Author: contributor

The music industry is one of the most beautiful and colorful industries because of the immense amount of talent that can be found there.

Many people love listening to music for different purposes, and no matter how strange your music expectations or preferences might be, you will surely see a musician who meets your taste.

However, not everyone realizes that musicians, just like everyone else, are likely to experience some mental health problems that can affect their careers. The life of a regular musician might look perfect, but they struggle with a lot of challenges.

Some of these challenges are self-doubt, failure, rejection, exploitation, loneliness, creative pressure, social and work pressure, poor sleep patterns, performance anxiety, etc.

To solve these challenges, which can lead to mental health problems, musicians need to prioritize seeing a mental health counselor.

Here are some of the benefits that come with mental health counseling

Address the origin of their mental health problem

One of the things that the mental health counselor helps the musician with is uncovering the origin of their mental health problem. The counselor will conduct an in-depth evaluation of their condition so that they can know the root cause of their mental health problem.

From this assessment, the counselor will create a personalized treatment plan for the musician to help them manage the mental health symptom, till they are permanently gone.

Navigate negative emotions and thoughts

Musicians often struggle with negative emotions and thoughts because of the pressure associated with their craft and the industry. This is why some of them take substances like alcohol and drugs to deal with these emotions.

With mental health counseling, musicians will be able to understand these negative emotions, and they will be able to adopt positive ones to make their mental health better.

Work-life balance

During mental health counseling, musicians will learn how to achieve work-life balance. They will know how to prevent their work and their personal life from overlapping. Hence, they will be able to achieve productivity on both sides.

The life of a musician is much different from that of a regular person. Their lifestyle revolves around content creation and value addition. These features are what keep them relevant in the music space among their fans.

Musicians desire to remain relevant for as long as possible. Typically, this is a hard nut to crack without any external help. This is why some of them resort to addiction when there is no incoming inspiration.  

Rather than wait for their creative juice to start flowing again, they prefer to take the shortcut which is either drug or alcohol addiction. With time, they become addicted to these substances and it becomes hard to do without them.

Here are some of the reasons why musicians get addicted

• Stress

A musician is usually stressed, but there is little time for them to rest. For the extraordinary ones, they hop from concerts to concerts, trying to satisfy their fans all over the world.

So, resting becomes an extreme sport for them, even when they are very tired. Therefore, to help themselves remain active till they get a more convenient time to relax, musicians take drugs or alcohol.

Soon, musicians in this category forget what it means to deal with stress because the abuse of these substances has become their priority.

• Pressure to perform

Musicians are not always on their good days. There are times when they are not on top of their game, and they would not like to disappoint their fans.

Instead of taking a break, some musicians decide to help themselves by taking substances like drugs or alcohol to help them perform well. With time, they become addicted to these substances that they cannot do without them.

• Mental health issues

Some musicians have mental health problems but they are unaware. Sometimes, when musicians are going through tough times, they don’t open up to people, and it keeps eating them up. A musician with mental health problems would most likely rely on alcohol or drugs for temporary relief.

A musician is not a regular person in society. They are one of the individuals who have an elevated status, and they fall into the category “celebrities”.

A musician will remain in limelight for a very long time provided they keep meeting the expectations of their fans. This means that they need to continue to work very hard to keep entertaining people who love their music.  

It doesn’t rain every day for the regular musician, as they have their bad days. This is one of the inevitable happenings that musicians are afraid of, and this is why they strive hard to avoid this.

Musicians work hard to get better each time to avoid letting their fans down. Some of them burn out in the process, and they rely on some addiction types to keep them going.

Here are some of the signs a musician is addicted

• They avoid impromptu performances

If you notice that a talented musician does not like performing during impromptu occasions, they might be addicted. Some of them need alcohol and drugs to boost their morale before any performance.

If they have access to substances that will help them perform better, they will take them discreetly before their performance. Similarly, they don’t like to freestyle in public because they have nothing motivating them internally.

• Health problems

When you hear that a musician falls ill regularly, there is a chance that they are addicted. Abusing alcohol coupled with health problems can alleviate some of the health problems that a musician is facing.

Worse still, other serious health complications can occur. There might be damage to their internal organs like kidneys, liver, heart, brain, etc.

Other signs that a musician is addicted, are physical signs that will be noticeable if you are around them. Ultimately, any deviation from the norm is an indication that your favorite musician might be struggling with addiction.

Musicians have the tendency to be addicted and you will understand why in this piece. Typically, a musician would either be addicted to drugs or alcohol.

This does not mean that they do not face other forms of addiction, it only suggests that the above-mentioned substances are what most of them indulge in.

The reason why a musician is susceptible to addiction is because of how they are wired. Just like visual artists, musicians are very creative individuals who express themselves and various happenings with the use of music.

Basically, music is their mode of communication and if you are someone who loves and understand music, they will find it easy to connect with you.

Musicians invest couple of hours to produce a good song that their listeners would listen to.

The sad part behind this is, not all of them would love it. And the musician has to be prepared for it. No matter the volume of input invested in a craft, not everyone would appreciate it because we are wired differently.

Due to this, some musicians take it to heart and they become discouraged. So, in a bid to cure their discouragement, they will strive to perform better and they end up putting themselves over the edge.

In order to keep up with the extreme stress they have caused themselves, they become addicted to either a behavior or substance.

Closely related to this is the fact that musicians are always stressed because of the long hours they spend working on their music. A good number of them do not know how to cool off this stress and this is why some of them end up addicted.

A musician needs to put his or health into utmost consideration and it does not boil down to their physical health alone, their mental health is equally important. This can be achieved by implementing safe health practices that would help to foster a good state of health.

For musicians who are addicted, it is safe to visit an addiction treatment counselor who would help them get better.

A musician is no ordinary citizen of a community/city/town/country, he or she is a celebrity who is always in the limelight.

Musicians are individuals who have plethora of fans and they are saddled with the opportunity of keeping their fans happy and engaged each time. When a musician falls short of expectation, there is usually an outrage from fans who would always expect something better.

So, musicians would always strive to make sure that they get better by the day. For the successful ones who have great music skills and are adept at honing them properly, they get famous by the day and the pressure increases too.

Not all musicians know how to handle fame. As a matter of fact, not all of them have the courage to handle stage fright and some of them resort to external aid in the process.

At first, there seems to be a positive effect in using these substances but later on, it becomes an addictive process for them.

One of the proficient ways by which musicians can handle their fame is receiving constructive criticisms from their fans.

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During times when they do not perform well, their fans are supposed to accept them with love and not prejudice. The way fans react determine to a great extent how their favorite musicians would thrive.

Some musicians know how to handle fame and criticisms. This is why they will rarely react when they are criticized.

Musicians need to know that even though people love their craft, not everyone would take it cool with them when they do not perform well. So, in the music industry, it is safe to expect backlash from time to time.

In addition to this, it is also great for musicians to get mental health treatment for themselves.

So, even though, they do not have mental health problems at the moment, it is best to undergo checkups in order to prevent it. Putting this into action would save musicians moments of sad thoughts and self-criticism.

In order for one to be a successful musician, there is a huge need for right positioning in the music industry, as there are ongoing changes which are occurring. Anyone who is not acquainted with the latest trend could be left in the dark, and it is very difficult to achieve success in this state.

For you to be a successful musician, the following steps should advisably be followed:

• Connecting with fans: It is necessary for an upcoming musician to make conscious efforts in order to connect with fans, as it is pivotal to your success as a musician. There is a need for you to maintain and increase your fan base, and this can be achieved by connecting with your listeners. Try to make a good impression for each performance, and with time, you would observe that the audience would always want to see you exhibit.

• Play in line with your strength: It is essential that you know what your strengths are as a musician. It is one thing to write a good song with great lyrics, and it is another thing for your fan base to love the song. Now, you should bear in mind that the reason why you have a fan-base, is because these set of people love the format of your song. Hence, you should strive to ensure that your songs are tailored in that light; in your strength.

• Brand publicity: You need to make efforts to ensure that your brand is well-known. You could start off with some really cool graphics, and ensure that everyone around you has it. If you are someone whose forte is not publicity, then it would be advisable for you to hire a promoter, who would assist you in ensuring that your brand is popular.

• Do not wait for a record label: This is one mistake which upcoming musicians tend to make. They are usually of the opinion that the availability of a record label would help them to boost their profile. However, it would be more beneficial if you do the hard work yourself. A good number of musicians who belong to record labels, hardly release their own music, and even if they do, the profit realized from it, would be shared, thereby reducing your cut.