Music & Mental Health in the Black Community

Walter Brockington, Imani Jessamy,Caleb Jordan

University of North Carolina A&T
Walter Brockington, Imani Jessamy, Caleb Jordan

2/4/2020

Professor Zhang

Mental Health and Music in the African American Community

Mental health is our cognitive, emotional, and behavioral state of mind. This is

how we behave, feel and also think. The term ‘mental health’ refers to the absence of a

mental disorder. Some mental health illnesses include, but are not limited to;

depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (O.C.D.), and even eating

disorders. Oftentimes, the presence of one mental disorder can result in the presence of

others as well, giving the individual multiple disorders to learn to cope with. Music in the

black community has the power to influence the cognitive thoughts, behaviors, and

overall mental stability of an individual.

Mental health affects our everyday life, whether it be relationships with others, to

our own physical health and well-being. Ultimately, a person’s mental health contributes

to their capability of enjoying life. In order to obtain balance that can be from life

activities to achieve some psychological resilience.

There are a lot of factors that play into mental health, some being genetic and

others being environmental. Neurotransmitters are naturally obtained in the chemical

makeup of the brain. Their job is to channel signals and messages to other parts of the

brain. When chemicals are impaired by genetic or environmental factors, the nerve
systems change leading to emotional and depressive disorders. Inherited traits also

play a major role in mental health. Mental health issues are common in people who

have relatives or family members who suffer from mental illness. The genetic makeup of

a person who has a mental disorder can be passed down, increasing the risk for the

offspring to develop mental illness. Life experiences often trigger mental disorders.

Environmental exposures such as alcohol and drug use in pregnant women can also be

linked to mental illness.

Mental illness is very common and can begin at any age. From early childhood

throughout adult years, the majority of the time it happens in the beginning of an earlier

life. The effects of particular disorders can be temporary or long lasting, depending on

the severity of the illness. More than one illness can be accumulated at once. ​"Some

ways of coping with negative emotion, such as rumination, which means continually

thinking over negative things, are linked to poor mental health. We wanted to learn

whether there could be similar negative effects of some styles of music listening,"

explains Emily Carlson, a music therapist and the main author of the study.

Since a person’s mood or emotional mindstate can be negatively affected by

anything as small as a pen drop, we can also come to the conclusion that it could be

positively swayed if someone were to give the patient something that they can confide

in. Some patients are given toys or games but others are given the choice of music.

With the known correlation between listening to music to calm a person down, and a

mental illness attacking someone’s emotional mindstate, we can use both factors in
keeping someone with a mental illness composed by exposing them to a certain kind of

music. This is referred to as music therapy.

Music Therapy is the unique use of music to help patients acknowledge their

social, communication, emotional, physical, and many other basic needs in life ​(Barrera,

et al., 2002). ​Although many choose to listen to cheerful, uplifting music to get them out

of a stump. Others believe that slow, mellow music helps them because the artist is

speaking on them. Depending on the music, Music can change lives for the good and

the bad. Neurologic music treatment (NMT) is a propelled type of music treatment that

uses proof based strategies to treat the cerebrum. ​Music has been demonstrated in

literature to reduce pain and anxiety in patients by as much as 50% (Nguyen, et al.,

2010).​These procedures stress the utilization of music and beat to accomplish

non-melodic objectives in the zones of comprehension, physical development, and

discourse. The Center for Biomedical Research in Music characterizes NMT as "the

helpful use of music to subjective, tangible, and engine dysfunctions because of

sickness of the human sensory system."

Music therapy has many proven benefits in the hospital environment and has an

important role for the healing of pediatric patients.​With music, anyone has the ability to

change, help, or alter anyone’s mood. Mental health affects anyone no matter the age,

size, disability or race. Knowing the signs of a dent in mental health in your close friends

and loved one. Besides prescription medications and remedies to help or heal a case

of the blues, try curling up with a pair of headphones and a nice song.
 Work Cited

Rolvsjord, R. (2010). ​Resource-oriented music therapy in mental health care.​

Gilsum, NH: Barcelona Publishers.

de l'Etoile, S. K. (2002). The effectiveness of music therapy in group

psychotherapy for adults with mental illness. ​The Arts in Psychotherapy​.

Miranda, D., Gaudreau, P., Debrosse, R., Morizot, J., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2012).

Music listening and mental health: Variations on internalizing psychopathology. ​Music,

health, and wellbeing​, 513-529.

Pyatak, E., & Muccitelli, L. (2011). Rap music as resistive occupation:

Constructions of Black American identity and culture for performers and their audiences.

Journal of Occupational Science,​ ​18(​ 1), 48-61.

Miranda, D., Gaudreau, P., Debrosse, R., Morizot, J., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2012).

Music listening and mental health: Variations on internalizing psychopathology. ​Music,

health, and wellbeing​, 513-529

Harvard Health Publishing. (n.d.). Music and health. Retrieved from

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health