Music for the Mind: How Can Music Improve Teenage Mental Health?
You’ve been working so hard this past week, even though nothing’s been going as planned. You’re almost done with that one assignment that’s been taking you FOREVER. Your mind is scattered, you can’t really focus and you feel your heart rate speed up. You go on your phone for a quick second to search for some music to calm you down. Of course, it’s the perfect time for your parents to come in and question why you’ve been wasting all this time on your phone.
Stressed? No, no, it’s okay, you’re fine.
Oh, but what about that assignment? Tough luck, you’ve been so overwhelmed you didn’t know that it was actually due yesterday night. You couldn’t find calming music so you chuck your phone across the room. You go into panic mode, rushing through the assignment and pressing “submit”. But it won’t let you. Why isn’t it working? You tell yourself to breathe and try to email the assignment to your teacher. As expected, they don’t accept late submissions. How convenient.
Some of that calming music would really help right now…
This problem is far too common, and music can help lessen the impact of it. Mental health issues experienced by adults are far different than those experienced by teenagers. Music stimulates the brain and can be used to reach a homeostasis in our autonomic nervous system.
Teenagers & Mental Health
On a day to day basis, adolescents experience a variety of different stressors in their daily lives. Some say it’s a part of growing up, or that we’re too dramatic — but the stats don’t lie:
- 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14
- 10% of children and young people (aged 5–16 years) have a clinically diagnosable mental problem, yet 70% of children and adolescents who experience mental health problems have not had appropriate interventions at a sufficiently early age.
- Globally, depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents.
Teenagers have an unlimited amount of pressure — whether it be deciding what they want to do with their lives in the span of four years (four hellish years, might I add) or growing up with external societal pressures.
It’s just unrealistic to expect teens to handle this all on their own.
Teens are then at risk of having intense bursts of negative emotion, such as depressive/manic episodes, meltdowns, burnouts, or anxiety attacks, to name a few. When one’s mind is overcome with strong emotion, it becomes hard to think rationally. In this state, teens are prone to taking impulsive actions that could cause serious detriment to their lives.
Most of these mental health issues go by undetected. In the time they’re left to foster and develop, these issues pile up and manifest in the form of long term disorders. Sometimes it can even get to the point where they suffer from an extreme emotional breakdown, as described above. And unfortunately, many only recognize the issue and seek help once the problem gets to that point.
The even bigger problem? Help is not as affordable or accessible as it should be.
From personal experience, it’s hard for teenagers to talk about mental health problems. Authority figures are often very dismissive of our issues, and amongst other teens, mental disorders are often turned into jokes (be honest, how many times have you heard a joke about having OCD?). It’s not taken seriously enough in our society, which makes teens hesitant to open up in fear of being ignored or ridiculed.
Access to mental health services is also limited, and costly. In Canada, the average cost of psychotherapy is around $125-$175 per session. To put this into perspective, $125 could buy groceries to feed a family for a week. Moreover, many turn to their family physicians for mental related issues as they aren’t sure where else to access the services they need. Public health systems don’t always guarantee mental health support.
When you’re having a panic attack and don’t know how to calm down, who do you turn to if no one’s available?
Teenagers need more affordable and accessible mental health services oriented towards helping them. This is where the “calming music” comes in.
The Answer to the Problem?
To understand how we can solve a problem, we first need to have a good understanding of why it’s happening. The key to preventing emotional meltdowns in teens lies in a certain part of our nervous system.
The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) regulates a variety of processes that take place in the body unconsciously. It is part of the peripheral nervous system — this system regulates involuntary processes such as breathing, blood flow and digestion.
The system has three branches:
- Parasympathetic Nervous System (PN) — our rest and digest response
- Sympathetic Nervous System (SN) — our flight or fight response
- Enteric Nervous System — governs the function of the gastrointestinal tract
Today, the sympathetic system is viewed as a quickly responding system that mobilizes the body for action where the parasympathetic system is believed to act much more slowly to dampen responses.
The ANS receives information from the environment and other parts of the body. The PN and SN will stimulate a response based on the environment. However, the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems do not work exclusively to one or the other. Instead, they work together to reach homeostasis.
Well then, how does this relate to mental health?
Irregular ANS function is often reported when taking a look at psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety. When our internal functions aren’t working as they should, our physical health is compromised, which can be extremely taxing on our mental health. Physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, such as muscle tension, breathing difficulties, or increased heart rate, are often reflected through the ANS.
To provide another example, in the case of a panic attack, the flight or fight response gets activated. Even though there may not be an actual threat, the mind believes that there is, and the ANS causes our breathing and heart rate to speed up, throwing the body into a “panic” state.
The solution to combating this issue is simply regaining homeostasis within the ANS.
It sounds simple in theory, but it can be very difficult to regain control of the ANS when it enters this state. Methods such as “meditation” or “eating well” aren’t very helpful to a teenager in the middle of a meltdown. However, this task can be made as simple as putting on some earbuds and hitting shuffle on your favourite playlist.
Balance those Brainwaves!
The next step to stabilizing the mental state is to look into brain activity. The autonomic nervous system is greatly affected by the pattern of our brainwaves. Irregularities in brainwave pattern can contribute significantly towards fluctuating ANS functions, and vice-versa. To sum it up, different brain patterns can cause different mental states, and when the pattern is causing an imbalanced state of mind, the ANS gets agitated as well. That’s when our brain activity gets thrown off, and our minds become unable to function at 100%.
However, when our brain activity is regulated, the Autonomic Nervous System is as well. These two components need to exist and stay balanced in tandem for the mind to be in a stable state.
Remember: Homeostasis is KEY.
There are 5 primary brainwaves found in our brain. We classify them by their speed, which is measured in Hertz (HZ).
- Delta Brainwaves (.5 to 3 HZ) → Occur during deep meditation and dreamless sleep.
- Theta Brainwaves (3 to 8H HZ) → Mostly occur during sleep or sleep meditation
- Alpha Brainwaves (8 to 12 HZ) → Associated with relaxation and calmness, or slowly flowing thoughts.
- Beta Brainwaves (12 to 38 HZ) → Occur when we are alert + attentive, or engaged in problem solving and focused mental activity.
- Gamma Brainwaves (38 to 42 HZ) → Fastest brainwaves, pass information quickly. Associated with intense concentration + learning.
Imbalances
- Theta waves, associated with slower brain activity, can get in the way of thinking. Too much or too little theta prevents one from being able to think or focus clearly. This imbalance is often seen in those with ADHD.
- A lack of alpha waves can increase anxiety, as they are associated with relaxation.
- Too much beta is often associated with anxiety, stress, and agitation. Low beta brainwaves are often seen in those with depression, and can be characterized by a lack of motivation.
For more details, check out this article: https://ntcutah.com/do-brain-waves-affect-behavior/
Music for the Mind
The link between music and brain has been noted throughout history. The philosopher Plato, had long ago theorized that music played in different modes would evoke different emotions. It can’t be denied that there is strong emotional significance in the music that we listen to. Some songs are often defined as sad, while some are seen as happy, and there are certain aspects to a song that contribute towards this phenomenon, mainly key and tempo.
For key in particular, major chords are seen as happier tones while minor chords are perceived as heavier and more melancholic. When looking at tempo, music with a faster tempo evokes emotions such as happiness, excitement, and delight, whereas music with a slower tempo evoked feelings such as sadness and depression, which is further described through this research article.
Certain music also links towards the type of brainwaves that become prominent in the mind. A 2018 study published in the IEEE International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (ICAM) explores how the beta brainwave, associated with anxiety, was more prominent when the research subject was listening to heavy metal. On the other hand, when the subject was exposed to calmer classical music, the subject found it much easier to relax and concentrate.
Corporations such as Brain.fm and Nucalm are capitalizing on the benefits of music on the brain and incorporating it into their services and products. It can’t be denied that music has a powerful effect on the mind, and if used in the right way, can stabilize mood and help balance one’s emotions.
Conclusion + Takeaways
Today’s teens are suffering from a mental health crisis. They’re under immense amounts of pressure, and don’t have the necessary resources to deal with their problems. However, music proves to be an effective way for teenagers to stabilize mood and prevent intense emotional meltdowns.
- Achieving homeostasis within the autonomic nervous system is key to stabilizing one’s mental state.
- Irregular brainwave patterns lead to poor mental health. Brainwaves must be balanced to maintain a healthy mind.
- Certain aspects of music, such as key or tempo, can regulate brainwave patterns to level ANS functions and improve one’s mental health.
This article was a collaborative effort between Emaan Amin and Astha Dhyani. If you’re interested, please contact us below:
Emaan Amin: 1emaanami@gmail.com
Astha Dhyani: asthadhyani@gmail.com
Citations
26, Karuna Meda November, et al. “How to Manipulate Brain Waves for a Better Mental State.” The Nexus, 15 July 2020, nexus.jefferson.edu/science-and-technology/how-to-manipulate-brain-waves-for-a-better-mental-state/.
“Adolescent Mental Health.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 28 Sept. 2020, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health.
Bright, Jeff. “Do Brain Waves Affect Mood and Behavior?” Neurofeedback and Counseling of Utah, 9 May 2018, ntcutah.com/do-brain-waves-affect-behavior/.
Cherry, Kendra. “How the Autonomic Nervous System Regulates Body Functions.” Verywell Mind, 18 Apr. 2020, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-autonomic-nervous-system-2794823.
The Influence of Different Kinds of Music on Brainwave Signals — IEEE Conference Publication, ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8614971/references.
Liu, Ying, et al. “Effects of Musical Tempo on Musicians’ and Non-Musicians’ Emotional Experience When Listening to Music.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 15 Oct. 2018, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02118/full.
“Mental Health in the Balance: Ending the Health Care Disparity in Canada.” CMHA National, 23 May 2019, cmha.ca/ending-health-care-disparity-canada.
“The Relevance of the Autonomic Nervous System to Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders.” Frontiers, www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/2333/the-relevance-of-the-autonomic-nervous-system-to-neurological-and-psychiatric-disorders.
Trimble, Michael, and Dale Hesdorffer. “Music and the Brain: the Neuroscience of Music and Musical Appreciation.” BJPsych International, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1 May 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5618809/.
“What Are Brainwaves?” What Are Brainwaves ? Types of Brain Waves | EEG Sensor and Brain Wave — UK, brainworksneurotherapy.com/what-are-brainwaves.
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