured artist who could only attain peace by a pluck of a string or stroke of a white key to unlock the shackles that drag down the soul. The genre of Blue’s music is the mirroring of one’s pain. Unlike traditional rock and roll, blue’s music seems minimal and short. What some people fail to see is they use the guitar to speak their pain in those small excerpts. Any positive means of productivity to escape one’s woes is effective coping towards stress. According to Ferrer et.al (2014) “Music is known to be an effective therapeutic treatment.”

Stress can have a negative effect on health

As defined by Laura King (2017), “Stress is an individual’s response to environmental stressors” (P.568).  If one doesn’t seek proper help not only will mental fatigue follow.  Physical tolls such as high blood pressure, gastrointestinal distress, various negative moods and more unpleasantries. (Ferrer, et al., 2014)  Not all stress is related to bad situations, stress can relate to good events like the first day of college or a new job.  Stress can also have a negative input towards a person’s social life as well.

Quoted by Covarrubias (2017) from Influence of life stress on depression moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene.  “Stressful life events involving either threat, humiliation, loss, or defeat have the capacity to affect individuals to the point that they develop depression” (P.3).  Traumatic events tend to turn stress into long term problems that require professional attention.  Some individual’s turn to creative outputs, some fall into substance abuse.  Religion can be used for coping or any sort of spiritual appeasement.  Stress and mental health have a negative relationship between each other.  (Covarrubias, 2017, P. 3)

According to Schneiderman, et al. (2005), “Stressors can have a strong influence on mood, sense of well-being, behavior and health.”  Long term stressors can be harmful to health.  Stress can be irritably overwhelming which is why coping (positively) is imperative in everyday life in stressful environments and most importantly one’s well- being. Chronic stress can also disrupt the immune system. The strength of stress, its longevity and coping methods could potentially be deadly.

Music Therapy can aid those with mental disorders

(Ferrer, et al., 2014) suggests Music therapy is an effective well recognized program to help those in need of any kind of help.  War veterans, victims of unfortunate events, the mentally ill, everyone and anyone can benefit from music therapy.  It could be an escape for some or a moment of bliss.  How it affects an individual is subjective like most forms of therapy.  You’re not required to be a musician to participate in music therapy.

Music Therapy has a strong connection with the alleviation of stress, anxiety, mental health disorder/diseases.  Music is a powerful sensory stimulus that can alter emotional states and mood.  Within reason it is also used to treat physical pain. (Ferrer, et al., 2014).  The primary focus of this practice is relaxation, to lower the heart rate of the patient thus putting them in a calm state.  It offers for some a new way of release, a temporary escape or a tool for self-improvement.

According to Fang, et al., (2017), researchers have found that music therapy helps protect cognition of Alzheimer’s disease. Treatment also protects various functions of memory and psycho motor speed. Rhythm and melodies are used to help patients with recollection of verbal contents such as lyrics. (Fang, et al., 2017). The same year and study of 2017, Fang et al., noted in the experiment “The emotions and cognitions were improved in both singing and listening groups after 10- week intervention”. Listening to music, singing and dancing aided their cognitions.

Conclusion

I support the claim that music can help with stress and coping. Research has shown music has an impact on stress (which can have negative effects in the long run) and those with mental health issues.)  As stated before this topic is still relatively new in information in its field. The top and most consecutive data supports the claim of music helping with stress and coping. If an individual was to receive bad news on the results of a medical exam, a familiar tune could ease the stress away.  This common coping technique is effective in alleviating stress.

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