Music therapy: fact or myth?

Art therapy is the employment of arts to treat mental illness and modify behaviors through sessions that employ various arts such as plastic art, drawing, music, psychodrama and what is known as storytelling sessions in a fruitful therapeutic journey. The term art therapy is really not a new term, but it was coined by Adrian Hill since 1942, and art therapy began years earlier, but it began to be known by the name and formed more clearly since this year. Do the arts also treat organic diseases or just mental disorders? Can the arts sing about psychotherapy, organic and drug sessions?

Adrian Hill is also an artist, painter, writer, teacher, broadcaster and art therapist. To understand how Adrian Hill came up with the idea of art therapy, you must understand the circumstances that led to it. Adrian Hill lived during World War I and lived with soldiers who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after facing the horrors of war. Adrian Hill noticed that these sufferers could never express their feelings in words, so I found it very difficult to understand, deal with and treat their problems properly. Adrian observed the soldiers' response to different art forms and witnessed how through painting they were able to better communicate their feelings and then deal with them through conventional psychotherapy.

So, from this you can get to the truth about the role of the arts in therapy. Art therapy is a complementary treatment and is not suitable for its practice alone, but many studies and research have proven beyond any doubt the great role that the arts play in emptying and projecting negative feelings that patients have failed to express in clear words. Hundreds of trials also proved that cases treated with arts as complementary therapy achieved great success and showed better and faster results compared to cases treated in the traditional way only.

This article will address music therapy in particular and what has come out of research and studies in this field. Whether you suffer from anxiety, crises, stress, daily stress, mood swings, or you suffer from mental illness or even pain caused by chronic diseases, trust that this article will help and guide you to what impact music can have on you.

1- Music is resistant to anxiety, stress and bad mood

You must have noticed that during your bad mood, listening to your favorite music makes your mood gradually start to improve. The right choice of music has been proven to create a sense of happiness, regulate emotions and help to relax. Calm, lyric-free music has also been scientifically proven to reduce anxiety and stress.

Many doctors around the world resort to listening to soft music during difficult surgeries, dental treatment, and others. Music was also used to reassure and calm patients. Music was used with cancer patients and was observed to have given very good results in relieving anxiety and stress compared to patients who received care only without music. Music has also been shown to enhance mental and physical stimulation such as listening to music while playing sports or mental games.

2- Music and memory

Scientists have proven that repetitive patterns of music and words enhance memory very well as our memory is a repetition pattern which improves memory. A study focused on stroke survivors and how music helped them form better verbal memory, improve attention and reduce distortion. It has been found that the areas of the brain responsible for musical memory are not significantly affected by Alzheimer's disease. We recall the story of the famous ballerina Martha C. Gonzalez who suffered from Alzheimer's but remembered her dance movements as soon as she heard her music. Music also helps Alzheimer's patients maintain certain mental abilities.

3. Music and Pain Relief

A study was conducted on patients who underwent surgery, some of whom were exposed to listening to music before, during and sometimes after surgery, while the other group was not exposed to any music. He found that the pain was less, satisfaction was better, and even recovery was faster among the members of the group that listened to the music compared to the other group.

Music was also used to care for individuals with serious and chronic illnesses and was found to help communicate better. Music helped patients express feelings of fear, anger and anxiety.

4- Music and autism spectrum disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder are known to find it particularly difficult with communication, attention and social skills. Research found that children on the autism spectrum who underwent art therapy sessions through music showed significantly better results in attention deficit and improved their ability to communicate relatively.

5. Music and Children

Music and lullabies for children have given very good results in improving their feeding behaviors and calming them. Music also contributes significantly to the child's physical and muscular formation as it increases the child's movement and enthusiasm, which enhances the strengthening of the child's muscular structure during the early stages in particular.

6- Psychotherapy and music

Music therapy takes many forms such as music listening therapy, playing therapy, singing therapy, motor expression therapy and finally, combining music with psychotherapy sessions. Some psychiatrists use soothing music as a backdrop for psychotherapy sessions to help patients calm down, relax, and narrate. Some doctors mix music with painting or music with psychodrama in all its forms in group therapy sessions and it has proven to be very successful. The success of the session is largely linked to the choice of music that best suits the individuals and the situation, whether in individual sessions or group therapy sessions.