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Post by _ on Jan 4, 2018 19:37:40 GMT -6
I hear so much music that speaks to the complex, lived realities of medicine, health, and illness. I feel music can often provide an alternative route of understanding -- one that might speak to the listener's heart from the space where the simplisticism of dialogic words (e.g., between a physician and a patient, between a patient and a family member, between a patient and her/himself) fail -- and that music can offer the listener access to a greater depth of authentic empathy and compassion (both of which intimate intimacy, being etymologically rooted in the word "to suffer"). These communicative functions of music, distinct from the important, perhaps more generalized, medicinal functions of music, offer a particular insight into the humanism of health care and the realities of suffering, I think. Anyways, here's a beautiful song by Julien Baker that speaks excellently to some aspects of mental health. It's indie folk -ish. "You don't want to bring it up And I already know how it looks You don't have to remind me so much How I disappoint you Suggest that I talk to somebody again That knows how to help me get better And 'til then I should just try not to miss any more Appointments" & "Maybe it's all gonna to turn out all right, and I know that it's not but I have to believe that it is." Here is a song by Silent Planet (metalcore) that is about manic depressive bipolar disorder. Guys ... it's LITERALLY bipolar: the lyrics are one huge palindrome and it tells the story in halves: the first half for the mania, the second half for the depressive. Do you like any songs that you think would help someone better understand a status of health/illness?
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Post by _ on Jan 26, 2018 2:32:52 GMT -6
"Such a light body, such a quiet gait leaving behind the weight of the world / I'll always think it was too early to lose your shine," is one of many beautiful lines in this song about the vocalist's father dying of MS.
I feel I can learn much from this song, including 1) the inexactness of grief and its consistent yet altering presence and 2) how the prestige so often sought in the medical profession can end up immaterial to the suffering patient and the sorrowing family.
1) "It's been a rough while and some days are worse than others / there's no proper way to feel, no mirth, no levity, no amazing grace / just a flame on a lake floating away, I can't let you lay / I want you to know, I'm learning patience against my will / I want you to know, I'll get by, always barely scraping with just a hunger, with just a heart apart, it's a hell of a thing."
2) "It seems we all get sick, we all die in some no name hospital with the same colored walls, and I guess that's fine." I don't think the lyricist intended what I've gleaned from these words, but to me they speak to the experience of the patient/family, who sees the "no-name" hospital as nothing special, simply a place that we all eventually have to die in. This acceptance of the mundane contrasts in my mind with the pursuit of prestige in the names of top-tier residency programs and flagship hospitals after which so many seek. I'm sure patients/families may be heartened to get care at such places, but I'm equally sure some do not care which hospital they are at, which 'caliber of doctors' they experience, which "same colored walls" they see as a loved one dies. It reminds me that a building complex, a prestigious name, a biomedical technology cannot give compassion -- only the empathetic physician can sit with the patient/family and perhaps assuage the pain, perhaps simply be 'with' the 'suffering'.
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Post by _ on Nov 28, 2018 21:24:15 GMT -6
If anyone is interested I have a handful+ more of these. This was also the most meaningful song I listened to today (but I won't post it again in that thread) because I find mental illness devastating. This musically diverse song “Inside Yourself” lends itself to the diversity of experiences — from changes in temperament to the alethiological tumult associated with inability to differentiate certain internal stimuli from certain external stimuli — that those with chronic/recurrent psychosis deal with; perhaps “suffer” is a more fit verb, given the lyrics and atmosphere Abesforia creates, as well as schizophrenia’s ranking of 8 in the 2001 World Health Report’s leading cause of DALYs worldwide in the age group 15-44 years. The vocalist does both clean and harsh vocals and it seems quite intentional which lyrics are sung and which are screamed, as well as which are accompanied by acoustic piano and strings v. electric instruments. Preceding a harsh section on the theme of madness, the vocalist sings clearly and with fragility, “Don’t ask me for help because I am still powerless. Don’t blame me, I can’t understand your reasons.” This recalls the decreased capacity to discriminate between internal and external stimuli, both vying to be the truth. Some of the lyrics remark on the insanity of society and call out our double standard, so to speak, between labeling schizophrenics crazy and not recognizing the craziness we inhabit as as a society. I found the following lyrics focused more on an introspective/individual level well-expressed and devastating. “If looking deep into your eyes I can hear voices that command you. They are so greedy. They’ll try to take everyone who is ready to listen to their truth.” “Who chose this way for you? Your mind is the battle of the dark. It does not matter who wins, you will lose. Perhaps it is better you die.” Here’s the song, with fitting (EXPLICIT -- be aware) album artwork and title.
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