Listening to music is a way for many people to get in a good mood. But does it have an effect on our mental health? Both creating and listening to music has shown to have various positive effects on mental health. It can help elevate your mood, your motivation, help with relaxation, and has been shown to increase the efficiency of your brain processing and its productivity. It can also help with people’s anxiety. Our brains trigger particular emotions and memories which have positive effects towards our mental health. Music therapy is the clinical use of music to accomplish individualized goals such as reducing stress, improving moods, and self expression. It is an evidence-based therapy well-established in the health community. Music therapy experiences may include listening, singing, playing instruments, or composing music. Music therapy is also used to aid in physical discomfort by improving respiration, lowering blood pressure, improving cardiac output, reducing heart rate and relaxing muscle tension. 

However, there can also be negative effects to this as well. For an older patient with Alzheimer’s or Dementia, the wrong music can cause them more stress. It has the potential to leave an impact on their mental health which can promote other bad mental states. Music can trigger negative emotions, like aggression and sadness, just as much as positive emotions. In 2019, an estimated 19.4 million adults, 18 and older, had at least one major depressive episode. That is 7.8% of adults in the United States. There are also certain songs and sounds that are supposed to be used to help people relax or meditate. Music is a universal language that everyone can understand and feel.  As far as making music goes, the first instrument was the Neanderthal flute and it dates back as far as 60,000 years ago. What would our lives be like without music?