What Music / Song Do You Listen To When PTSD Is In Full Effect?

[illuminating_anchor]

i have some theme songs from massage videos

 

[upstream]

Songs about Trauma or Post Trauma

Curious to know if anyone has a song they feel embodies part of their experience with PTSD

...whether it's about the trauma like Billy Joel's Goodnight Saigon & Dakota Moon's Sweet Lady Jane
...or about hope and support like Sheryl Crow's I Shall Believe & Seal's Don't Cry
...or about painful memories like Linkin Park's Easier to Run
...or whatever angle you like.

Right now I'm listening to:

Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia
"I was bruised and battered, and I couldn't tell what I felt..."

While I heard the song in the movie Philadelphia, which is about AIDS, I can identify with the emotional undertones. It's an apt description of how I have often felt.

 

[upstream]

Sorry if I made a double or triple thread, I guess this is a good place for my question though. I apologize for the hassle :doh:

 

[Shoshin]

Cowboy Junkies
Miles Davis
Descendents

 

[nezer]

@ Shoshin, Miles Davis :D

I was scanning this thread looking for anyone else into Jazz.

For me it's straight-ahead modern Jazz. I pretty much have to have it on all the time. It gives my mind something to latch onto thus keeping at least some part of me "present." I have satellite radio in the car and in the house and have the jazz station on, basically, whenever I'm not sleeping. (Not that I sleep in my car; I have a hard enough time sleeping in my super-comfy bed.) About the only way I can stand to be out in public is with the iPod pumping Jazz into my brain. There's something about the "aural wall" it creates that helps keep me focused on what I am trying to do (eat, buy groceries). After all, silence is deafeningly frightening and is to be avoided at nearly any cost.

My last episode was all about Miles Davis with some side-trips into John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. This time it's been Coltrane (esp. Love Supreme era) and Herbie Hancock. I'm a musician and music provides an emotional and intellectual escape as well. Lately I have been fixated on the concept of musical sequences and both Coltrane and Hancock are masters of this device.

As someone mentioned above, playing the blues really, really does help. I think it's, in part, because it allows me to express myself emotionally in such a way that most people only seem to admire and not really judge negatively. It really seems that to know PTSD is to *know* the blues. Now, once I learn to express what I know through my instrument, I'll be teaching PhD-level courses about the Blues. :-)

 

[linasmom]

Man, I could list so many songs - but I was just listening to this one in the car:

"Realize" by Ours

Anytime, anyplace, come around, go away
There's a sound then it fades, turn it down make it stay
If I could get off the phone I'd deliver the song
But too much is in my way
Like a dog to the bone, a leash to the throne, a laugh within my face
Taking too much air, taking too much air
This is how you care
When you realize you're down, when you realize you're
Down on the floor with a radio song, you're crawling, you're crawling
Down on the floor with a radio song, Oh
We spent our days in a coma, believing it's over
Outside there's too much hate
Tried to stay on the ball believe in it all, but it bounces in our face
Now we're beginning to crawl, by leaving it all, there's nothing in our way
Breathing out again, breathing out again
When it seems like you can, then you realize you're down
You realize you're
Down on the floor with a radio song, you're crawling, you're crawling
Down on the floor with a radio song, Oh
When you realize you're down, when you realize you're down
From taking too much air, taking oxygen
We all want love and we all fall
Down on the floor with a radio song, you're crawling, you're crawling
Down on the floor with a radio song, Ohhhhh

 

[Shoshin]

Lately, things are tough, so:

Circle Jerks
Minor Threat
X
Black Flag

:wall:

 

[morgan]

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

 

[Tactman]

black then white are all i see in my infancy
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me
lets me see
as below, so above and beyond, i imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason
push the envelope
watch it bend

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind
withering my intuition, missing opportunities
and i must feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines

black then white are all i see in my infancy
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me
lets me see
there is so much more and beckons me to look thru to these infinite possibilities
as below, so above and beyond, i imagine
drawn outside the lines of reason
push the envelope
watch it bend

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind
withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind

feed my will to feel this moment, urging me to cross the line
reaching out to embrace the random
reaching out to embrace whatever may come

i embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired
to fathom the power
to witness the beauty
to bathe in the fountain
to swing on the spiral
to swing on a spiral
to...
swing on a spiral of our divinity and still be a human

with my feet upon the ground i move myself between the sounds and open wide to suck it in
i feel it move across my skin
i'm reaching up and reaching out
i'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me
whatever will be willed on me
and following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been
we'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been
spiral out... keep going
spiral out... keep going

 

[Hope]

I love
Anger Moments - Hole - Violet, Linkon Park - Bleed it out, Alannis Morrisette - Who really thinks it Matters? Prodigy,
Depressed or Withdrawn - Tori Amos - anything (crucify is great), Sara McCaughlin - Fear, U2-Bloody Sunday, Carrie Underwood - Jesus Take the wheel
Motivation - Alicia Keys-Karma, Bee Gees-Stayin Alive, Wheezer - Island in the Sun, Sopranos - Theme Song, The Fray

Hope these help!

 

[Hope]

How could I forget my favorite one! NIN (Nine Inch Nails) Hurt, Mr. Self Destruct is also good. Let me know what you think!

 

[Hope]

Hope's songs

Wow! Great question. I think music plays a crucial part in all of our lives. Here are some of my favorites based on emotions:

Anger - Hole-Violet, Linken Park - Bleed it out, Alanis Morrisette - You Outta know, NIN - Mr. Self Destruct

Depressed - Tori Amos - Anything, Sara McCgaughlin - Fear, U2-Bloody Sunday, NIN - Hurt

Happy - Wheezer - Island in the sun, Bee Gees-Stayin Alive, Alicia Keys-Karma.

Hope this helps!