Recovery from addiction isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. Drug or alcohol addiction impacts people in different ways. And because addiction is often rooted in trauma, the effects of trauma on the brain can make overcoming addiction even more challenging. Considering the individualized nature of recovery, it’s important to seek holistic addiction recovery programs that offer both evidence-based and experiential treatment options.
In the context of holistic addiction treatment, music can be more than just something you listen to on your morning commute or at a weekend concert. As a form of expressive therapy, music therapy can make a substantial impact on your long-term healing. Not only can it facilitate your sobriety, music therapy can also be beneficial for addressing any co-occurring mental health disorders as well (when you think about your own experiences with music, the connection between music and mental health actually makes a lot of sense!). But what makes music therapy such a powerful tool in your recovery?
Addiction, Mental Health, and Dual Diagnosis Treatment
To understand the benefits of music therapy in recovery, it’s good to know how your mental health and addictions are connected. As mentioned earlier, many addictions are often the result of unresolved past trauma in your life, even from something way back in childhood. How trauma affects the brain can vary from person to person, but sometimes its long-term impact can lead to the development of mental health disorders such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
The effects of your mental health disorder are often hard to cope with day in and day out. As a result, you may seek out various unhealthy ways to self-medicate in the moment in order to feel better. For some, these coping mechanisms of choice are drugs or alcohol. While these substances may provide temporary relief, it doesn’t last. This leads to you taking more of the substance to sustain the relief, eventually resulting in a drug or alcohol addiction.
Consequently, many people are left struggling with co-occurring disorders (both a mental health disorder and an addiction). And if you only treat one disorder at a time, the untreated one will get worse, eventually negating the progress you made on the other. That’s why it’s important to seek an addiction recovery center that offers dual diagnosis treatment. A dual diagnosis treatment center — like Defining Wellness — can address both your disorders simultaneously. And because of these capabilities, many dual diagnosis facilities will offer holistic recovery options like music therapy as part of their treatment programs.
What is Music Therapy?
Music therapy is a type of expressive therapy. Expressive therapy uses activities that allow you to creatively express yourself — such as art, drama, writing, dance, and music — in order to share and process feelings and memories that are difficult to put into words, explains WebMD.
Music therapy itself involves using music within a therapeutic relationship to address your physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs, according to the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). It’s a research-based therapy that actively applies science to the common experiences associated with music to aid in health treatment and educational goals. Like expressive therapy, music therapy also allows you to discuss challenging topics that may be hard to share through talking alone.
A qualified music therapist will base each music therapy session on your individual needs. As a result, you may create, sing, move to, or listen to therapeutic music. These therapeutic interventions are designed to address a number of goals, explains the American Music Therapy Association, including:
- Promoting wellness
- Managing stress
- Alleviating pain
- Expressing feelings
- Enhancing memory
- Improving communication
- Promoting physical rehabilitation
How Does Music Therapy Work?
Clinical music therapy is more involved than just listening to therapeutic music on your own to relax or feel better, shares the AMTA. During the music therapy process, you’ll work alongside a credentialed music therapist with a bachelor’s degree or higher in music therapy. Your therapist will have advanced knowledge in psychology, medicine, and music. Using this expertise, your therapist or therapy team will personalize each session based on your sobriety and mental health goals, music preferences, and past experiences. Your therapist may meet with you to assess your history of trauma, current overall well-being, communication abilities, and other attributes before engaging in music therapy.
Because music therapy is tailored to your needs, each session will look different. You may listen to certain music in order to bring you into a more relaxed, mindful state. Or you may process the meaning behind its lyrics alongside your therapist. On the other hand, your therapist may take a more hands-on approach to your session, asking you to sing, play an instrument, write a song, or dance to music. You may even be asked to improvise by creating unplanned music to foster self-expression and increase focus, connection, and engagement, shares the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Behind the scenes, music therapy activates your brain’s complex neural networks (such as those responsible for emotion and memory) in unique ways. As a result, listening, performing, or creating music, according to Ohio University, can evoke strong emotions and memories—leading to emotional processing and healing.
Music and Mental Health: The Benefits of Music Therapy in Recovery
As part of a comprehensive, holistic addiction recovery approach, music therapy can both put you in a better position to maintain sobriety and improve your mental health. In short, it integrates your mind, body, and spirit, which is a major component of our treatment philosophy at Defining Wellness Centers in Mississippi. And when your whole person is treated in the process, you’re more likely to achieve long-term healing. So how does music therapy make such an impact on your recovery? Here are some of the key benefits of music therapy:
Improves Your Mood and Mental Wellness
Music and mental health in many ways go hand in hand, and music therapy is no exception. According to Voices, neuroscience research has shown that music causes your brain to release dopamine, known as the pleasure chemical. Addiction in many ways can negatively affect your body’s dopamine receptors, so reintroducing dopamine through music therapy can boost your mood and increase positive feelings that can spur you on to continue your recovery. Music therapy can also help increase your motivation, as well as enhance your ability to mentally focus and concentrate.
Reduces Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
Just as music can increase your brain’s dopamine, it can also decrease your levels of cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. This helps reduce the heightened levels of stress that can persist in your body as a result of unprocessed trauma. At the same time, it can lower your blood pressure and heart rate, as well as help you relax. Music therapy can also reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, which are often mental health disorders that drive a drug or alcohol addiction.
Helps Stop Intrusive Thoughts
Intrusive thoughts — which are unwanted and usually uninvited thoughts that cause distress — can be a byproduct of OCD, as well as lead to other mental health disorders like anxiety. Because music therapy is such an engaging, hands-on treatment, it can help those struggling with intrusive thoughts divert their attention elsewhere. Over time, as you learn to ignore these mental distractions in the moment, you can also learn how to control intrusive thoughts in your daily life.
Helps Process Difficult Emotions and Traumatic Experiences
Your past trauma may be difficult to bring up or talk about, even leading to further retraumatization. However, one of the key benefits of music therapy is its ability to provide a safe, supportive, and unique way to explore and express your past traumas during treatment. With music therapy, you can learn to navigate and process difficult emotions and experiences that would otherwise be difficult to do with traditional talk therapy. This can often lead to a monumental breakthrough in overcoming your past trauma and experiencing real healing.
Provides a Healthier Coping Mechanism
As music helps improve your overall mental wellness, concentration, and focus, it can also help you get better at emotional regulation, or managing challenging emotions. Simultaneously, music therapy provides a healthier outlet and activity you can utilize on your own as a better way to cope with any future trauma, addiction, or anxiety triggers. Instead of seeking drugs or alcohol to cope, you’ll have music as an alternative. And using music to cope in the future can also help you build more community — another healthy coping mechanism in its own right.
Mississippi Addiction Treatment at Defining Wellness Centers
Music therapy, as part of a dual diagnosis treatment program, can lead to holistic recovery from addiction and mental health disorders — the kind of recovery that embraces a new, balanced, and healthier way of life. And that’s part of our personalized, comprehensive approach here at Defining Wellness. As one of the best Mississippi-based addiction treatment centers, we can help you overcome addiction and mental health challenges all under one roof. If you’re ready to achieve lasting healing and be empowered to maintain holistic wellness long-term, contact our team today. Learn more about our music therapy workshop HERE.
