Are you bipolar or an addict looking for insight from a like-minded soul? Have a loved one suffering from bipolar or addiction and want some inside advice? While I’m not a doctor or medical expert, I can tell you about my experiences with this dual diagnosis and look to support others with replies. Note that your submission may be used in an upcoming blog post, although names will be changed.
This week David Z. writes:
I’ve heard about music therapy, but I don’t really know what it entails. What is music therapy? And how can it help me?
“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly, music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.”
— Plato
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
— Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World
“One good thing about music, when it fits, you feel no pain. So hit me with music.”
— Bob Marley
Plato and the others may be onto something. Music — a soothing force — can be extremely therapeutic in cases of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, PTSD, dementia, asthma, speech impairment, and acute pain.
I’ve never worked with a music therapist, but I know music helps me with my bipolar moods.
As I’ve talked about here before, listening to happy albums like the Flaming Lips’ ‘Transmissions from the Satellite Heart’ helps me when I’m down. Nine Inch Nails helps me when I want to blow off some steam. And Joni Mitchell’s Blue helps me when I’m sad.
Around since 1944, music therapy is defined as “a planned, goal-directed process of interaction and evaluation of individual clients’ specific needs, strengths, and weaknesses, in which music or music-based experiences are specifically prescribed to be used by specifically trained personnel to influence positive changes in an individual’s condition, skills, thoughts, feelings, or behaviors” (Peters, 2000).
Music therapists monitor physical health, communication abilities, cognitive skills, and emotional well-being through the lens of music. Whether it’s talking about lyrics or songwriting or watching a band perform, patients benefit from the effects of music in one way or another.
Music therapy can include a pianist playing in the lobby of a hospital, an artist-in-residence performing at a nursing home, a choir singing on a hospital ward, etc.
Music therapy can also be used as a coaching tool for those with Alzheimer’s or speech impairment.
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords — after she was wounded by a bullet to the brain during a shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona — employed a music therapist to help her regain her speech, which she did.
There are testimonials on the American Music Therapy Association’s website.
“Rose is in her eighties and lives in a nursing home due to her diagnosis of probable SDAT — Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type. She speaks in one-word syllables, appears unaware of her surroundings and cannot take care of her bodily needs,” one testimonial says. ”However, when she is visited by the music therapist and sings ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ her words are clearly understood.”
These stories can be pretty amazing.
Bipolar individuals or those with mood disorders can especially benefit from music therapy.
“Music can positively affect people’s mental health,” one study says. “It can bring about [mental health] by eliciting calm and peaceful feelings, and providing a healthy diversion from the harshness of life” (Bednarz & Nikkel, 1992).
I’m a strong believer in the power of music to heal. It’s just another tool in our arsenal to combat this disease of bipolar disorder.
