Mental Health the widely neglected healing power of music

By emily pawlak

In 2022, I listened to 22,885 minutes of music - that's more than 75% of other Spotify users in the U.S.

Music, I've found, can communicate; it can become in tune with our bodies and brains, not just our ears. The layers making up a song - the symphonic blend of lyrics, instruments, beats and rhythms - not only generate basic pleasure, but also help us to understand, express and release our more complex emotions and experiences

I encourage you to think of your favorite song for a moment. What is it about the song that makes you enjoy it so wholeheartedly? Maybe it's the lyrics that resonate with you and your life experience in a way that makes you feel understood to your core. Perhaps the beat and flow of the song encourage and inspire you to take on a challenge or to embrace a new day. Whatever the reason may be, that particular song likely connects to you on such a personal level that it manages to elicit raw, unrestrained emotion from within.

In other words, the purpose of music goes far beyond its auditory appeal; it is a critical tool to understanding ourselves and improving our mental health

What Research Has To Say

The subject of music's therapeutic process has also captured the attention of researchers. Dr Shahram Heshmat Ph D , believes that listening to music gives voice to the emotions we feel unable to express ourselves. "Sad music enables the listener to disengage from the distressing situations and focus instead on the beauty of the music," he wrote.

So, how is this important to you? The answer lies inside our brains.

Experts say that listening to music stimulates the nucleus accumbens part of the brain, in turn increasing dopamine levels in the body. Research suggests that listening to music is not only pleasing but is effective as a form of therapy and emotion regulation as well.

These benefits are critical for young adults struggling with mental illness, especially in cases where there is limited access to professional mental health care resources, which can be expensive and time consuming.

Music Is Critical To Young Adult Mental Health

As a high schooler who has struggled with mental health years before the pandemic even began, I have found that music is the single thing I can rely on to get me through my darkest times.

Every day seems to bring another tragedy plastered across the news channels and mental illness and teen suicide are on the rise. The one thing that continues to not only survive, but thrive, is music - which is why it needs to be recognized and used as a form of therapy. Music continues to prevail as a way for young people to cope with their emotions when all else fails

It's time that our society harnesses the power of music and embraces it within the mental health community. The next time you listen to music, reflect upon how it is emotionally affecting your mind and body. Think to yourself - how does this make me feel?

And then listen again. And again. And again.

Emily Pawlak is a senior in high school

She has always loved to read and write and aspires to have a career in psychology. Emily's passion for mental health awareness inspired her research on this topic.

Aboutt NAMI

NAMI envisions a world where all people affected by mental illness live healthy, fulfilling lives supported by a community that cares.

NAMI provides advocacy, education, support and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives.

Our Values:

·Hope: We believe in the possibility of recovery, wellness and the potential in all of us.

·Inclusion: We embrace diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives.

·Empowerment: We promote confidence, self-efficacy and service to our mission.

·Compassion: We practice respect, kindness and empathy.

·Fairness: We fight for equity and justice.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.

What started as a small group of families gathered around a kitchen table in 1979 has blossomed into the nation's leading voice on mental health. Today, we are an alliance of more than 600 local Affiliates and 49 State Organizations who work in your community to raise awareness and provide support and education that was not previously available to those in need. nami org

By Patrick Neustatter, MD

There is something of a conflict, or skepticism, between regular, allopathic, doctors, and practitioners of alternative medicines. So, when good friend and colleague John McLaughlin, MD, an allopath practicing interventional radiologist with Radiology Associates of Fredericksburg told me how he is training to become a Functional Medicine health coach through the Institute of Functional Medicine, I was intrigued. He was all enthusiasm and told me "you should write about functional medicine."

A Confusing Lexicon I was not very conversant with Functional Medicine.

I am aware of a massive list of alternative or holistic medicines, categorized into "five domains." Mindbody; biologically based; manipulative; energy; and whole medical systems - stuff like chiropractic, acupuncture, ayurveda, homeopathy, herbalism, naturopathy - to mention just a very few.

I understand that Integrative Medicine is when you incorporate some of these alternatives into a conventional Allopathic practice - and there are several Integrative practitioners in the Fredericksburg area doing this.

But I was not very clear what Functional Medicine was. I got to find out by talking to John as he drove home from Richmond, where he'd been "torturing" patients in a satellite office (it's one of my bad jokes that the needling, catheterizing and other interventions he subjects his patients to, for their own good of course, is torture - but maybe no more so than a dentist or a physical therapist?)

"Functional medicine addresses the cause" John explained. Or, in the words of the Functional Medicine Institute, it "determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual."

It's different to allopathic medicine, which John describes as "downstream" medicine because it is just treating the symptoms, not the cause.

He got interested in functional medicine when he was trying to prep for hip replacement surgery, and "I wanted to optimize my health."

He changed his diet. Learned about phytonutrients. Read Why We Sleep by Dr. Matt Walker that expounds the virtues of good sleep and how it can make us "healthier, safer, smarter and more productive"

"Within days I noticed a difference" he told me.

I have to note, John is a bit of a maverick. A bit of a hybrid, and not your average allopath. Sure he's an interventional radiologist but he teaches meditation and is a trained instructor in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction He's always working on some aspect of his own wellbeing and shows an impressive selfdiscipline.

A Commonality

The common theme of all these systems of alternative and functional medicine is that they go deeper in addressing the things that are compromising a person's health. They take account of lifestyle, environment, nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, psychological and spiritual factors - the kinds of things allopathic medicine is not so good at.

To some extent we have come full circle, to how things were before the scientific method highjacked medical care - though we are still feeling the repercussions of the American Medical Association's 1910 Flexner Report, that resulted in some 80 percent of medical schools in the country being unfunded because they weren't following the scientific method and research-based model.

I asked John if his being involved with functional medicine didn't clash with his conventional medical practice. "I don't feel a conflict" he said, but it's made him more aware of how allopathic treatments may be doing harm - like how antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID's) disrupt bacteria and the microbiome.

The challenge is spreading the word and educating people about how lifestyle and environment are so important to pay attention to.

Then you have to get people to throw off their apathy and put in the effort to make changes - motivating them to do that is what John will be doing in his role as a functional health coach.

Patrick Neustatter, MD is the Medical Director of the Moss Free Clinic