5 Ways Music Affects Anxiety and Depression

When someone is diagnosed with a mental illness, there are many forms of treatment they can choose from. They may take medication or go to counseling or therapy. Some may also find that music helps them.

Research has shown that music can have a strong effect on us. It can alleviate anxiety and depression, increase spatial awareness, and enhance mood.

Interestingly, the genres of music can be important as well. Researchers from the University of Utah Pain Research Center have found that listening to music helps to reduce pain in those who were highly anxious. 143 participants listened to music while receiving electric shocks. It seems, therefore, that music is good at helping with pain by activating sensory pathways to compete with the pain pathways.

Another study looking at anxiety and music was conducted by David Elliots and his colleagues. They wanted to determine what characteristics of music actually help lower anxiety. The study had 84 participants, and it was found that harmonious sounds were the most relaxing. They even led to a decrease in cortisol. However, it was also found that listening to fast-paced music increased anxiety. So it would seem that the tempo and type of music are very important.

Another way music can affect anxiety is through the process of writing it. Writing down can help alleviate the anxiety around them. It may also be easier to talk about feelings through lyrics and songs than in other ways. Also, reading lyrics that mean a lot to you can help you feel better if you can analyze why those lyrics mean a lot to you.

So we've seen how music can affect anxiety, but does it also have an effect on depression? Listening to music can change your mood, so it's probably not surprising it can influence people with depression. Jun Cellini states that music helps you to express emotions and can help encourage you to let go of suppressed ones. Positive upbeat music can help lift your mood, while slow and sad music may increase your depression. Also, listening to music associated with bad memories may make your symptoms worse. This depends on the individual, of course. Sometimes listening to sad lyrics can help an individual feel better as they may feel less alone.

Like with anxiety, writing music can also have an effect on depression. Writing down your feelings can be very helpful in fighting depression. So writing poems or lyrics about your feelings can help reduce depressive symptoms. Writing out the feelings can be a form of release and has been known to prevent suicide and self-harm.