People with depression feel better after listening to sad music, research suggestsOnce more, with feeling  People with depression listen to sad music because it makes them feel better, according to a small study that is one of the first to investigate why people turn to tearjerkers when theyre already down. The first part of the study, published recently in the journal Emotion, tried to repeat the findings of a 2015 study that showed that depressed people preferred listening to sad music. Researchers at the University of South Florida asked 76 female undergrads (half of them were diagnosed with depression) to listen to various classical music clips. Happy music included Jacques Offenbachs cheerful Infernal Gallop, and sad music included Samuel Barbers Adagio for Strings, which is almost universally considered to be extremely depressing. The scientists found that, like in the 2015 study, participants with depression indicated they would rather listen to sad music than happy music. Then, the researchers gave the participants new clips of happy and sad instrumental music and asked them to describe how the tracks made them feel. Again, the depressed participants preferred the sad music, but they also stated that the sad music made them feel happier. They actually were feeling better after listening to this sad music than they were before, study co-author Jonathan Rottenberg told WUSF News. It seemed to have relaxing and calming effects. This challenges the assumption that sad people listen to sad music to make themselves feel worse, when, in fact, it may be a coping mechanism. Of course, there are many limitations. This is a small study that only looked at female undergraduates, so the results should be taken with a grain of salt. (Psychology, in general, tends to use WEIRD Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic subjects too often.) We dont have a lot of detail regarding exactly why people with depression prefer sad music, and we dont know how results might change with happy and sad music that has words. However, its an intriguing finding that does replicate some earlier research and could have implications for fields such as music therapy. In this intervention, trained music therapists incorporate music into their interactions with patients by singing, listening to music, or playing music together. It has been used for everything from pain relief to helping cancer patients, and a 2017 Cochrane review of the evidence suggested that it had at least short-term benefits for patients with depression. Though there is no most common type of music used in music therapy, the programs can often include instruments like guitars and drums. In the future, maybe there will be a greater focus on sorrowful songs. |
Comments
So, wanting to listen to sad songs soon after a break-up is a built surge protector designed by nature to avoid total metldowns.
Just thinking about how nature works and the complexities of the mind is so utterly fascinating!
By Teju on 05.04.19 10:30am
Wait, that was really a common assumption? When Im sad Ive always listened to sad music to make me feel better. I always figured that was a common thing to do and why sad music exists in the first place. People tend to want to do things that make themselves feel better, not worse.
By Iamjason on 05.04.19 10:32am
oh boy lemme tell you about mental health stigma lmao
By Bigpikachu1 on 05.05.19 1:21pm
Go on
By Winklemeier on 05.05.19 4:18pm
bout 60% people will tell you its not real 40 of people also included in the 60%, theres some cross over there, will tell you just get over it, or its just yourself holding you back. %10 will tell you to kill yourself already, and the other %5 will want you locked up and %5 will support you. With so many words like crazy, psycho, depressed, and symptoms that are common outside the diagnosed issues, people will assume you fake it, or its not a big deal as you make it out, and the only time i find someone who supports you is other people with the same issues
By Bigpikachu1 on 05.05.19 4:36pm
Very much so. Just give in and "drown yourself in your sorrows" until you hit a bottom, then the only direction you can go is up. Why do people feel better after they cry? (I wouldnt know because I taught myself not to do it back in elementary school and now I cant do it no matter how hard I try.)
That, and "misery loves company".
By Childe Roland on 05.05.19 5:52pm
When I feel sad, I just watch Manchester by the Sea, which makes me feel better
which is sad
By rwalle on 05.04.19 11:03am
Listening to melancholy music when feeling really down makes you feel that things are in tune with you, and in a way, because someone felt enough to create music that resonates with your emotion, that you are not alone.
By Onlybighorse on 05.04.19 11:26am
it also helps with grasping your emotions/feelings and making peace/accepting with them, emotions regardless if they are good or bad should be welcomed, experienced and felt only then can you let them go
By teeson on 05.04.19 11:46am
Mountain Goats usually does it for me.
By Sl1pstream on 05.04.19 11:45am
https://youtu.be/nlYlNF30bVg
By Winklemeier on 05.05.19 4:19pm
So basically, we just need to have depressed people open themselves up to a fraction of the composed music of Fairy Tail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv3-ww6yGkQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yrgv1VNLcI&list=PLn6N3gkrI2TUnbXNIfa7PKR6AWYA9J9fw&index=22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sgiJvFGoZY&list=PLn6N3gkrI2TUnbXNIfa7PKR6AWYA9J9fw&index=36
By Alar's Ashes on 05.04.19 12:14pm
I have a theory on why sad music makes depressed people happier. It probably gives a greater sense of them not being alone.
Imagine a local example of unhappiness, you really want to get into a certain school and have high hopes you are accepted. Your friend does too. You get the letter from the school, you are rejected, your friend is accepted. Are you happy for your friend? Probably, do you feel more isolated and alone in that scenario? Yes. If your friend was also rejected, my guess is the sense of shared loss would be much more comforting.
Depressed people listening to happier music, is them listening to themes that are have nothing to do with what they are experiencing. The musical equivalent of having financial hardships while seeing a peers instagram doing shots off peoples stomachs on a Yacht somewhere. Sad music, is a common experience, a shared sense of loss and sadness, having music that suggests that you are not alone in those feelings.
By Alar's Ashes on 05.04.19 12:23pm
I didnt realize I had depression till I got older and experienced actual endorphins based happiness the first time. I always preferred sad music but am pretty sure what actually drew me to it was the fact that it could actually make me feel something (even it wasnt good, just feeling something was rewarding in and of itself).
The analogy I can think of is its like Beethoven slamming on the piano keys trying to feel the vibrations of a sound he couldnt hear.
By Halopend on 05.04.19 12:42pm
Its about getting your feelings recognized. Or emphasized is perhaps better worded. It goes both ways: feel good music when youre feeling good, sad music when you feel down.
By McJabberclackers on 05.04.19 12:50pm
When I was a depressed teenager, I listened mostly to heavy metal. Lots of anger, and some deep sadness matched my feelings and validated them for a while, I didnt feel like the whole world was against me. I hated happy music, it felt like it was mocking me.
As I got older, and learned to cope with my depression, my tastes changed, and I could listen to happier music without my blood boiling. I still like melancholy music, but gentler, without the anger, and Im exploring electronica.
By rbrian on 05.04.19 7:01pm
Its more a hedge than a cure, in that it provides comfort in the short term but in the long run needs some care, because on the days you happen to be cheerful, listening to it might well pull you back down.
By chiba on 05.04.19 8:39pm
As someone who suffers from depression, I can confirm this. Jawbreaker is my go to band when Im in a bad place. When Im in a good mood its Fishbone. Complete polar opposite bands.
By ginandbacon on 05.05.19 11:26am
ha, now when people say im only sad because of my music I can say my behavior is backed by science, thank you.
-someone with actual depression
By Bigpikachu1 on 05.05.19 1:13pm
also since i have diagnosed depression its cool to feel my actions are validated, all my favorite music is sad as hell, and my life has never been better at the moment
By Bigpikachu1 on 05.05.19 1:16pm
"All I need is a bitter song
To make me better
Much better"
By Hado86 on 05.05.19 5:20pm
People who are sad listen to sad music because it is relatable.
By VIIIXXIX on 05.05.19 7:08pm
People dealing with trauma, of which extreme sadness may be a part, must organize their thoughts and emotions. They create a sensical narrative out of a jumble of emotions and sensations which may at first seem overwhelming, scattered, unsettling.
Once a narrative begins to take shape and human beings are nothing if not born storytellers they can then locate their place within it. That place found, they can begin to orient themselves and chart a way forward.
That sad movies / songs / whatever helps is not surprising. They may provide ready archetypes. Or they may simply provide a rough structure upon which to place all the otherwise chaotic things.
And not for nothing, but finding a suitably archetype means, by its very nature, that you are not the first to feel this way, are not the last, and are not alone.
By prophet60091 on 05.05.19 11:42pm