Songs, songs, songs — therapy?
July 23, 2008 by angelique
Filed under Women's Health
We’ve been talking about songs here, so I wanted to throw out a question…
Do you think songs could be good therapy for an anorexic or bulimic? Could they help him or her out of a funk?
OR
Do you think that songs can trigger ana and mia, especially when they are tunes from the era in which the person had a raging eating disorder?
Discuss…
I think you have a very valid point. I remember reading a study done by the BBC a while back that suggested a strong link between memory and hearing. I think the strongest link is smell, but I could be wrong.
It’s important to still maintain getting the fuel you need from food when these memories come back. And if that doesn’t work, maintaining energy by using multi-vitamins until the memories have been beaten are also a healthy alternative.
All the best with your pursuits Angel, and thank you for all the inspirational blogs so far.
Stay strong.
H.G.
I found music to be a great tool to stop me from binge eating. Most of my binge eating is triggered by tough emotions. I guess you can call it Emotional Eating. Listening to a motivating inspiring song when I’m felling down gets me in the right state of mind. It increases my awareness and generally leaves me feeling better and more motivated. Music videos also have the same effect for me.
Andrew Bolis
http://howtostopeating.com
Music speaks to the soul. Or at least it does for me. So when I’m in an crazy happy dancing mood I can put on my funk and disco and it encourages that mentality. And I love it.
And when I’m sad and depressed and isolating myself, then I can pick the saddest music I know. Songs that make me weep. Songs that reinforce my erroneous beliefs that life will not get any better. And I love that, too.
Except that’s not healthy for me. It certainly validates whatever is going on for me at the time, but it’s prolonging the depression and despair and I shouldn’t be enjoying it in that way. I should be working hard to get out of the depression. So should I then look for Pure Disco 2? It’s hard to grab that cd when you don’t feel like dancing or bopping your head. But there’s no doubt about it, there are some songs, no matter what mood you’re in, when you hear them, it brightens up your day. A favorite song from the past. A song with a hilarious story to it. A song that conjures up perfect memories.
I often play the same cd over and over and over again until I find a new one to fall in love with. I’m currently listening to All the Lost Souls (and have been for months now) and it’s just time to move on. I need something cheerful and young and optimistic. I need some music therapy.
I think Erin worded it quite well. I actually used certain songs as motivators to restrict. I can’t say the same about recovery. I don’t listen to anything now. I need the silence to help me get through the junk. I think as addicts, we can be a highly emotional (even if no one witnesses it) group of individuals. That being said, music is created to move you, it’s created to express the feelings inside of the artist in the first place (well, most music).
I guess one could say even classical music inspires me, because listening to it, I feel strong and moved to do something worthy; and recovering is certainly something notable. So maybe I should go throw some Beethoven on the stereo!