Do Headphones Help with Anxiety?

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A few decades ago, you were one of the cool kids when it came to owning an MP3 player, but nowadays it is not a big deal, although the headphones have evolved way more than what Mp3 players used to be.

Headphones have become part of our lives now. You will see people using them for a lot of purposes, be it working, walking, exercising, gaming, or yes, even relieving stress.

What I mean is that they are no longer just a tool to listen to music, but they have proven to have great perks for mental health as well.

That’s why in today’s article I will talk about if headphones can help with anxiety.

People with anxiety disorders may find it particularly challenging to cope with daily life events.

They experience anxiety as they manage the responsibilities of their career and families.

Because of the chaotic, demanding, and stressful nature of daily life, they frequently experience severe anxiety attacks.

Do headphones make you less anxious?

Let me begin by expressing my perspective and experience before moving on to what the majority of people believe and feel.

As soon as I put headphones or earbuds on and tune in to my favorite songs, I feel a sense of calm and peace.

It feels like I shut down the outside world completely and just dive into my music. I prefer something that has uplifting beats, though. If I were to listen to some depressing lyrics, well, they might make things worse.

So it is safe to say that, yes, they greatly help in calming you, but the question here is, do they help with anxiety?

Well, I suppose this is a little difficult because I believe it largely depends on the individual itself.

Our hands have five fingers, but they are all different from one another, just as people vary from one another.

Music Has Proven To Reduce Anxiety

Without keeping you around for a very long time and writing motivational words, I will cut the chase right away and address the main topic.

Yes, music has been proven to reduce anxiety in many studies.

Below, I will list some key things that research says about how music affects us.

  • Music Reduces Cortisol Level: There were studies where music was streamed at home and in a laboratory, and it significantly reduced cortisol levels in people, and what’s surprising is that the type of music didn’t matter.
  • It Helps Even With Serious Mental Health Problems: Not only that, but there have been countless studies where people with serious mental health problems, not just anxiety, were proved to benefit from music; it had such a positive effect on them.
  • Help With Falling Asleep: A lot of people on surveys have reported that music actually helps them fall asleep easily, especially those who have ear problems such as ringing in the ears, also known as tinnitus, and so on.
  • Better Productivity: There are also studies where a bunch of workers have gathered and concluded that they were more productive with their headphones on, rather than when they didn’t get to listen to their tracks.

Those studies didn’t quite give you the answer to why you are here, right?

Well, I think the answer is crystal clear by now, no?

I made sure to list those studies to tell you that they are all causes of anxiety and much bigger problems. If music can help in fighting depression, what makes you think it doesn’t help with anxiety?

Yes, Yes, and Yes, music will help you fight anxiety. At least it will for the majority of people.


The “Dark” Side of Headphones

Flipping the coin, things take a turn.

According to the renowned Ying Yang, everything that is good also contains something negative, and something bad contains something positive.

We can pretty much say the same for headphones.

Headphones also have side effects.

First, let me touch down on the topic, and that’s regarding anxiety.

There are people who didn’t receive the same treatment as most people when wearing headphones. For some of them, the anxiety even got worse.

If you just think about it for a bit, if you find comfort in your headphones for everything, that can result in serious mental health problems.

For instance, if you wear headphones constantly, you would become annoyed or even anxious by small noises like the birds chirping outside or the babies crying.

Yes, it will help you block out the outside world, but tell me what you’ll do if you forget to bring your headphones. How are you going to handle the background noise, which could potentially make you anxious?

The issue is that constantly using headphones prevents you from taking any quiet time for yourself and makes them a must-have tool for you.

Later, all this becomes something that even affects your social interaction.

This is only regarding the anxiety part.

If we delve much further, the list of headphones’ dark secrets will grow, one of which is hearing loss.

It has been repeatedly demonstrated that loud music can badly injure your ears and almost certainly result in hearing loss.

Our ears have a certain threshold beyond which they start to weaken.

What I’m trying to say is that for any reason—anxiety or otherwise—you shouldn’t overuse your headphones.

Noise Canceling Headphones

I thought it would be important to touch down on this specific part when it comes to headphones and yeah, the active noise cancellation or known as ANC.

A feature that works great on ambient noise and completely removes it.

Noise cancelling headphones are pretty much becoming a trend now and people would wow if they see you have a pair of noise cancelling headphones.

As I mentioned as they have their huge benefits, they have their drawbacks too, one of them being creating pit hazards around you since you have no clue what is going on in the background.

Another one would be getting accommodated to them so much that you will be wanted to use them even in the slightest ambient noise.


Final Words, Conclusion

This brought us to the article’s conclusion.

In addition to doing some hours of study, I did my best to convey all I knew about this subject.

Finding the correct answer proved to be a challenge because some people said that using headphones significantly reduced their levels of stress and anxiety, while others claimed that it had the opposite effect.

But if we go by the majority, headphones have many benefits. In addition to helping you with anxiety, they also help you with other things.

But once more, always keep in mind not to overuse them.

Everything that is overused is harmful to our health, including overeating, which increases our risk of developing stomach and other issues. As a result, anything that goes too far is bad for us.

We can suffer a lot of harm with headphones, especially ear problems like tinnitus and hearing loss.

It will be acceptable to use them with caution, and we will gain from them.

This covers pretty much everything, hopefully, I was clear and managed to add some insight to you.

Further Reading

Perhaps some of you are looking for an intriguing set of headphones, therefore I chose this post to guide you in your search for some amazing cat ear headphones. After that, read on for a beautiful comparison between IEMs and earbuds to learn more about the differences.

Check out this post for instructions on pairing Skullcandy headphones if you don’t already know how.

If you’re interested in learning the correct technique to switch off a Bose 700, don’t hesitate to read this post.

Whether you’re looking for information on audio equipment, looking to learn more about how things work in the music field, or looking for reviews of products, we got you covered!

 
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