Making soldiers' pain songs – and yet hope – Harvard Gazette

War songs and friends who have not returned home may not seem like music to comfort struggling veterans. However, according to a recent study, a songwriting project that builds on each soldier's combat experience seems to help mitigate the impact of trauma that has been sustained for too long.

Navy veteran John Oliveira, who toured Iraq and Afghanistan, recalled: "It was probably one of the most emotionally challenging experiences – and I want to say it, too. , physically and mentally, experiences these few hours that I sat down with Jim and proposed this song. It's just a tricky thing.

In September, Oliveira was one of 10 current and former members of the service who participated in a scientific trial of an innovative therapeutic program developed in 2011 by the Texas-based singer-songwriter. , Darden Smith.

The study, led by two Harvard Medical School (HMS) faculty members and Mbadachusetts General Hospital clinicians, Ronald Hirschberg and Louisa Sylvia, aimed to apply scientific rigor to a technique that Smith and Dr. other songwriters have used more than 400 times during retreats organized by the SongwritingWith: Soldiers Association. Four weeks after the writing sessions, study participants reported a 33% decrease in PTSD symptoms and a 22% decrease in symptoms of depression.

The trial was conducted at Charlestown at Home Base, a joint program of the Mbadachusetts General Hospital and the Red Sox Foundation, to help veterans overcome anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other "invisible wounds of war".

The process of writing the song – which involves veterans who talk about trauma while a songwriter listens and interprets lyrics and music – sometimes reveals heartbreaking memories that blend into prescribed daily listening sessions. , but participants say that putting their story into song helped them deal with the frustration and anger that can overwhelm them with the daily disadvantages of modern life.

"In fact, I've started to look forward to hearing the song," said Blair Morin, an Air Force doctor who served two infantry-related combat tournaments. "I actually listened twice most days. I have about an hour commute to get to work, so it was very easy when I started getting frustrated with traffic or anything throughout my workday. to get the song going, and that has somehow grounded me. That made me think, "The traffic is zero, I'm going to get out of it," and my day could improve from there. "

Participants added that the recordings also helped them share their stories that were difficult to tell with their loved ones, some of whom were hearing details for the first time.

"My wife listens to it regularly," Morin said. "[The songwriter] talked about how my PTSD affected my family. This is the part that really hit me. … I remember that just before we started treatment, we took our kids to Sturbridge Village to see Santa Claus. I had to leave because there were too many people.

"I'm a good father now. I am able, with a little more treatment, to be a good father. "

Once the songs were written, participants each received a USB key containing their recording and a Fitbit device to track physiological variables, such as heart rate, activity level, and sleep time. They were asked to listen to their song every day for four weeks and then come back for a follow-up exam.

The results are promising enough, Hirschberg and Sylvia said, to consider a larger study that could not only provide more statistical power to its results, but also allow scientists to probe the possible causes of therapeutic effects.

"We do not really know what's really useful in the collaborative experience in song writing," said Sylvia, badociate professor of psychology at HMS and director of health and wellness programs at Home Base. . "This study was really worth seeing, does collaborative songwriting help veterans?" We did not really ask, "How does collaborative writing help make them feel better?" "

Sylvia and Hirschberg have stated that the process of musical writing and subsequent listening to songs could constitute a kind of "exposure therapy", an established technique in which veterans relive their trauma in a therapeutic setting, which can reduce the power of memories.

Hirschberg, an badistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at HMS, heard of collaborative song writing in 2016 at a conference on music and medicine at Vanderbilt University. There, he saw Smith and House performing songs written during retreats. The potential of this technique was clear, said Hirschberg. All he had to do to see it was to look around the room.

"They just sang the song and told the story of what happened to" John Smith "in Iraq," said Hirschberg. "It's a cliché, but there was not a dry eye. It really touched people.

The songwriting technique was born from a Smith session with a soldier in Colorado in 2011, during which Smith spoke with the soldier about his service, probed areas of trauma and wrote a song from his notes on the spot. The session was intense, in tears and, from the soldier's point of view, useful. Mary Judd, a childhood friend from Smith's, who is also interested in positive psychology and has a talent for organizing, also attended the evening. She was so impressed that she designed with Smith a weekend retreat centered on one-on-one writing sessions between professional songwriters and veterans or current members of the military service dealing with the depression, anxiety and PTSD.

"As a music fan as I was, I could not help but think" What's going on here? "Well beyond the song," said Judd. "[Smith] was so excited about the potential of … stories coming out, the beautiful truth, the poetry, and he said, "I can have more songwriters." And I said, "I can design a weekend . Let's do a retreat. Let's do it all. "

The returns of this first retirement have been so positive that it has become a regular offer. Since then, the organization has organized some 35 retreats in the country. Smith used his contacts in the music industry to bring other songwriters to sessions, including composers such as popular artist Mary Gauthier. Her recent album "Rifles & Rosary Beads" was compiled from the songs she wrote during the sessions and was nominated for a Grammy Award 2019 for Best Folk Album.

The 10 songs created during the study, funded by Home Base, carry titles such as "Buried Troubles", "Rattled" and "Soul Talking" and present a vision of war very different from that of the clbadic hero. However, they are heroic in their own way in the will of the soldiers to engage in what is for many a daily struggle to recover the life they had had before, to become the people they once were and to do the same. peace with the present. Their words speak of comrades on the battlefields for whom they would have given their lives, trauma and deaths abroad, as well as the difficulty of returning. They talk about feeling lonely in "a dark place like I've never seen before" and that "the hardest part comes back, nobody gave you back".

In "It's a fight", Oliveira speaks of fear of his own anger, claiming that he hurt someone after returning from Iraq in 2004. He talks about his struggle daily to function normally and fight against the desire to withdraw, a desire that has led He once moved to the Cascades outside Seattle, which prevented him, for 14 years, from sharing the details of his history of war with his wife.

"I would get carried away by the smallest things, become physically violent – suicide attempts over the years," said Oliveira. "Every day, it was difficult to get up, to fall asleep."

Morin's song, "Warrior", explains how he thinks he did his duty in battle, but that "looking in the face of evil has forever changed who I am".

"All the guys who have not come home and are under my responsibility are very guilty," said the doctor. "I was holding back, blaming myself and carrying that … for a few years, [as well as] a lot of stronger emotions that come from hating you for not being better. "

Morin and Oliveira both said that the therapy had helped them over the years and that the songwriting sessions were a step closer to the long way they realize, both behind and on l & # 39; future.

"That changed a lot of perspectives I had," said Morin about the session with a songwriter. "It made me think a lot about what I was before my combat experience, often explained where I wanted to go and helped me understand it, even though I'm going to much better than a few years ago. A few years ago, I am still not satisfied with my current state and I have somehow started work on myself. "

As emotional as the songwriting sessions were for the military personnel involved, Smith said the sessions were also exhausting for songwriters, who needed to possess special skills to mop up the difficult memories of the people who were involved. they had just met and turned them into songs in a few hours, while dealing with the deep emotions raised.

"By the end of the writing session, the soldiers would feel great and I would feel like hit by a truck," Smith said. "[There’s] transfer of trauma, but also the deep bond that unites two people, people coming together to live a common experience [that] bind them right now. "

Judd and Smith said they were delighted to see the study documenting the impact of writing. They said that this represented an opportunity, once the data became available, to expand the use of the technique and to help more people, whether veterans or others with traumatic experiences.

"I knew that at one point we had to really study what was going on," Judd said. "Because it could potentially inform many treatments, be it PTSD and veterans or … different populations.