Mental Illness

[Linus]

I don't want to intrude here but wanted to ask a question about the use of music to address mental illness. I ask this because it's something that a social worker suggested to my half-sister and interestingly, it seems to work. A bit of background: my half-sister was the sole witness to my mom's murder. This was a lot for an 8 year old to take in but coupled with that were a variety of conditions (i.e., Turner's syndrome, emotional abuse, slight Down's syndrome and, we suspect, OCD tendencies). What resulted was a form of schizophrenia and increased OCD behaviour. While she was already on a variety of medications to address other issues, the medication for the schizophrenia wasn't quite working. So the lead social worker in my sister's group setting suggested she listen to music (specifically Baroque classical) whenever the "experience" got to be too much.

Apparently this has helped huge with her ability to control things and has made it a more managable situation for herself. Granted, she'll never live on her own but she has a place of her own in a group setting, goes on trips, works, shops, etc. She's been using this for 5 years+ now and hasn't had any medication for her illness. Nor has she had major incidents. Certainly she can still focus on certain things endlessly and I cannot tell her about my transition (this would be too much and that is something I respect so I write to her with my birth name rather than my chosen name) but I did find it interesting.

So I was curious if others have used music as a mechanism to address other mental illnesses such as bi-polar, depression, anxiety, etc? And I wonder if it's the actual tempo or the attention is taken away from the illness and the mind focuses on something else or perhaps a combo of the two? Has anyone heard of this or been suggested this? Or was the social worker just lucky at the suggestion?