Not making music – and depression
Since I was a child, music was my identity. I haven’t sung or performed for four years now. I know I am depressed. Is music the way out?
ANSWER: Danny, thanks for plucking up the courage to ask a heavy question.
I sense that something happened about four years ago that caused either the motivation or the joy of music making to be lost. Stress, or the results of emotional trauma can leave us feeling incapacitated for a long time. I understand first-hand how that feels. Other times a 20-hour-day six-days-a-week job prevents us from time or strength to get back to what we love to do … making music.
Strangely, music-making and depression tend not to co-exist very well. That is to say, depression can take away the will to make music. But making music also lifts our spirits and alleviates depression. Likewise, just ignoring opportunities to make music can lead one to depression … while taking opportunities to make music often lifts the heart.
Be aware too, that lack of regular exercise — and I don’t mean overdoing it, and lack of enough regular sleep (8 to 10 hours a night) will also contribute to feelings of depression. If you have something to “fix” here, do it.
I’d encourage you to not give in to depression, but by an act of your will, DECIDE to start making music again … even if it’s a little every day. I think you’ll find yourself lifted out of the funk you’ve found yourself in. Let me encourage you to make music by yourself AS WELL AS with other musicians and in community. It’s therapeutic! Just as you reached out to me, you can do that while making music to folk in your hearing … then you’ll have people “with faces” some of whom will become your friends.
I think your idea to just get back into singing is right on Danny.
Best wishes.