# Music addiction?



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

We hear a lot these days about how so many people suffer from addictions to certain type of food, to the internet or social media and so on. It is, we are told, all down to getting a hit from the "reward systems" in our brains and wanting another hit as soon as it calms down. To be an addiction it needs, I suppose, to have negative consequences and somehow the things people are said to become addicted to tend to be bad for them when consumed to excess (which is what happens when the "reward" calms down and they are left wanting the next reward). I've always loved music - specially classical but other sorts, too - and cannot imagine my life having been that worthwhile through all my ups and downs without it! Presumably, I am getting "rewards" from it and need to keep getting those rewards. But I really do not think that my love of music does me any harm although I have on occasion bought more CDs than I need. I'm sure there are many like me on this site. Are we addicts? Or, if not (as I think is the case) then why not? Why, for example, is our "need" for music not negative or harmful? What stops it from being so?


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## Fredx2098 (Jun 24, 2018)

Personally, I think that all things related to existence are negative or about the avoidance or negative things, because of entropy and such, not to say that it's impossible to enjoy life. Even if I wasn't depressed I would think the same thing I believe. Art is different though, because it's a representation of a person's metaphysical ideas made physical for other people to enjoy. In my opinion, art is the best thing humans are capable of. I look around me and I see people who think the goal of life is to work hard so you can survive until you inevitably die, and I think there needs to be something more to life than that.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The poet Robinson Jeffers once asserted that the human mind (his own included) was an unstable, unbalanced thing, and, like a poorly-constructed engine, it required a flywheel to steady its function. Otherwise it was likely to shake itself to pieces unless harnessed to a mass large enough to stabilize its misfirings. For Jeffers, his poetry--thinking about it, working on it--was his flywheel, along with his abiding love of nature. We all have our flywheels, and the need for them. The key is to select those that offer the most stabilization with the least risk of harm--physical, emotional, intellectual, financial. Music, literature, the arts in general; hobbies; religion; love of nature; so many others. Where we get into trouble is when the flywheel controls us rather than stabilizes: drugs, gambling, ideological fanaticism--religious, political; compulsive shopping and buying to the point of financial collapse. Best (in my case anyway) to have multiple small flywheels such that one can turn to many places for peace, quietus, surcease from fear or ennui, without becoming too dependent on any one.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Much as we love it, there are seldom really negative consequences to listening to music -- even to "excess" -- because doing so doesn't really affect or inhibit our ability to do other things at the same time.


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2018)

MarkW said:


> Much as we love it, there are seldom really negative consequences to listening to music -- even to "excess" -- because doing so doesn't really affect or inhibit our ability to do other things at the same time.


To my way of thinking, if you are doing something else at the same time you are not really _listening_ to music. At least that is my experience. If I hear music that I truly love, I can't do something else at the same time.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Perhaps music represents the frequencies of sound that the brain needs in order to stay healthy. It has the ability to restore one’s internal equilibrium and balance the two hemispheres... It can stimulate or harmonize cells into a state of well-being with challenge, pleasure, or both.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Listening to a lot of music is not an addiction; buying it is another matter.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Baron Scarpia said:


> To my way of thinking, if you are doing something else at the same time you are not really _listening_ to music. At least that is my experience. If I hear music that I truly love, I can't do something else at the same time.


To each his own -- I can listen to and mentally process music while reading, cooking, cleaning, driving, writing . . . when something interesting happens, my brain cuts in and says, "Hey, get a load of_ this_."


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## Guest (Jul 2, 2018)

I've been seeing a therapist about my music addiction for years now, and unfortunately things have only become worse for me.* Not only is it extremely pleasurable for me to listen to music from all cultures and all periods of history, but even when the music has been turned off I find the sounds of the environment around me interesting and even beautiful, like music in its own right. It's getting to the point that I have even been recording some of these sounds and creating musique concrete compositions, or creating my own sounds using synthesis and transforming them in various ways to explore music even further. It's impulsive and I can't seem to find a way out of my addiction. What am I supposed to do? Cut my ears off???? 



*jk


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## Fredx2098 (Jun 24, 2018)

shirime said:


> I've been seeing a therapist about my music addiction for years now, and unfortunately things have only become worse for me.* Not only is it extremely pleasurable for me to listen to music from all cultures and all periods of history, but even when the music has been turned off I find the sounds of the environment around me interesting and even beautiful, like music in its own right. It's getting to the point that I have even been recording some of these sounds and creating musique concrete compositions, or creating my own sounds using synthesis and transforming them in various ways to explore music even further. It's impulsive and I can't seem to find a way out of my addiction. What am I supposed to do? Cut my ears off????
> 
> *jk


If only we could join forces.


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## Guest (Jul 2, 2018)

MarkW said:


> To each his own -- I can listen to and mentally process music while reading, cooking, cleaning, driving, writing . . . when something interesting happens, my brain cuts in and says, "Hey, get a load of_ this_."


I agree, except with the music I love, something interesting is _always_ happening.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I often don't know what direction a thread will take when it starts and this one has thrown up a couple of interesting thoughts. I think, now, that my OP was probably more about what addiction is rather than being about music.

I was following the line that is common in the media at the moment about addictions to junk food, social media, computer/video gaming and the internet in general. In Britain even the NHS has begun treatment (only in London, I think) for gaming additions with an intention to expand into social media addictions. The basis for the view that these are indeed addictions is that the pleasure derived involves the same or similar chemical rewards that more traditional addictions do.

By this criterion, I am addicted to music. I do get a buzz from it. The chemical reward system in my brain must be involved in this (whatever the implications of _that _are) - I get great pleasure from music and I want more. I don't have the composers' gift of hearing music in the world around me (although there are many familiar sounds that I love) and, if I don't get music for a few days, I miss it even though memory fills my head with music I know. But my need for music is not a bad experience. It doesn't harm me. So it isn't an addiction as I understand the term. I do wonder, though, whether music might work to protect some people (people wired to enjoy music) from damaging addictions - to provide the pleasure without the harm.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Baron Scarpia said:


> To my way of thinking, if you are doing something else at the same time you are not really _listening_ to music. At least that is my experience. If I hear music that I truly love, I can't do something else at the same time.


I absolutely agree.

When I listen to music, it is my primary activity. I do not listen to music in the background, or while I am doing some other activity. Those ideas are an anathema to me.

I love music WAY too much to not give it my full attention.

This might mean that I listen to music a bit less that I would if I listened to it while doing something else, but my listening sessions are so much more fulfilling, that it more than makes up for not listening as much.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Simon Moon said:


> I absolutely agree.
> 
> When I listen to music, it is my primary activity. I do not listen to music in the background, or while I am doing some other activity. Those ideas are an anathema to me.
> 
> ...


I'm sure you don't mean to suggest that those of us with different listening styles and methods love music less than you do! But I can assure you that we are all made differently - even those of us who are wired to love music and have enjoyed huge quantities to it.


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## Guest (Jul 5, 2018)

Simon Moon said:


> I absolutely agree.
> 
> When I listen to music, it is my primary activity. I do not listen to music in the background, or while I am doing some other activity. Those ideas are an anathema to me.
> 
> ...


Hmmm, I listen to music all the time anyway, sometimes putting it in the background. It doesn't change how fulfilling music can be to me.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Though I am up in years I have yet to lament that I have wasted so much money purchasing records, CDs, musical scores, concert tickets and quality stereo equipment, rather than plying that expense on alcohol and drugs or gambling. Perhaps someday I may. But not today. Too much music yet to hear.


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## Gallus (Feb 8, 2018)

I've definitely done my health (ears) some damage by listening to music too often and at too loud a volume.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I'd say I'm definitely addicted to the symphonies of one particular composer and see it as a challenge to collect every cycle of his symphonies. Ive worked out that I'm around 30 cycles short and with many being OOP or hard to obtain for sensible money (esp the Japanese ones) I'll probably never complete this. I don't think this obsession affects my life but I do spend a lot of time hunting these down. If I was a millionaire I reckon I'd have the lot, though. í ½í¸‚.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Merl said:


> I'd say I'm definitely addicted to the symphonies of one particular composer and see it as a challenge to collect every cycle of his symphonies. Ive worked out that I'm around 30 cycles short and with many being OOP or hard to obtain for sensible money (esp the Japanese ones) I'll probably never complete this. I don't think this obsession affects my life but I do spend a lot of time hunting these down. If I was a millionaire I reckon I'd have the lot, though. ������.


Must be Beethoven. His symphonies _do _seem to offer new things in a wide variety of accounts.


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## Thomyum2 (Apr 18, 2018)

shirime said:


> I've been seeing a therapist about my music addiction for years now, and unfortunately things have only become worse for me.* Not only is it extremely pleasurable for me to listen to music from all cultures and all periods of history, but even when the music has been turned off I find the sounds of the environment around me interesting and even beautiful, like music in its own right. It's getting to the point that I have even been recording some of these sounds and creating musique concrete compositions, or creating my own sounds using synthesis and transforming them in various ways to explore music even further. It's impulsive and I can't seem to find a way out of my addiction. What am I supposed to do? Cut my ears off????
> 
> *jk


I don't know your situation, but the way you describe your relationship to music, it sounds to me more like a calling than an addiction.


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## Thomyum2 (Apr 18, 2018)

Baron Scarpia said:


> To my way of thinking, if you are doing something else at the same time you are not really _listening_ to music. At least that is my experience. If I hear music that I truly love, I can't do something else at the same time.





Simon Moon said:


> I absolutely agree.
> 
> When I listen to music, it is my primary activity. I do not listen to music in the background, or while I am doing some other activity. Those ideas are an anathema to me.
> 
> ...


I agree too, but I think that it is also possible to absorb music to a certain degree subconsciously by listening without full conscious attention.

Due to the limited time I currently have available to listen with my full attention and no distractions, I find it's still useful to be listening at other times, especially with music that is new to me. I gain a familiarity with the melodies and broader patterns in a piece this way, and this helps me to understand and appreciate the works more down the road when I'm able to hear them again and really pay attention to the detail - having that sense of familiarity makes it a little easier to follow and recognize what's happening in a composition than if I was just listening for the first time and everything was new.

So I think there's value and enjoyment to be had in both approaches.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Thomyum2 said:


> I agree too, but I think that it is also possible to absorb music to a certain degree subconsciously by listening without full conscious attention.
> 
> Due to the limited time I currently have available to listen with my full attention and no distractions, I find it's still useful to be listening at other times, especially with music that is new to me. I gain a familiarity with the melodies and broader patterns in a piece this way, and this helps me to understand and appreciate the works more down the road when I'm able to hear them again and really pay attention to the detail - having that sense of familiarity makes it a little easier to follow and recognize what's happening in a composition than if I was just listening for the first time and everything was new.
> 
> So I think there's value and enjoyment to be had in both approaches.


Fair enough but that is you. There are other ways of listening to music and, for those who find they work, they are not inferior! I reject the idea that there is a proper way. Personally, I find that sitting and concentrating on music - new or familiar - is a less rewarding way for me. I always have.

In all areas of life, I have a very wandering mind but am also someone who, no matter what I am concentrating on, does not mind or get disturbed by interruptions or distractions. I can pay them attention and return to what I was concentrating on a bit later. Or I can cut them out for a couple of minutes until I am ready. Sometimes the "disturbance" is helpful and might even add a creative slant or fluency to what I was doing. This applies to work - most of the work I have done has involved a lot of thinking - and to other activities. In conversations I do focus on what people are saying but I also have ideas sparking off what they are saying. This is how I am. There are times when my mind runs so "fast and diverse" that I have to jot things down or lose them. I am not manic, by the way!

When it comes to music - which goes on even when the listener has "gone off" somewhere else - I find it partly assembles and has its impact unconsciously. I have a huge appetite for music and can digest a lot, well enough to be able to sing along in my mind (even to a particular performance's nuances) once I am familiar with the piece or performance (which tends to happen quite quickly these days). And I suspect that my listening style helps me to get into (without real work or pain) music that many would describe as hard work or challenging. In a concert my mind will still go places. The music is there but so are other thoughts, perhaps flavoured by the music. I can remember details of the performances afterwards.

I'm not boasting and I am not saying that I think my way is better (well, it may be with new music!). I'm just asking you to accept that we are different, that the "classical music is serious and should be listened to properly" thing doesn't work for me and that I really really do not accept that I lose out listening my way.


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## Thomyum2 (Apr 18, 2018)

Enthusiast said:


> Fair enough but that is you. There are other ways of listening to music and, for those who find they work, they are not inferior! I reject the idea that there is a proper way.
> ...
> I'm not boasting and I am not saying that I think my way is better (well, it may be with new music!). I'm just asking you to accept that we are different, that the "classical music is serious and should be listened to properly" thing doesn't work for me and that I really really do not accept that I lose out listening my way.


Absolutely accept that we are all different, and I also see that is a positive thing; I don't think there is any inferior way to approach music and if my post suggested otherwise, it was not intended. Perhaps I should rephrase it 'there's value and enjoyment to be had in *all* approaches' - I do believe that.


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## Guest (Jul 5, 2018)

Thomyum2 said:


> I agree too, but I think that it is also possible to absorb music to a certain degree subconsciously by listening without full conscious attention.
> 
> Due to the limited time I currently have available to listen with my full attention and no distractions, I find it's still useful to be listening at other times, especially with music that is new to me. I gain a familiarity with the melodies and broader patterns in a piece this way, and this helps me to understand and appreciate the works more down the road when I'm able to hear them again and really pay attention to the detail - having that sense of familiarity makes it a little easier to follow and recognize what's happening in a composition than if I was just listening for the first time and everything was new.
> 
> So I think there's value and enjoyment to be had in both approaches.


I agree that sometimes I've also found it worthwhile listening to an unfamiliar thing even if distracted by something else, just to get an overview of it before listening attentively. It might help me pick up on a motif or theme that I might have overlook at its first appearance.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Different folks / different strokes, I guess.

I for one listen intensly (through head phones mostly) to music with absolutely nothing to take the focus of attention away from the music itself. With repeated listening the pleasure only increases. Once a piece becomes familiar I am able to move from exploring the fine detail (harmonic/melodic) of individual passages to a broader, more narrative focused listen. Sometimes this order is reversed. Either way, I find it deeply satisfying.

On the question of music addiction, if I cannot listen to any over an extended period, say a week or so, I confess to experiencing aural cravings. Fortunately, a fix is usually easy to find if I am away from home and my rather too many CDs.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I think it is possible to buy too much music. Previously having a collection nudging the thousand mark, in recent years I made an effort to weed out what was unnecessary. It has had its challenges but has also had a liberating effect. My collection was nowhere near those of the real music addicts, such as Mr. Zero Freitas who owns over 8 million vinyls along with 100,000 compact discs. I think this sort of collecting is the province of men, and when we go in this direction music can take over our lives. Nick Hornby's novel High Fidelity provides a humorous take on that (there is a film version starring John Cusack and Jack Black).


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