Music and Our Minds

As we inch closer to warmer weather and the beginning of spring, we also welcome a time of tremendous stress for teenagers. Between exams, homework, sports, extracurriculars, and whatever they may be dealing with outside of their life at school, getting through the day can prove very overwhelming for students and cause serious detriment to their mental health. According to the University of St. Augustine for Health and Sciences, about 50% of people who struggle with mental illness marked the start of their experiences by the age of 14, and when we look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, 69.1% of kids ages 12-17 suffered an extreme depressive episode during the first year. Since then, rates of teen mental illness and depression have scarily risen through the roof. 

With the rise of mental health issues, it is important to ensure that those who are struggling are equipped with healthy coping strategies. For some, asking for help and finding someone to talk to can be scary–  the stigma around mental health causes a lot of self-deprecation and shame for those who need a support system to help– so I am proposing a non-intimidating option available to almost everybody: music! AARP found that the use of music can significantly improve mental health and decrease depression, stress, and anxiety. Music can assist in stimulating your brain, evoke positive memories and thoughts, motivate you to get your body moving, and quiet the overpowering thoughts in your brain. 

There are many ways we can use music to the benefit of our mental health. A big thing for me is creating playlists that reflect a certain mood I feel often and putting music on there that can either comfort me or help me celebrate when I feel that way. For example, I have a playlist of sadder, slower, and relaxed songs for when I feel depressed or upset to unleash all my emotions. I also have a playlist filled with intense, more screamy songs for when I’m angry or stressed out, and a playlist full of upbeat, joyful, and light songs for when I’m having a good day and need to dance off any worries. Playlists are something that can be easily accessed on an assortment of platforms, and it can be nice to have a coping mechanism tucked away in your pocket whenever you need to fall back onto it.

It can also be helpful to listen to songs that relate to what you’re feeling at that moment, as this can help reduce feeling alone in your struggle and reassure yourself that other people have felt like you and that it does get better. There are a lot of songs, especially from less-recognized artists, that have messages regarding a variety of worldwide struggles anyone can surely find themselves in: mental illness, grief and loss, body image issues, discrimination, and rough family lives, to name a few. Someone who deals with social anxiety may find comfort in songs that are about social anxiety and the feelings that one may harbor while struggling with it because it makes the person realize there are other people out there to whom they can relate. They can feel seen within these songs, especially when heavy feelings are verbalized in such a powerful way. 

The world can be a dark, overwhelming world for us all, and it is crucial to have some sort of way to cope and comfort ourselves throughout everything. Screaming, dancing, or crying along to our favorite songs, songs that we can see pieces of ourselves in, can provide people with a healthy outlet that they may not otherwise have. Music urges us to release all the things we are holding inside of us and can leave us with a new sense of freedom and hope for better days ahead. It's hard to speak to others about what we’re dealing with behind closed doors, so if you can’t seek help from other people, seek help from music: find an artist or song that connects with you and start from there, and once you start, never stop.