Thesis : Music therapy can help us cope with mental illness and depression through listening,singing and writing lyrics

Mental illness is a wide range of conditions that affects mood ,behavior and thinking. For many years now mental illness has been a big problem in our society today especially in tennagers and young adults . Some people might say that it’s just you having an off day or just sad and will get over it soon but it is not. Many people suffer everyday fighting their own mind and thoughts and some have no way of dealing with it or  have noone to help them deal with it, which is why many tend to keep it to themselves and just lay at home everyday. Like I have said before there’s no cure for mental illness yet, you just have to try and cope with it which mostly involves taking prescription drugs for many people. Most people use therapy to help them cope but there is another way, which is music therapy. Even though it is not an often used coping mechanism music can really benefit you in coping with mental illness and anxiety and more. It helps you be able to express how you are feeling and helps deal with problems that might have triggered your mental illness. It also helps you calm your nerves and relax and it helps you focus on other things that can help you be productive and not on your thoughts. Though it shows that it has many benefits people can argue that music is not a great help for mental illness because it might make those conditions worse for the patient.

For those of you who did not know music is a great way to recall memories (other than smell) even if it’s from many years ago. Experts argue that since music triggers memories it may trigger unwanted memories in patients. Mental illness is either passed down genetically or gained based on a trauma someone has endured and the memory of that trauma can worsen the mental health of that person. It is very understandable why this is such a risk but I feel like you need to consider the fact that something else or someone else might also trigger that memory at any time. Yes, it’s a risk triggering unwanted memories in people with mental disorders but it’s a risk they take everyday while trying to live their lives because there are many that might trigger them to recall that unwanted memory. You also have to consider the fact that maybe remembering the trauma might help. Remembering might help you break down why the event was so traumatic and help them find a proper coping mechanism that doesn’t involve taking several prescription drugs. It is a risk that I believe most would be willing to take because it might mean not having to battle their own sad thoughts everyday without a break.

Fearing that music might worsen the mental state is a great concern and very understanding ,but I feel as though not having a healthy coping mechanism might also worsen your mental state. It has been shown that as someone suffers through mental illness it slowly worsens everyday with or without risk. Your thoughts and actions become darker and darker every day until you can not deal with it anymore, which is why many many people lose the fight with depression and mental illness. Music is helping people have a safe coping mechanism which helps them fight and live their lives as normally as they can. So if music provides a way to help those people to fight and to not stress and talk about their illness and trauma shouldn’t that be a good thing? There are always risks when trying to deal with an illness. The coping mechanisms that are used today like prescription drugs also have risks. For example they might become addicted, might cause seizures or trigger another illness. Music therapy is not a way that forces your mind not to deal with what is happening inside your head, it doesn’t make you emotionless like anti-depressants or fake being happy when you really aren’t. From what I have read about music therapy it helps you deal with with your mind and helps you talk about your emotions and makes you feel like you have more control of your thoughts, mind, and actions since many people feel like the thoughts they have is not what they are truly feeling but can’t do anything about because they feel like they have no control of their own mind. Of course we should be focused on the effects of music but we should be more focused on the many benefits it provides us and we should study it more to find more ways it can benefit us in the matter of solving mental illness.

In conclusion, As of now mental illness is still a problem we can not solve but there are many ways to cope with it. For example, prescription drugs,therapy and music therapy. Music therapy is a way to help people deal with mental illness like depression through listening  music,singing music and writing music. It helps you express emotions and helps you be able to talk about your mental illness and the trauma surrounding and also helps you relax and not think about stress. Many people are concerned about the fact that music is a danger of helping with mental illness cause music can trigger memories which might trigger an emotional breakdown in a person although there are always risks. I believe we should still do music therapy because it’s a great way to help many people who are suffering with mental illness and also a great way to study mental health and its origins and why you many people deal with it. I think by studying music therapy we can possibly figure a permanent way to help people with mental illness and finally end this terrible problem that sadly millions of people are dealing with today. 

References:

Fulghum,K.Disadvantages of Music Therapy. Music and Technology News Magazine

http://www.rapsite.nl/disadvantages-of-music-therapy/