Mental Health In The Music Industry - Are We Doing Enough?

Before touching upon this sensitive topic, I appreciate that writing such an article would need to be treated with respect and caution, but, I believe that it is time for more people to stand up and be heard about these matters as our actions may benefit lives, especially in the local music/university scene and I hope I do that and this article does the subject justice.
As with any industry pressure, our mental health can become volatile. For our creative minds, this can make us feel as though the content we are fabricating might not be good enough. For me, being surrounded by people with such amazing talents is a blessing but also a curse as I feel as though my music is not up to scratch compared to others which impacts my mental health significantly. The competitive spiteful nature of the industry we are all in causes our mindsets to be heightened as we feel we must be ‘The best of the best’ and this influence can be presented in all levels of the profession. With the rise of digital media such as social media platforms, our mental state has skyrocketed with dominant social/cultural pressures adding to the mix. To sell an image and a perfect conception of yourself as an artist and not to mention a ‘product’ of the industry on media platforms takes its toll on the brain as we are striving to achieve the dominant social fundamentals to gain this ‘success’ in our careers.
It is important to note that mental health is still a big problem. According to a study from Help Musicians UK 2,211 musicians were surveyed, 71.1% of whom said they had suffered from panic attacks or anxiety, with 68.5% saying they had struggled with depression. Further research also proposes a few major issues including money worries, because of juggling many different jobs and dealing with precarious and unpredictable pay, and poor working conditions. If you took any degree you were made aware of the work needed to be made for a career to be a success and that can sometimes be overwhelming. The struggle at the start of the journey until you hit a turning point which allows you to become relaxed financially will have a tremendous impact on our mental health, not to mention the other struggles a musician might face throughout their career.
Mental issues affect artists at all levels, artists of popularity are also affected by mental health issues.Taking the recent death of Prodigy’s Keith Flint for example, the entertainment industry needs to be taking more action towards musicians on all professions with mental health issues so that tragedies like this can be reduced or even eliminated, especially for males who are often overlooked and their own mental health, accepting that males are also suffering needs to be elevated into the normality of the dominant social culture which normally focuses solely on women’s emotions and mentally.
However, popular artists have raised the issue of their own platforms, Olly Alexander from Years & Years spoke about his relationship with mental health to chairman of the leading British Charity for the magazine Noisey as part of their section ‘The Noisey Guide to Music and Mental Health’ Olly told Noisey “In our culture there’s still so much inherent shame when we talk about our mental health, and we still don’t talk about it in the same way we do our physical health.” The fact that musicians who have this complex platform to promote mental health and are speaking up about it is of great importance to the small steps of change to the music industry. The conversation between the two men shows the progress the industry needs for the partnership of the industry and the musician handling mental health together.
How can you get help if you need it locally?
It is important that you look after yourself mentally and physically when you need it and to not feel guilty for doing this.
Charities such as CALM gives artists around the UK direct support for any artists dealing with mental health issues in their profession. Their campaign ‘#Best Man Project’inspires men to share their wellbeing amongst friends which can cause a positive outlook on eachother’s wellbeing. Famous faces such as Prince William and Rio Ferdinand have gotten on board withCALM to promote this campaign.