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What can you do?

“More than 300 million people worldwide have depression, which is projected to become the leading cause of disability by 2020”(Music Therapy May Help Ease Depression, Lisa Rapaport, 2017 ,December 13). Depression affects people of all ages, but teenagers are mostly impacted by this mental illness and countless of teens do not know where, or how to find support. However, music therapy is an immense form of treatment that is not communicated to teens that suffer from depression or any mental or physical illness, and it’s a harmless form of relief. Music therapy can be a solution to families who cannot afford medicine like antidepressants. A way that we as a whole can change that is by sharing with each other the information we know, so next time you are in a conversation mention a little bit about music therapy in order to have more parents opened minded, if you do so you can reduce the amount of adolescents who do not receive treatment, you will help ease parents’ mind by telling there is another way, finally, you will strengthen the community if you talking about ways to help support each other.

Music therapy is one of the most affordable ways of treatment. Depending on the

organization you have closest to you is the amount for a session, but there are websites where they provide free music therapy listenings. According to center music therapy, “The average session cost $30” depending how long you want the session to last. Music session cost less than antidepressants, brand named depressants cost up to $90. The reason why antidepressants cost a fortune is because there is no regulation against raising the prices to their medications. Not only is music therapy affordable, but it is also very effective.

In addition to being affordable, music therapy is effective.“5 million people take music therapy as a coping method for depression” states homehelper. Music therapy plays a vast case when it comes to our mood, physical health, and self-esteem. Music therapy on an average takes about one month to take action and begin to see results, unlike antidepressants which take 8-12 weeks to make any progress in terms to help reduce a patient's depressive symptoms. As well as being effective, music therapy is accessible.

Finally music therapy is accessible to anyone who is connected to the internet. There are multiple ways to have music therapy as a treatment or a support system. For example, if you are comfortable with interacting with someone then you can contact via email and schedule a session, or if you are more of an isolated person you can watch videos on youtube about music therapy, you can even listen to a certain playlist that gets you in a good mood. Music therapy is growing massively and now organizations are building structures where you can go and release your worries and having a place to go when you are feeling low is convenient if you live near areas with music therapy. The more people investing in music therapy, the more places we can have where adolescent can go and cope with their depression. After going through all the details about music therapy it’s fair to say that music therapy is one of the best forms of medication for depression and other mental illnesses.

In conclusion, music therapy is affordable, effective, and accessible. Music therapy is affordable because it costs less than most medication, it is effective because therapy begins to see results within a month, and it is accessible because you are able to look and research about music therapy and begin to take it. Music therapy can impact teens with physical, and mental health, for instance, an adolescent who suffered from a TBI can benefit from music therapy because music can restrain the injured brain. Now knowing the background of music therapy, what will you do to ensure that music therapy is known across the U.S.?