Heavy metal better decision to take care of your mental health

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Where should I start? Panther? Black Sabbath? Right now I'll start creating a playlist with the heaviest metal I can find. And you should do the same, according to the scientists ...

The control of anger

In 2015, Leah Sharman and Genevieve Dingle, specialists in psychology at the University of Queensland, in Australia, tried to find signs that anger and frustration increased when people listened to heavy metal. But the discovery was quite the opposite: the music helped the volunteers to calm down.

In the study, the doctors had 39 volunteers, from 18 to 34 years of age. The volunteers were encouraged to remember situations of anger and became irritated. Then, they listened to their favorite musical lists. The volunteers who listened to heavy metal calmed down and processed their anger better than those who did not listen to such music.
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"Listening to extreme music can represent a healthy way to process anger," the study's specialists said. The volunteers were calm again, as if they had been sitting in a chair without having been irritated before.

"Extreme music fans listen to music when they are angry to match their anger and to feel more active and inspired," Dingle and Sharman conclude. "They listen to music to regulate sadness and enhance positive emotions."

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The expression of emotions

Liam Frost-Camilleri, fan of hard metal, is also the organizer of Beyond Black, a charity concert that this year featured more than 15 bands. The funds raised were allocated to the Australian non-profit organization beyondblue. This organization works with problems associated with depression, anxiety and other mental disorders.

Frost-Camilleri, in addition to being a metal fan, also has a band he plays with. According to his statements, depression and anxiety are not only recurrent themes in the lyrics of the songs, but also in the environment, among the musicians.

"I was surprised at the frequency with which people started talking about it," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "I think the reason why people with anxiety and depression tend to gravitate towards heavy metal is due to the catharsis of emotion."

As Frost-Camilleri points out, the music, lyrics and people that make up the world of metal can form a friendly environment to talk about mental health. When listening to the songs, many people feel understood and dare to talk about topics that, otherwise, they might not dare.

Health

The metal community

Around this same topic, a new study, by specialists Paula Rowe and Bernard Guerin, was published in the Journal of Community Psychology. In the study, the researchers took 28 young Australians, aged 18 to 24, identified with the metal, with whom they had informal conversations several times.
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According to the researchers, all the youths had been marginalized or intimidated at school and began to enjoy the metal through their anger or resignation. On the other hand, the youth indicated that they had found a protective community in the metal, and even a way to confront violent comrades and keep them in line.
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Experts indicate that these four characteristics make up the "metal identity". As they point out in the study summary, the metal identity allowed the volunteers to "survive the stress of challenging environments". Through the construction of «strong and sustained identities and communities», young people alleviate «any possible mental health problem».