We all already know that music is great for entertainment purposes, but you can also use it as various forms of treatment. Some of these are for social or behavioral benefits, whereas others are on the fringe of medicinal, but that point is that knowing that music is an option to feel better in certain circumstances can help a person combat several situations effectively.
Take the topics of addiction, anxiety, autism, certain types of skin, bone, or blood conditions, and meditation tools. Music can and does fit into each of these categories in ways that can be useful to average, everyday folks.
Helping With Addiction
For people who are battling addiction, the ends will often justify the means when it comes to recovery, and if that means that music is involved somehow, so be it. It might be that the addict wants to listen to music that reminds them of sobriety, or they may use it is a way to stay focused when cravings or withdrawals hit. Sound and music can be very powerful when it comes to adjusting external senses and sensibility, so it can be used quite effectively during recovery stages of many different types of addictions.
Getting Rid of Anxiety
Music can directly help with getting rid of anxiety as well. If there’s a situation that a person is particularly worried about, one of the absolute simplest ways to fact that anxiety head on is to associate the healing of the tension with some genre of music, or perhaps even an individual song. Try staying stressed out listening to a Monkees album, and you’ll see some of the effect of this kind of approach right away.
Working With Autism
The way that autism is diagnosed and described has changed pretty dramatically in the past generation, but one thing that’s been a strong force in understanding and combating undesired behavior is by using music to calm kids down. In addition, many children especially who are diagnosed with autism find freedom while they’re learning instruments.
Sound Therapy
On the medical side of things, sound and audio therapy is currently relegated to the idea of ‘alternative’ medicine, but continued study of the matter keeps providing positive results. The idea is that small wounds or internal tears can be healed non-surgically using sound waves of various sorts, similar to the idea of non-invasive laser surgery.
Music As Meditation
And finally, expanding on the idea of using music to help with anxiety, even if a person isn’t anxious, they can use either full songs or even just tones to help with a basic meditative state. There are recordings of everything from songs made of wind and bells, to songs made from binaural tones, specifically created for this purpose.