Can listening to music help your mental health? When you enter teen substance abuse treatment, your rehab team may recommend participation in music therapy. Such a recommendation may seem unusual at first glance. How can something as commonplace as music help you regain your sobriety? As it turns out, there is evidence to support music therapy for mental health. You may benefit from listening to music while enrolled in a rehab program for various reasons. Contact Imagine Fort Collins online or call 888.291.2309 today to learn more.
What Are the Everyday Benefits of Listening to Music?
Research shows that listening to music can improve your mental health. Specific possible areas of improvement include the following:
- Typical mood
- Level of mental alertness
- Memory function
- Reaction to everyday anxiety
The benefits of listening to music also include positive impacts on your physical health. One potential impact is a reduction in your blood pressure levels. Music listening can also help make coping with significant physical pain easier. What’s more, music enjoyment has the potential to help you sleep better.
You can also benefit from listening to diverse forms of music. Studies show that unfamiliar music can help keep your brain active. It can also boost your sense of personal creativity. However, not everyone reacts to the same kinds of music in the same ways. Take the time to find the styles and genres that produce the types of effects you desire.
Can Listening to Music Help Your Mental Health?
Many teenagers have a background that includes exposure to some traumatic event. That’s worth noting because any such exposure can destabilize your mental equilibrium. In most cases, this destabilizing effect only has a short-term impact. But it can also have lingering consequences. If this happens to you, you may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or another trauma-related mental health issue. You may also increase your chances of developing or deepening a drug or alcohol problem.
Research shows that certain kinds of music-based activities can help heal long-term trauma. The list of these activities includes:
- Writing songs
- Singing in groups
- Taking part in drum circles
Music therapy works, in part, because it helps lower your anxiety levels. It can also help you become more resilient to future trauma exposure. That’s important since you may need to deal with various trauma triggers in everyday life.
How Does Music Therapy for Mental Health Work?
Can listening to music help your mental health? As we’ve seen, the answer to this question is yes. This fact helps explain humanity’s millennia-old love affair with music. But why are music and music therapy beneficial?
The key lies in the ways that our brains react to music. You activate multiple brain areas when you listen to music or make it. Some of these areas help determine your everyday thoughts. Others help determine your daily emotional state. In addition, some have control over your ability to move and feel. Changes in such aspects of your brain function can lead to changes in your mental health. Music therapy harnesses this effect to promote an improved sense of well-being.
Contact Imagine Fort Collins to Find Out How Listening to Music Help Your Mental Health
Music therapy for mental health may play an essential part in substance abuse recovery. That’s especially true for teenagers. Want to find out more about the possible benefits of music therapy enrollment? Talk to the adolescent recovery professionals at Imagine Fort Collins.
With our help, you or your teen can fully use the advantages of music therapy. You’ll also gain access to a wide range of other resources for substance and mental health recovery. Get started today by contacting us at 888.291.2309. You can also fill out our online information form.