Music Therapy in Addiction Recovery

 

 

 

The Power of Music

Music is something that most people will take for granted, but it can have an impact on their life. It can have a powerful influence on emotions and mood. Listening to a happy song can lift people’s spirits while some tunes can lead the individual to feelings of despair. The thing that makes music so special is that it allows people to communicate their moods. It can be difficult to explain a mood to other people, but music can express it exactly. There are many claims made for the power of music, and there is growing scientific evidence to back some of these. Music therapy has been shown to help people manage deal better with a variety of conditions. There is also good evidence to suggest that it will help those individuals who are trying to build a life away from addiction.

Music Therapy Defined

Music therapy can be defined as the clinical and evidence-based use of music to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship. It involves using music to help people manage physical, emotional, or cognitive problems. The client can interact with the music in different ways such as listening, singing, or dancing to the beat. They can also write songs or discuss lyrics.

Music Therapy Explained

Music therapy involves using the power of music in a controlled way. The music therapist is trained to in how to use music effectively. They can use their knowledge to decide on the exact course of treatment that will work best for each client. When they first meet the client the goals of treatment will be established, and this will guide their efforts. The therapy may involve some type of music creation or it could be just listening.

Benefits of Music Therapy

There are a number of purported benefits for this type of therapy including:
* It can help people reduce their stress levels. It encourages the relaxation response.
* It may lower blood pressure and is being used to treat hypertension
* Those individuals who are dealing depression can benefit from a lessening of their symptoms.
* Music may help to protect the heart.
* It can help improve communication abilities for people with autism.
* It can help people deal better with anxiety.
* Music can create a meditative state in the listener. This is because when music has a strong beat brain waves will become stimulated and fall into sync.
* Listening to music with a fast beat can improve concentration levels.
* It can encourage a more optimistic state of mind. The individual will be able to benefit from this increased positivity even after they have stopped listening.
* It can give the body’s immune system a boost. It therefore promotes healing and helps the body ward off illness.
* It can be useful for reducing muscle tension.
* It can help women cope better with the pain of labor.
* Listening to music can help people who are suffering from chronic pain.
* It reduces feelings of loneliness.
* It can help people dealing with Alzheimer’s disease.
* It is a good antidote to boredom.
* Listening to music can even increase spirituality or used as a tool to help people progress along a spiritual path. There are even some people who use music as a means to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
* It can work as an emotional release.
* It can help people overcome an addiction and can be a useful tool in recovery.

Music Therapy and Addiction

Music therapy can be of great value to people who are attempting to overcome an addiction. It is unlikely to be enough alone to help an individual recovery from substance abuse, but it can be a useful supplement to other types of addiction treatment. The benefits of music therapy for people recovering from an addiction include:
* When people first become sober they are likely to experience a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Creating music may help people purge some of their more destructive emotions.
* A common reason why people relapse after a period of sobriety is that they feel unable to manage their stress levels. Listening to or creating music can be a wonderful stress booster.
* Boredom is another relapse trigger for those in early recovery. It is usually easy for people to put on some music and this can relieve their sense of boredom.
* When people first become sober they can experience a bit of loneliness due to breaking away from their network of drinking or drug using friends. Music is good for helping people feel a bit less alone in the world.
* Music therapy can be all about enjoyment and do is recovery from an addiction.
* Meditation can be a highly beneficial tool for people in recovery. Music can be a good introduction into meditating for those who do not yet have the patience for a more formal practice.
* When people first become sober they can struggle with mental fuzziness. Music may help to improve their concentration levels.
* If people are dealing with symptoms of depression they may find that listening to music can help with this.

Music and Romancing the Drink or Drug

While music can almost certainly help people in recovery there may be some types that those who are newly sober will be best to avoid. If the individual spends a great deal of time listening to those tracks that they associate with drinking or using drugs it could increase the risk of relapse. This is because it will trigger memories of the times when the individual felt that their substance abuse was pleasurable – this is referred to as romancing the drink. It is possible to associate fresh memories with old music favorites, but this is probably best left until people are more secure in their sobriety. For the first year or so it may be best to completely avoid any music associated with substance abuse. There will be plenty of other types of music to explore and enjoy.

Thamkrabok Rehab Temple and Music Therapy

Thamkrabok is a Buddhist temple in Thailand that offers treatment to people who wish to recovery from an addiction. Music plays an important role at the temple because of its therapeutic powers. The monks of Thamkrabok even have their own recording studio. The former abbot of this temple believed that nature had its own music, and that it was possible for those who listened carefully enough to hear it. The monks even have a method of transcribing cracks in the wall of natural stone into musical composition. The UK musician Tim Arnold made a whole album this way.

Things to Consider with Music Therapy

If people hope to benefit from music therapy there are a number of things worth considering:
* In order to get the most from this type of therapy it is best to stick to a credentialed professional who has gone through an approved program.
* It is not necessary for people to have any type of musical ability in order to benefit from this treatment. They may not even like music very much to begin with.
* Music therapy can be of benefit to people of all ages.
* It is possible for the individual to create their own playlist of therapeutic music by adding those tracks that they found soothing. This may be less beneficial than a proper assessment by a music therapist, but it certainly can be helpful.
* There is no right music for relaxation. Some people will feel relaxed while listening to classical music but for other people it could be punk rock.
* It is a good idea to keep a journal in order to record how different types of music impact mood and feelings of relaxation. This way the individual will discover the music that works best for them.
* If people are having difficulties concentrating they may wish to try music with a fast beat to see if this helps.
* Music can be a wonderful tool to help people exercise. These tracks can motivate and encourage the individual to pick up the tempo of their activity.
* Meditation music can help the individual experience meditative states. It is not a good idea to use music long-term for meditation because it becomes too much as a crutch and can prevent the individual from advancing along this path.
* Simple drumming is a relatively easy thing for people to learn. This type of music creativity can be good for escaping pain and emotional turmoil.
* Learning to play a musical instrument can be a great choice for people in recovery. As well as this being entertaining it will also be a great stress buster.


SOURCE: http://alcoholrehab.com/addiction-recovery/music-therapy-in-addiction-recovery/

Why Music is Like Drugs & How to Use it to Impact Your Emotions

 

 

 

 Why Music is Like Drugs & How to Use it to Impact Your Emotions

A deeper look into music’s influence on mood.

Creativity / John Marshall / April 19, 2016

That music impacts your emotion is not news. But what was once aural conjecture is now approaching the scientifically-sound—“experts in behavioral endocrinology and neuroendocrinology have found that musical stimulation (listening) affects various biochemical substance[s].”
As you probably know, chemicals play large role in your mood—specifically, the chemical messengers in the brain called neurotransmitters. These chemicals guide our behavior; fluctuations in neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, signal essential desires like hunger and sleep, and more abstract sensations, e.g. happiness and sadness. Music, like drugs, can alter our mental chemistry—the same basic mechanism that makes you feel buzzed post-espresso is what makes you bob your head to the beat.
In fact, these changes in “biochemical substances” may account for the bate of success in so-called music therapy, which is an effective treatment for conditions as varied as Alzheimer’s, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and depression.

Chemicals & Circumstance: The Biology of “Dope Beats”

In an essay titled “Drugs That Shape Men’s Minds,” Aldous Huxley wrote, with respect to improving one’s self, that there are “two methods available—the educational and the biochemical. We can take adults and children as they are and give them a much better training than we are giving them now. Or, by appropriate biochemical methods, we can transform them into superior individuals.”
In other words, your mood is the product of two things: circumstance and chemicals.
While we know that putting yourself in front of a upbeat live band on a Friday will lend to a good time, to what extent does music chemically improve mood?
According to Nature, “music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria…which [may] help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies.” Moreover, the key to that sense of euphoria is indeed chemical—the same article explains that “that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release.” Dopamine is an often-discussed neurotransmitter, as it’s usually associated with neural reward (realized as pleasurable feelings) and the accordant building of habits.
The specific interaction with dopamine is as follows: when a listener enjoys a song, this neurotransmitter binds to a brain region called the Nucleus accumbens (hereafter NAc). This dopamine-NAc binding is also associated with “[engagement in] sexual activity, intake of drugs, eating of chocolate and drinking water when dehydrated.”
In addition to its effect on dopamine, music-listening is also associated with an increase in electrical activity in the left frontal lobe of the brain. There’s some correlation between depression and lower electrical activity in this part of the neuro-anatomy, and most neuroscientists (and cognitive scientists, et al.) suspect that there is some causality at play.
Alright—but when you’re really feeling a song? Like you pop in your ear-buds, throw on a track, and it puts you in the zone? It literally gives you “chills” or “shivers down the spine”? When this happens, you experience changes in heart rate, respiration, and blood flows to “brain regions thought to be involved in reward/motivation, emotion, and arousal…brain structures [which] are known to be active in response to other euphoria-inducing stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse.”

The Extent to Which Music Changes Mood is a Matter of Taste

One interesting common thread throughout musically-induced shifts is that those synaptic, electrical snap-crackles are highly dependent on a single variable across many studies: your taste. Yes, music is like drugs, in that it can positively change the electro-chemical landscape of your mind. But that only happens if you’re into said sounds.
One study found that changes in serotonin, the other feel-good neurotransmitter—which is upped by sex and sleep, MDMA and Prozac, etc.—is totally dependent on the extent to which the subjects reported enjoying the music. As one might suspect, those who reported disliking what they listened to were found to have lower levels of serotonin than those who reported liking it, and vice versa.
With this in mind, perhaps a more precise claim would be: music that resonates with you has the potential to improve your sense of emotional well-being.
So how can you apply this phenomenon practically?
Dr. Ariane Dahleim, a research psychologist at the University of Sydney, said that music can definitely be therapeutic. In her own work, she finds music to be useful in “arousal reduction,” where arousal basically means “you are in a ‘heated’ state of mind and not thinking clearly. Errors in thinking are one of the biggest obstacles in mental health…from jumping-to-conclusions, to negative generalizations—nobody likes me; I’ll never be successful—and so on. We teach people to slow down their thinking and detect those errors.”

Pick Music that Matches the Mood You’re After—Not the One You’re In

Most of us tend to listen to sad songs when we’re sad, and happy songs when we’re happy. You don’t throw on Morrissey when you’re stoked. Or if you do, maybe you shouldn’t—as it happens, sad music can actually make you feel sad, and the opposite is also true. That being said, it’s pretty difficult to bump an overwhelmingly upbeat track when you’re glum. When you’re feeling gloomy, sunny stuff tends to bum you out even more. (For a severe illustration of this point, consider that suicide rates are actually highest in the spring and early summer, and not in the winter as most people suspect; when you’re consciousness is darkly-clouded and stormy, a bright and sunny world only makes you feel more isolated and alienated from your surroundings.)
While it’s harder to stomach a happy song when we’re unhappy, it’s worthwhile to try and find something you can stand, to ease yourself into it. Instead of turning your mood upside down, constructive a narrative like you would for a mix-tape. Listen to one sad song—fine, it’ll level you out. Then slowly select things that are more upbeat.
Dr. Dalheim agreed, and said that “having a playlist handy may be a smart, quick way to slow down and take a breath before you act upon a situation, which leads to better behavior.” She also adds that “music can elicit memories that may pull you out of a bad mood before it spirals into something disruptive.”
Furthermore, studies suggest efforts to harness music and re-shape your mood are worthwhile. A recent example monitored patients’ levels of arousal after heart surgery, and explored the extent to which music might alleviate any stress. The results found that those who listened to music after surgery were less likely to develop complications than those who did not.
Listening to music also makes it easier to work out. At least one study found that listening to music actually does hype you up, and subjects workout more intensely and longer with it than they do without. This can prove a vital boon to one’s mental health, considering the role exercise plays in the reduction of stress and anxiety.
In mitigating depression, alleviating stress, and in raising our spirits, we find music at the ultimate juncture between the educational and the chemical. By learning to listen better, we can begin to feel better, too.

Credit: http://www.everup.com/2016/04/19/music-benefits-influence-on-emotions-and-mood/

 

 Elton John encourages young singers to get their highs from music not drugs

Elton John is urging younger artists to stay off cocaine – and speaks from his own experience.

He says: “Young musicians have disappeared into the bathroom and I’ve gone, ‘Are you doing coke?’ And they’re going, ‘Yeah!’ I said, ‘That’s not a good idea’ and they say, ‘It’s what I’m meant to do, isn’t it?’

“No, you’re not. It’s a f****** horrible drug. It brings out the worst side of your soul, you don’t need it, you’ve got so much talent.

"Stop it. It’s a f****** horror story.

“Just because Amy Winehouse , Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix died at 27, it doesn’t mean you have to.” 

Speaking about his own years of excess, Elton, 68, tells Vice: “I used to sit on my own doing lines of coke, smoking joints and drinking scotch. I used to think, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I didn’t realise I was an addict.”

 Credit: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/elton-john-encourages-young-singers-6956340

 

RAVES ARE ABOUT MUSIC, NOT DRUGS

 

 

RAVES ARE ABOUT MUSIC, NOT DRUGS 

I am a 20-year-old university student, I have never overdosed on drugs and I have never been in trouble with the law.  I have educated myself on the dangers associated with doing drugs and I party responsibly.

To Mel Lastman and the police force of Toronto: Raves are not about drugs.  In my nine short months of partying, I have become addicted to the music, the people and the whole rave atmosphere.

The party begins.  Reality turns to fantasy, allowing me to escape the pressures of everyday life and live in a dream world for a few short hours.

The girl sitting next to me, whose name I don't even know, is my friend, my sister, my soulmate.  Peace and love replace anxiety and fear; violence and hate are condemned.

All are united as one; there is no differentiation based on race, gender or sexual orientation.  As I dance till dawn to the point of physical exhaustion, I have never felt more alive.

Banning raves will not eliminate the use of drugs; it will only move their use to a different location: the streets.  Banning raves will not eliminate parties; it will merely force them back underground, where there are no safety regulations.  In fact, it probably will increase the use of drugs and overdoses because of the lack of police and medical supervision.

The answer is not prohibition; it is education.  The use of drugs will never be eliminated in any society.  But, perhaps, the rate of overdose and death can be.  Ravers of Toronto, please party responsibly and show our city why we just can't stop raving: It's about the music.

Kimberly Gleeson Toronto 

 

Credit: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n668/a02.html

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Healing through music, not drugs: 

Brain-wave music therapy miraculously reduces night terrors, bad behavior in children.

 

(NaturalNews) A British mother says she has basically cured her daughter's night terrors by playing music specially crafted to produce calm brain waves.

Laura Mulligan of Manchester, England, said that her daughter's screaming night terrors woke their whole family every night for three years.

"My husband and I were on our knees waking up to 20 times every single night," Mulligan said. "When our second daughter Annie was born last year, we had to move each night between the two children, without any possibility of having sleep ourselves.

"I wished someone would just take them for me when they were sleeping and when I came back it would all be fine," she said. "It was really, really strenuous and at times I did feel like I was at the end of my tether."

With the new calming music, however, Mulligan's daughter is able to get back to sleep on her own.

Three sleepless years

Night terrors differ from nightmares in that they do not occur during the dreaming, or REM, phase of sleep. A person who suffers from night terrors will begin to scream, shout or thrash around in seeming panic, but without waking up, and will have no memory of the event the next morning. Night terrors are particularly common in children between the ages of three and eight.

From a very young age, Mulligan's daughter Niamh needed white noise to sleep. Eventually this stopped working, however, and then the night terrors began.

"Niamh would scream the house down," Mulligan said.

The problem became worse when their next daughter, Annie, was born, as Niamh's screams would wake the baby, whose crying would then wake Niamh. This could occur as often as 20 times per night.

"With two children crying and screaming, trying to get one asleep before the other wakes up, it is hard," Mulligan said. "There have been moments when all three of us have just sat on the bed sobbing our hearts out."

"[My husband] James and I were literally only getting one or two hours sleep at night," Mulligan said. "There was no way just one of us could stay awake with her, it was all of us, she would even wake the baby up.

"I don't think James and I were managing very well. We needed some outside help to deal with this.

"I was actually scared about driving the car, because I didn't feel safe as I was so tired."

Alphamusic calms brain, at night and during day

None of the techniques that Mulligan tried worked, until a friend mentioned the "Alphamusic" of Australian piano composer John Levine. Levine's music is designed to "heal people through the power of music" by triggering calming brain waves.

"I got the My Little Sea Shell track," Mulligan said. "The results outdid our expectations. We now put this music on all night on a loop and if she briefly wakes, she goes back to sleep immediately without fuss."

Not only are Mulligan and her husband well rested again, but the music even seems to reduce conflict between their daughters during the day.

"While they do craft work at the kitchen table, normally they are fighting and pulling - there is a lot of jealousy that goes on," Mulligan said. "I just put this special brainwave music on and Niamh is a lot calmer whilst they are cutting out and playing with each other.

"I would like to thank John for composing this piece," she said. "I can't tell you how much of a difference this has made in our lives. I'll tell everyone who will listen."

Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

 

Getting high on music, not drugs

 Getting High on Music, Not Drugs:

 How one band is using rock music to empower Malaysia's youth to live drug-free lives.

Khai Aziz's life has been surrounded by drugs – his friends lost their lives because of it, his brother was stuck in a vicious cycle of heroin, and a man in his village wanted to sell his kids to buy drugs.
Drug use in his community is rampant, and drugs are running in the veins of countless youths.
Being in such an environment, it seemed only a matter of time before Khai himself succumbed.
But he rose above his surroundings and decided to use the power of music to spread the message that being drug-free is cool, starting the Drug Free Youth Malaysia initiative.
Youths are welcome to come and belong to a community that prides itself in being drug, cigarette and alcohol-free.
And there's a space for them to use music - instead of drugs - as an instrument for relief and liberation.
The youths feel inspired, motivated and some have begun to come out of the darkness of drugs.

Support Drug Free Youth Malaysia's music festival and help spread the message of "being cool without drugs". You can buy tickets or donate here: https://www.simplygiving.com/event/9e4a696a-eb6a-4a3c-8661-c955624f31a5

Getting high on music, not drugs

Drugs, music, and ideology: a social pharmacological interpretation of the Acid House Movement

During the summer of 1988, a musical concert experience called Acid House arrived on the cultural scene in many British cities. The media created a frenzy of misinformation in reporting about the latest drug craze. Acid House music was then banned from the pop music charts, radio and television, and retail outlets. Some psychoactive substances have been bought, sold, and consumed at Acid House events, but drug use does not appear to be extensive. At the physiological level, the nature of Acid House music, especially the drumming aspect, seems instrumental in providing altered states of consciousness. At the interpersonal and social level, the set and setting of Acid House events further enhances and reinforces the specific physiological and psychological responses. The degree of acceptance by various subcultural groups may depend greatly on the amount of media and societal exposure given to it, particularly if authoritarian attempts to suppress it enhance its political or ideological aspects.

Credit: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1356936