COPING SKILLS
READER TIPS 
Listening to Heavy Metal Music

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By Anonymous

When my pain was at its worst, I discovered that playing heavy metal music as loudly as possible would help. I don't even like heavy metal (I prefer classical), but originally bought a Jimmy Page CD as a present for a friend. One day, I thought I'd play it so my husband wouldn't hear me scream. To my surprise, the pain attack stopped immediately. I spoke to my neurologist and a physician assistant, and they both knew of people with chronic pain who were also helped by heavy metal.

I did a quick Medline search for a possible reason, and found out that techno-music is associated with a significant increase in beta-endorphins (they are the body's "natural" painkillers and are reduced in chronic pain patients), and that classical music does not have this effect. The abstract is here

Although I am not sure that techno-music is the same as heavy metal, I know that in my case, the effect was immediate and consistent. As long as I played the music, the pain was gone or greatly reduced.

The song that helped me the most was Jimmy Page's "Wasting My Time" from his Outrider CD. I would play it over and over at top volume and came to think of it as "Losing My Mind." If anyone is interested, more info and  music samples are available.