Music and Bipolar

Hello!

I wanted to create this topic based on what it's been talked about on the "You know you're bipolar" topic.

So, do you have any weird or fun experiences with music related to bipolar, for instance do you have songs stuck in your head that become annoying or any special music you listen on certain moods, or does music affect your mood? How about your musical tastes? Are they varied due to your mood? You don't have to answer all the questions I just think it'd be fun if you people shared your experiences with music related to bipolar disorder or just music in general.

I am a fan of The Doors, 70s and 80s era of music as that's what I grew up listening too. I also do enjoy the 90s and some of the new music. I enjoy some German music and French pop is excellent (although I don't understand it as clear as German). If I am manic, I usually play Guns n Roses & Led Zeppelin. I do enjoy a lot of the music they play in the clubs also, so a lot of the modern dance music & pop is great too when I am manic. It's very upbeat, which usually goes along with that euphoria. When I'm in a low mood, I usually play a lot of Pink Floyd I noticed. I'm planning a trip to see Guns and Roses in concert (well just Axl), so it has got me pretty high trying to find the best tickets absolutely possible.

I like the big bands from the 40's Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller,
I also like female jazz vocalists Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Edith Piaf, but I think Edith Piaf was more of a pop vocalist. Mahila Jackson is a female gospel jazz vocalist that I like.
Then there is the small jazz combos that played after midnight in Harlem when the big bands had finished their shows in the whites only hotel ballrooms. Charlie Christian, Dizzy Guilespie, Gene Krupa, Thelonious Monk... And finally the driving guitar licks of Django Reinhart in France.

Music... *sighs* It makes a huge difference to my moods, sometimes. Obviously, it makes (most of) us feel things very strongly. Those unexplainable feelings and emotions. I love progressive/pschydelic metal; classical; post rock; and ambient mostly. There's this band Mono and I've been to their live concert three times until now, and their music is very dangerous for me. It makes me feel extremely strong emotions to the point that there's this ache in my chest. (I was standing very close to the stage when I attended their recent concert in the city and the drummer wouldn't stop looking at me, because I was crying like hell since it was so so beautiful.) I've to be really careful to what I listen to.

But, club music (since I DJ) makes me go (hypo)manic. I drink alcohol before I DJ, otherwise my hands wouldn't stop shaking while I go crazy over the beats.

While I'm depressed sometimes, upbeat music helps but, as I drown deeper, after some point nothing helps. But, music has kept me alive, I'd say. It has helped me staying sane. It is what medicines could never be to me.
So, yes, music had a great effect on my moods. And, yes, I have different playlists which I listen to only particular mood.

pinkfloydfan810 wrote:If I am manic, I usually play Guns n Roses & Led Zeppelin. When I'm in a low mood, I usually play a lot of Pink Floyd I noticed.

If I'm hypo manic, ditto.

I remember playing "the division bell" for weeks continuously because it helped me a great deal with something I was going through. I owe them my life, in other words.

Also, how about this: if I'm going through some stuff and the music I listen during that phase well, it's okay. I mean, suitable music helps me, gives me strength. But, after a while, maybe after months, when I tune in to the same music I listened to (during that earlier phase) it brings back all those emotions and memories. For instance, about two years ago, I went through some harassment. It was the worst part of my life, but, the music I listened to during that time (which helped me with getting over it).. I can't listen to it again. I hate it now, because it brings back memories. I loathe that music.

It's almost as if whenever I tune in to the type of music I listened to earlier, I cannot seem to enjoy it in new light. The earlier emotions or moods or whatever, return.

zetamext123 wrote:

pinkfloydfan810 wrote:If I am manic, I usually play Guns n Roses & Led Zeppelin. When I'm in a low mood, I usually play a lot of Pink Floyd I noticed.

If I'm hypo manic, ditto.

I remember playing "the division bell" for weeks continuously because it helped me a great deal with something I was going through. I owe them my life, in other words.

Also, how about this: if I'm going through some stuff and the music I listen during that phase well, it's okay. I mean, suitable music helps me, gives me strength. But, after a while, maybe after months, when I tune in to the same music I listened to (during that earlier phase) it brings back all those emotions and memories. For instance, about two years ago, I went through some harassment. It was the worst part of my life, but, the music I listened to during that time (which helped me with getting over it).. I can't listen to it again. I hate it now, because it brings back memories. I loathe that music.

It's almost as if whenever I tune in to the type of music I listened to earlier, I cannot seem to enjoy it in new light. The earlier emotions or moods or whatever, return.

You know, I found myself listening to The Division Bell in 2009 for about a year and a half straight when I was going through a rough time myself. It kind of brought me down thinking of some of the only good times in my life, but almost gave me some optimism to the future. I'm not sure if this is just me, but I find too sometimes that when upbeat is music is going it really seems to inspire me for conversations. I almost feel the lyrics make me feel so much more extroverted than I usually am when I am not manic. I feel like life is what the lyrics of the song are if that statement makes any sense. I feel so much more and influences me for a much more interesting than normal conversations.

Last year when I battled my severe depression for six months the only band I would listen to was Imagine Dragons. For the three months prior, it was Adrenaline Mob for three months. Wherever my mood is that is where my musical taste sits. Still to this day I am constantly listening to Imagine Dragons but I havent stopped cycling in a year. Crossing my fingers we found the right combo of meds finally!!!

I really love foreign music! Spanish, Korean, French...I just really, really like it.

The funny thing is, I usually reward myself with an album due to some kind of personal accomplishment. Whether it was to commemorate making through another week of a brutal depression or a hypomanic fueled shopping spree because I 'deserved' it...I would get an album.

Eventually, each album started to remind me about a new stage in my life. I have an album that I listened to constantly while in the ER, the one I bought for myself after successfully leaving an in-patient program, the one for the subway rides to my psychiatrist the week after that, and so on.

It's a little odd, but it's nice having those stepping-stones on my bookshelf. It lets me see how far I've come. c:

Varies with general mood, and ranges from darkish metal to fast-beat industrial. You may guess which end is which mood. :p

And got a sort of middle-way for when I'm working on something and need just something to tune out background noices.

pinkfloydfan810 wrote:I'm not sure if this is just me, but I find too sometimes that when upbeat is music is going it really seems to inspire me for conversations. I almost feel the lyrics make me feel so much more extroverted than I usually am when I am not manic.

You're not alone in that area. It inspires me to actually do stuff. It's an integral part of life. Also, if I'm lazy, and can't seem to get out of bed, well, I put some suitable music, and voila! Within an hour, I'm done with taking shower and ready to got out.

Oh. I have a history of spending an awful amount of money on buying albums. I can't just help it.