“Music gives me a sense of purpose, a reason to wake up in the morning”: How making music can help in addiction recovery

“I’ve dealt with addiction, and music gives me a sense of purpose, a reason to wake up in the morning.” This inspiring quote comes from the WeAreTheMusicMakers Reddit page, a sub-Reddit for music producers, in response to the question, “Has anyone here successfully used the practice of making music to overcome an active addiction?”

Addiction is a terrible experience, one that affects you not only physically but mentally, emotionally and even spiritually. Thankfully, music has been proven to be effective in many different ways, from easing cravings and regaining a sense of self-worth, to helping form new social bonds outside of old groups that may encourage dangerous habits.

Listening to and creating music has a wealth of scientifically proven health benefits, so it’s no surprise that addiction recovery should be one of them.

According to Northpoint Nebraska, a private institution offering programs to help people recover from substance use and behavioural health disorders, addiction recovery often requires a combination of therapeutic approaches.

Along with counselling and medication, another approach is music therapy, a science-based process that can assist in numerous ways, particularly by stimulating the release of dopamine.

“This natural dopamine release can help individuals in recovery experience positive emotions without the need for drugs or alcohol, gradually rewiring the brain to seek out healthier sources of gratification,” according to the company.

“Generally, a multi-pronged/multidisciplinary approach is needed to treat and manage addiction,” says Julie Dawn Reid, a music therapist based in South Africa.

“The clients I see who are in recovery may also be attending groups and seeing a variety of other medical professionals, depending on the severity of the addiction.” As Julie explains, the therapy can take the form of instrumental and vocal improvisation, voice work and verbal reflection, as well as movement to music, composition, songwriting, lyric analysis or lyric substitution, and recording.

“Music therapy can offer opportunities for emotional regulation and the externalization of emotion where someone’s pain and struggle, steps forward and hopes for the future can be witnessed and validated,” she says.

According to the American Music Therapy Association, along with management of cravings, music therapy can also help control withdrawal symptoms, and identify triggers and feelings, among other benefits.

“In the groups I hold with people who are recovering from addiction, I find that they often report that their mind was taken off their distressing thoughts for a while, and that that was a huge relief,” notes Julie. “They are often amazed at how much their mood and energy has lifted by the end of a session.”

Music therapy is not about the goal of finishing a track, however, but the benefits gained through the process of making and engaging with music. “The goal isn’t to make ‘pretty’ music,” explained music therapist Graeme Sacks in a previous MusicRadar article, “but rather to accept all forms of musicking [sic] as valid and part of the process.”

It should be noted that working with music can help with numerous forms of addiction, not just substance abuse.

“Music therapy may help with compulsive behaviours such as sex addiction, shopping addiction, phone/internet addiction and others,” stresses Julie. “The thread running through for music therapy and arts therapies in general is their ability to provide a ‘third thing’: a container for emotion or experiences that can make them more manageable and easier to face and talk about.”

As commenter Olympiano notes in the Reddit thread, “I provide psychosocial support to someone who has gambled habitually for decades. We’ve spent the past nine months or so recording an album of his music and he barely gambles at all any more. The music project is providing a more valid form of fulfilment for him, something to occupy his mind, something to work towards and be excited about, that is healthy instead of damaging.”

Addiction can often result in damage to relationships with family members, friends and the community, leading to withdrawal from social situations. By experiencing music therapy as part of a group, people are able to rekindle healthy relationships with others.

“Addiction can be very isolating,” notes Julie. “People are able to experience meaningful connection in the group music therapy. They are often surprised at experiencing joy and having fun without the need for substances, and this can give them hope that a life without using that substance is possible and can be fulfilling.”

Collaborative activities can include singing in a choir, creating songs together, and group drumming.

“These shared experiences can break down barriers, build trust, and encourage open communication,” reports Northpoint Nebraska. “For many, the connections made … can become a vital support network.”

Humans are social beings, after all, and evolutionary psychologists say that we’re born to make music collectively, with group music-making facilitating social bonding, according to Psychology Today.It makes sense that making music in this way should be psychologically healing as well.

There is also evidence that points to the developmental need for musical communication. “Music therapists believe that we are all innately musical,” says Julie. “Music therapy is rooted in an understanding of how our development as human beings and our capacity to relate has musical foundations, (such as) in the communicative musicality between mother and infant.”

“There isn’t a formula or one-size-fits-all,” answers Julie when asked to describe what a music therapy session might look like. “In my sessions, generally we will do a check in to see how the client is feeling. This can be verbal or musical/creative. As the client expresses themselves, a creative process (improvisation, songwriting, movement) will come to mind for me to suggest.”

This creative process can sometimes take the form of work with a DAW or other music-making app on an iPad or iPhone.

“This can range from more informal techniques such as recording a simple vocal track or recording a free improvisation on an acoustic instrument,” explains Julie. “Or, using an app like Koala that allows you to record and sequence sounds into beats, to using DAWs to record singing or rapping over an instrumental track, or recording instruments that are connected to an audio interface, to recording songs written by clients.”

She notes that teens love playing with vocal filters, and she will sometimes use stem splitter functionality to create instrumentals for people to vocalize over.

At her private practice, she has a small studio available for whatever form the therapy may take.

“In my private room, I have a MIDI keyboard, audio interface, mixing desk with four inputs and a condenser microphone, electric guitar, bass guitar and electric drum kit, headphones, speakers and monitors, as well as various percussion, djembes, and wind instruments.”

Improvisation can play an important part in the music therapy process. “In improvisation,” Julie explains, “a music therapist musically attunes to clients … and can provide a very embodied experience of empathy. This can be particularly meaningful for people who are grappling with shame connected to their addiction or things they have done as a result of it.”

Interestingly, improvisation can sometimes be a challenge for established musicians.

“I often find that musicians find improvisation difficult, especially classical musicians, or musicians who are used to playing composed pieces,” she says. “They may have a very technical and analytic approach to music which can initially make it harder for them to connect emotionally to the music, and often themes of self-judgement come up. We work to restore their musical confidence so that they can return to music making.”

She stresses, however, that you do not need to be a musician to benefit from music therapy:

“I love seeing how in the music therapy space people start to realize how musical they are and start to feel empowered to make musical decisions and express themselves musically. It is often a liberating and highly affirming experience.”

You may be wondering if general music-making and production outside of a therapeutic space can also be beneficial for addiction recovery. It seems like the answer is yes.

“There are many benefits that can be accessed without a music therapist,” notes Julie. “For example, singing has measurable effects on improving the immune system.”

She cautions, “however, while many people use music with the aim of feeling better or getting through difficult times, it is not ‘music therapy’ because it isn’t happening within a therapeutic relationship. An analogy is that talking to a friend can be extremely helpful, but it’s different from talking to a psychologist.”

There is also the danger of music becoming a trigger to a relapse.

“Something that makes working with people with addiction challenging is that they often have strong associations between certain kinds of music and using a substance,” she points out. “Playing music in settings where there is access to the substance someone is addicted to, or where use of that substance is normalized or common, and the client is not prepared for that, can be counter-productive.”

Thankfully, however, research has shown that music therapy can also promote tolerance to musical triggers both inside and outside treatment.

One artist who had success with non-therapeutic music production as part of his path to sobriety was Daniel Fuller, who records under the name Daniel Fuzztone.

“I had a good 10 to 15 years where I suffered no consequences from my drinking,” he explains, “but alcoholism is a progressive disease, so that whole time it was just getting slowly and incrementally worse without me noticing it.”

Although worried that his capacity to create music would diminish after getting sober, he was happy to discover that it did not. In fact, he found the opposite to be true. “In my sobriety, that numbing veil that was placed over me with the alcohol has been lifted,” he explains. “Everything about music is more tactile, it's more visceral. I have a much more intuitive connection to what I'm doing in my music. The only thing that drugs and alcohol were doing for me was just blurring and dulling everything.”

Although Daniel wasn’t working with a music therapist, he did discuss music production with his therapist, who encouraged him to, “keep channeling my creativity into music. From his perspective, there's really no downside. It's all silver lining to be channeling and pursuing this. I used to feel creatively limited. And that's all gone away.”

“I have found it very powerful to work with people who are recovering from addiction to find or develop their voice,” says Julie when asked if there’s anything else she’d like to add about music therapy. “The voice is so personal and people can feel extremely vulnerable to share it, but through recording it and exploring it over time it is possible for clients to really start to accept and own their voice. This often has many repercussions for how they feel about themselves more generally, and their confidence.”

If you’re struggling with addiction, please seek help. In the UK, you can visit the website for UK Treatment Addiction Centres. while in the US American Addiction Centers can help you locate a treatment center