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Thread: Music and healing

  1. #1
    Founder Luc's Avatar
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    Music and healing

    Using music to help us with healing, speeding up neurogenesis, making us feel better, inducing positive thinking, and so many others.

    The beneficial aspects of music have been known for a long time now. And more and more scientific research has been confirming it.



    http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-l...s-of-music.htm

    Music has a special power to move us and stir our emotions. Anyone who has ever wiped tears away from their eyes listening to their favourite sad song will know how powerful simple notes and chords can be.

    Now, scientific studies have shown that music really can change our mood and even help us concentrate.

    We look at the effects music can have, and we ask the experts what songs are likely to help you run a race, prepare for an exam or relieve stress.

    Music matters

    Listening to a song can have a real effect on various parts of the brain, with studies showing that areas responsible for aspects, such as memory and vision, can 'light up' in response to music.

    'There's a very wide range of reactions in the body and mind to music, and brain imaging studies have shown that various parts of the brain may be activated by a piece of music,' says Dr Victoria Williamson, lecturer in psychology at Goldsmith's College, London.

    'For example, a recent study in Canada showed that there's a real causal relationship between music and the reward system, a core part of the brain that reacts to stimuli, which are good for us – food, light, sex for example – and reinforces these behaviours meaning that we do them more.'

    So what benefits can music bring?

    Mood boost


    Everyone reacts to music in different ways. One individual may love heavy metal for example, while another is happiest listening to Mozart.
    Whatever your preference, a 2011 Canadian study, published in Nature Neuroscience, has shown that plugging in to your favourite music could help melt away a bad mood.

    Researchers at McGill University in Montreal showed that listening to pleasurable music of any description induced 'musical chills', which triggered the release of the feel-good chemical dopamine.

    'We all know from our own individual experiences that listening to music can affect mood,' says Bridget O'Connell, head of information at the mental health charity Mind.

    'Some people listen to music for a boost on a tough day, while others might use music to keep them awake during a long car journey or to purge a negative feeling.

    'The brain is very complicated – and there are many elements involved in feelings of pleasure – but it's unsurprising that research suggests dopamine release is linked with feelings of pleasure induced by music.'

    Focus

    Music may even be able to help you concentrate.

    A new 'digital tonic' called Ubrain, which can be downloaded onto smartphones, claims to be able to help people focus, energise, wake up as well as relax.

    The process uses two different beats in each ear to create a third 'perceived' beat (a binaural beat), which can stimulate certain activity in the brain.

    'By helping the brain cortex to generate specific brain waves, we can induce different states of alertness, depending on what we aim to do,' explains Paris-based clinical psychologist Brigitte Forgeot.

    'If we're feeling anxious or stressed, we can encourage our cerebral cortex to produce slow alpha-frequency brain waves, while on the other end of the scale, if we help our cortex to produce faster beta waves, we will be better equipped to concentrate and focus our attention on a fairly lengthy task.'

    [...]

    Better mental health

    Music can be an effective and positive treatment for people dealing with mental health conditions.

    'There are two distinct ways music therapy is used: either as a means of communication and self-expression or for its inherent restorative or healing qualities,' says Bridget O'Connell.

    'Someone who is very withdrawn may find that music can act as an outlet for expressing things that they're unable to put into words. It can also act as a stimulus to awaken buried memories or evoke emotional responses that may take weeks to achieve with talking therapies.'

    De-stress

    Music can be a great pick-me-up for when you are feeling stressed.

    According to 2011 figures from the mental health charity Mind, nearly a third of people plugged into their music players to give them a mood boost about work, and almost one in four said that they find listening to music on the way to the workplace helps them de-stress.

    Paul Farmer, the charity's CEO, backs up the statistics by saying that the therapeutic benefits of listening to music are well-known.

    Tuning in to one of your favourite songs can be incredibly soothing and help to reduce anxiety.

    Patient care

    Music can actually have a significant positive impact on patients with long-term illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer and respiratory conditions.

    Numerous trials have shown that music can help lower heart rate, blood pressure and help relieve pain, anxiety and improve patient quality of life.

    'Music can be incredibly useful for somebody who is in a situation where they have lost a lot of control from their external environment – say they are in hospital for a long period of time with a serious illness and less able to move around,' says Dr Williamson.

    'It can give them a sense of control back, as well as creating a calm personal atmosphere and blocking out some of the disturbances around the patient.'



    You may find some more info here; http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=26122


    Please, share your experience. Do you listen to music? What music is it? What seems to help? What not?


    Some months ago, we started the Classical Music Youtube video series (there have been 16 of them so far and more are on the way). We hope that, if listened to regularly, they may help in the brain’s neuroplasticity. Below is the first part (Bach). If a given music piece was too stimulating for your CNS, you can check others.

    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

  2. #2
    Founder Sheila's Avatar
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    Book -- This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession

    by Daniel Levitin, 2006

    Music, Science, and the Brain are more closely related than you think. Daniel J. Levitin, James McGill Professor of Psychology and Music at McGill University, shows you why this is.

    In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin (The World in Six Songs) explores the connection between music, its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it, and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:

    How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
    Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre
    That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise
    How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head

    Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. A Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist, This Is Your Brain on Music will attract readers of Oliver Sacks, as it is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.

    http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brai.../dp/0452288525
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

  3. #3
    Founder stan's Avatar
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    music and healing! oh yes! but when withdrawal gave you tinnitus, the sounds are no more the same as original
    12 years paxil(9 years only 10 mg) - cold turkey(1,5 month) and switch celexa tapered 1 year 20 mg
    62 years old - for GAD - 4 years 3 months meds free [since april 2009]

    vegetables soup - orange (vit C) - curcuma - some meat or fish

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    Founder Sheila's Avatar
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    Yes, and the big obstacle I have had to using music for healing is that I can't listen to any without it becoming torturously stuck in my head. I have not been able to find a way to work around this yet.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

  5. #5
    Founder Luc's Avatar
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    And one thing is when it's the music you like, another when you hate it...
    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

  6. #6
    Founder Sheila's Avatar
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    See 528 Hz, Solfeggio frequencies, DNA repair, Gregorian and Sanskrit chants here --

    http://antidepressantwithdrawal.info...ull=1#post3048
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

  7. #7
    Senior Member Junior's Avatar
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    I have always loved listening to music as a way of dealing with stress. I've noticed that my choice of music is governed by my mood at the time. I don't know, maybe it helps my body to process the stress.

    I've also heard that classical music is really to study by because it alters our brain waves to ones that are conducive to learning and memory. I tried it a couple of times when working on psychology lab reports (uggh) and it definitely helped.
    Aropax (Paxil). Currently at 13mg and holding.
    Added Endep (amitrypline) 12.5 for sleep - 11 July 2013


    "There are things that are known and things that are unknown; in between are doors." - Anonymous

  8. #8
    Founder Luc's Avatar
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    Music is definitely underrated in that respect. And it may be beneficial in WD, too. It just needs to be done regularly, and possibly in synergy with other treatments.
    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

  9. #9
    Founder Luc's Avatar
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    Came across this music therapy research blog; http://www.musictherapyresearchblog.com/ Maybe some of you will find this info helpful.
    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

  10. #10
    Dutch Café Moderator Claudius's Avatar
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    Music has helped me a lot in WD, except for being in the worst waves when I could not stand it.
    I want to share this very beautiful song with the equally beautiful title "The Sky Above The Rain".
    It is not about WD (probably there are no songs about WD) but it describes the pain someone feels after a loss and the light that shines behind it. It is from the last album of my favortite band Marillion and I listen to it almost every day :)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwxO4OJuiCA
    Recovering from the ravages of withdrawal after 5 years on Paxil/Seroxat, originally prescribed for stress and, looking backward, PTSS.
    Though it is hardly possible to get something positive from the utter hell of repeated c/t's and protracted w/d, all of this unnecessary, I still believe in the possiblity to emerge from this as a healed, wiser human being.
    All we need is just a little patience - Guns N' Roses

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