Adam LeVay

Mental Health of Musicians

When a famous musician dies of an accidental overdose or something over the sort, it's all over the news. Everyone talks about it and posts on social media and we talk about how not all people that seem happy actually are. This lasts for a couple weeks to a month at most. The hot topic changes to something else and nothing is done to prevent it from happening again. While many people only see this every year or two, poor mental health is all too common to those that are in the industry.

The Research

From a report published by MIRA on musicians:

• 71% had suffered from anxiety and panic attacks
• 69% had suffered from depression
• 18% had suffered from other forms of mental illness.
• Half of surveyed U.S. musicians reported feeling down, depressed or hopeless at least several days in the last two weeks.
• 11.8% of musicians reported having "Thoughts that you would be better off dead or hurting yourself in some way" in at least several days in the last two weeks.

From a study by Dianna Kenny:

• Average age of death for musicians from 2010-2015 was 58
• 42% of deaths for males were from unnatural causes

Importance To Me

I've chosen this issue because I am a musician. I spend a lot of my time involved in music and am often surrounded by other musicians. I've had many friends that have had various mental illnesses, and have had several friends heavily affected by poor mental health. I've been a musician for around fifteen years, and have run into many musicians with sad stories  regarding mental health. I don't often hear people talk about help being offered as gigging musicians don't really get the benefits that employers often offer to their employees. It's also not something that I hear people that aren't musicians talk about except for on the rare occasion that a famous musician dies. The average musician should be considered just as much as any other person.

The Community

“I’m not very surprised by the stats on people who have been affected by mental health issues in the industry, but I am surprised by the life expectancy” - Nicolas Perez

“I’ve found in my experience as a professional musician that, I’d say, ninety percent of the research read to me … to be correct.” -Joe Nazarowski

“For Joy Division, instead of telling you [his feelings] directly, it was displayed in his artistic expression.” -Sean Cazares

References

Kenny, Dianna & Asher, Anthony. (2016). Life expectancy and cause of death in popular musicians.

          Medical Problems of Performing Artists. 3. 37-44.

Music Industry Research Association. “MIRA Survey of Musicians.” Music Industry Research Association, MIRA, 22 June 2018, themira.org/mira-survey-of-musicians.