Raphael's Music Therapy For Mental Health

Mental, neurological, and substance use disorders are common in all regions of the world, affecting every community and age group across all income countries. While 14% of the global burden of disease is attributed to these disorders, most of the people affected - 75% in many low-income countries - do not have access to the treatment they need.

Many military veterans experience a group of mental health conditions that tend to disproportionately affect military personnel. These conditions may include posttraumatic stress (PTSD), depression, anxiety, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and substance abuse, among other issues. Due to the traumatic environment in which active military combatants serve, veterans are at a significantly higher risk for developing these health concerns. These concerns can often be addressed and resolved with the support of a mental health professional.

Our mental health encompasses our psychological, emotional and social well-being. This means it impacts how we feel, think and behave each day. Our mental health also contributes to our decision making process, how we cope with stress and how we relate to others in our lives. Being healthy emotionally can promote productivity and effectiveness in activities like work, school or care-giving. It plays an important part in the health of your relationships, and allows you to adapt to changes in your life and cope with adversity.

We often think of our mind and body as separate, but our mental health and physical health are interconnected. Physical health problems significantly increase our risk of developing mental health problems, and vice versa. Nearly one in three people with a long-term physical health condition also has a mental health problem, most often depression or anxiety. Research shows that people with a mental health problem are more likely to have a preventable physical health condition such as heart disease. As well as this, mental health problems can come with physical symptoms. Our bodies and minds are not separate, so it’s not surprising that mental ill health can affect your body. Depression can come with headaches, fatigue and digestive problems, and anxiety can create an upset stomach, for example. Other symptoms can include insomnia, restlessness and difficulty concentrating. Physical activity is a great way to keep you physically healthy as well as improving your mental wellbeing. Research shows that doing exercise releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins in the brain. Even a short burst of 10 minutes brisk walking can improve your mental alertness, energy and mood.

Since the earliest days of humankind, music and the power of music, has been evident to us. Used in conjunction with traditional therapies, positive psychology, and even as a stand-alone intervention, music therapy offers a variety of benefits. Music can affect a client’s attention, emotion, cognition, behavior, and communication (Koelsch et al., 2009). It can also help bring about relaxation and pleasure (Koelsch et al., 2009). Music also affects perception (Koelsch et al., 2009). Training in music promotes an individual’s skills in the decoding of acoustic features, such as pitch height and frequency modulation (Koelsch et al., 2009).

Eating a wide variety of healthy foods helps to keep you in good health and to protect against chronic disease. Eating a well-balanced diet means eating a variety of foods from each of the five food groups daily, in the recommended amounts. It is also important to choose a variety of foods from within each food group. Takeaway foods, cakes, biscuits and soft drinks are examples of foods usually high in saturated fat, added salt or added sugars. They should be considered as extras to your usual diet and only eaten occasionally and in small amounts. Daily food serves are different for children, teenagers, women and men.

Music is effective for relaxation and stress management. Research confirms these personal experiences with music. Current findings indicate that music around 60 beats per minute can cause the brain to synchronize with the beat causing alpha brainwaves (frequencies from 8 - 14 hertz or cycles per second). Music can restore some of the cognitive functions, sensory and motor functions of the brain after a traumatic injury. Music does more than just put us in a good mood. It's a wonder drug that sets a lot of things right: It energizes your mind, eases stress, evokes emotions and soothes your soul.

There’s a good reason why TV sitcoms use laugh tracks: laughter is contagious. You’re many times more likely to laugh around other people than when you’re alone. And the more laughter you bring into your own life, the happier you and those around you will feel. More than just a respite from sadness and pain, laughter gives you the courage and strength to find new sources of meaning and hope. Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh–or even simply a smile–can go a long way toward making you feel better. And laughter really is contagious—just hearing laughter primes your brain and readies you to smile and join in the fun.

Public mental health is the art and science of improving mental health and well-being and preventing mental illness through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals. Mental health is vital to public health; mental well-being is profoundly important to quality of life and the capacity to cope with life's ups and downs. It is protective against physical illness, social inequalities and unhealthy lifestyles. There are now a large number of evidence-based approaches to promoting mental well-being and preventing mental illness, and these are growing daily. As healthy lifestyles and social equality are underpinned by positive psychological functioning, the promotion of mental wellbeing can address both these public health agendas. Wellbeing, including mental wellbeing, is a valuable social goal in its own right and it has become an explicitly declared goal for government in many countries of the developed world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) conceptualizes mental health as a “state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”.

Studies show that keeping your sex life active into old age protects and even improves your brain’s executive functioning and recall. Analyzing data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, British researchers found that sexually active men between the ages 50 and 89 had increased cognitive function, as measured by number sequencing and word recall, even after adjusting for quality of life, loneliness, depression and physical activity. The act of sex floods your brain with all sorts of feel-good chemicals while reducing the stress hormone cortisol. Dopamine, which impacts the brain’s pleasure and reward centers; endorphins, which can reduce pain and stress; and oxytocin, also known as the cuddle hormone, are all released during sex, with higher levels after orgasm. Prolactin, a hormone that relaxes you, is also released after an orgasm. The combination of prolactin and all the rest of the “feel-good” hormones are why most people sleep better after sex. A 2004 study published in the British Medical Journal studied the sex life of over 50,000 American males between the ages of 40 and 75. Men reporting 21 or more ejaculations a month were less likely to get prostate cancer than men who ejaculated four to seven times a month. A follow-up study published in 2016 showed the same results.

Mental illnesses are nervous system disorders that result in problems with thinking, mood, or relating with other people. These disorders are severe enough to affect a person's quality of life and often make it difficult for people to perform the routine tasks of daily living. Neurodegenerative disorders are illnesses characterized by a loss of nervous system functioning that are usually caused by neuronal death. These diseases generally worsen over time as more and more neurons die. The symptoms of a particular neurodegenerative disease are related to where in the nervous system the death of neurons occurs. Spinocerebellar ataxia, for example, leads to neuronal death in the cerebellum. The death of these neurons causes problems in balance and walking. Neurodegenerative disorders include Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, other dementia disorders, and Parkinson’s disease.

The Power of Thoughts Is a Creative Power. Thoughts are like a video that plays on the screen of your mind. What you play there, determines the kind of life you live and the experiences you meet. To make changes in your life, you have to play a different video, one that you like more. Neuroscientists have discovered that repetitive thoughts form neural pathways as neurons that fire together get wired together. Thus, the more a particular thought or belief is activated and reinforced, the stronger these neural pathways become and the more automatically they become our "go to" pattern of perceiving. Although they seem invisible, you can do many things with thoughts, and thoughts become many things, too. Thoughts can be smelled. Perfume is a beautiful example of thoughts that manifest into real life. The creator behind the perfume had an idea once, and started playing with flowers and oils.

Detoxification (detox) is the process of clearing the body of drugs or alcohol that an individual has consumed. The purpose of detox is to safely manage withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking drugs or alcohol.

Different mental illnesses affect different people in different ways. A person experiencing mental ill health may not have full control of perceptual or thought processes or emotions, particularly during acute episodes of illness. Timing is of paramount importance. For some people, mental health issues can impact on perceptions, thoughts or emotions and so reduce a person’s capacity to understand what is happening to them. People who have a mental health issue (and their families) often experience stigma and discrimination because of widespread community misunderstanding. In some areas, they also have fewer options to access specialist housing, and disability support services that they need to assist them to live well in the community of their choice. This is the main reason why families and carers carry the responsibility of care and support of their family member. Without families, the strain on health and disability support services would be greatly increased.