Free fun activity eases Anxiety more than therapy

For many older adults, living with chronic health issues often comes with an unwelcome companion: anxiety.

The uncertainty of symptoms and the difficulty coping with them can quietly take a toll.

Now, a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology reveals a powerful, drug-free way to ease that anxiety.

To explore whether music therapy could be an equally effective alternative, researchers worked with 300 adults who had experienced anxiety for at least a month and had a history of serious illness, in this case, cancer.

The average participant was 57, and about 75% were women.

Around one-third had been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.

First, the researchers randomly divided participants into two groups:

• One group received cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) from licensed social workers and psychologists.

• The other group worked with board-certified music therapists.

Both groups participated in seven weekly one-hour sessions conducted over Zoom.

The music therapy sessions involved collaborative songwriting—participants worked with therapists to create original songs by brainstorming themes, writing lyrics, and shaping melodies.

Researchers followed participants for 26 weeks, measuring anxiety levels using a standard anxiety scale at the end of treatment and again at 26 weeks.

Both therapies led to meaningful drops in anxiety.

Here’s what they found:

1. At week 8, music therapy participants showed an average anxiety drop of 3.12 points, while CBT participants dropped 2.97 points.

2. At week 26, music therapy participants maintained a 3.31-point reduction; the CBT group showed a 3.0-point drop.

3. The difference between the two groups wasn’t clinically significant.

4. Both groups showed similar improvements in depression, fatigue, pain, sleep issues, and overall quality of life.

Conclusion: Music therapy works just as well as cognitive behavioral therapy for reducing anxiety, and the benefits last at least six months.

If you can’t access a board-certified music therapist, try making music at home; humming melodies or setting your thoughts to music can be therapeutic and fun.

Doing it with a friend may help even more, thanks to the added social connection.

This is yet another study that shows you can improve your anxiety significantly using simple methods from home.

Here are a few more steps thousands of readers have taken to completely rid themselves of anxiety within weeks…