For many people, working in the music industry is a calling and a high-stakes, high-reward career. But the lifestyle also brings intense pressure. If you’ve started leaning on alcohol or drugs to get through the day, the night, or the tour, you’re not the only one, and there are other ways to cope and places to get support.
Mental Health and the Music Industry
According to a Music Minds Matter survey, 7 in 10 music professionals struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, or depression — yet fewer than a third seek help. Music industry professionals also are at an elevated risk for suicide and mental health issues. According to the MusiCares 2025 Wellness in Music Survey of nearly 3,200 music professionals, over 11% of respondents reported suicidal ideation in the past year, an increase from 8% in the 2024 survey and more than double the U.S. general population. Over 15% of respondents lost a music industry colleague to suicide in the past year.
Why Music Industry Professionals Are Struggling
The music industry inherently poses serious challenges to mental health due to factors like financial insecurity, job instability, burnout, perfectionism, isolation, and constant criticism. Marginalized communities, including women, also face compounded stress from discrimination and abuse, alongside the physical demands of the work.
Financial strain is a major mental health concern. The MusiCares 2025 Wellness in Music Survey found that:
- 40% of respondents linked their anxiety to finances.
- 32% linked their depression to finances.
- 78% of respondents reported needing supplemental income, as they could not cover bills from music earnings alone.
This mounting pressure and lack of coping mechanisms can unfortunately lead some music professionals to turn to substance use.
The Problem With Using Substances to Cope
Recreational drug use and casual drinking can become an unhealthy coping mechanism. Alcohol or drugs may ease anxiety or numb pain, but eventually the high or buzz wears off — and your problems are still there.
Some substances work by causing a surge of endorphins and other neurotransmitters that activate the reward circuit in the brain. The surge activates a feeling of euphoria and a dopamine burst that signals your brain to remember and repeat what made you feel so euphoric. This is why you may find yourself reaching for substances more and more often, building a habit that’s hard to break.
Some examples of how substances affect your mood, sleep, and cognitive functioning include the following:
- Stimulants (cocaine, amphetamines, caffeine, meth):
- Mood: stimulants can cause feelings of euphoria but can also result in anxiety, paranoia, irritability and anger, and/or, in some cases, psychosis.
- Sleep: Stimulant use is associated with insomnia, including delayed sleep onset and frequent night wakings.
- Cognitive changes: Stimulant use can result in an initial boost of focus, but it also leads to impaired judgment and crashes.
- Cannabis (THC/CBD):
- Mood: Cannabis use can increase feelings of relaxation and euphoria, but it can also result in anxiety and exacerbation of existing mental health conditions.
- Sleep: While cannabis can cause sleepiness, it can also interrupt sleep architecture, resulting in poor quality of sleep.
- Cognitive changes: Cannabis use can impair short-term memory, executive functions skills, and attention.
- Depressants (alcohol, benzodiazepines)
- Mood: depressants can initially promote relaxation, but later contribute to anxiety, depression, and unstable moods.
- Sleep: alcohol can promote initial sleepiness but it also impairs REM sleep, resulting in poor quality sleep.
- Cognitive changes: use of depressants can result in poor concentration, impaired memory, and impaired decision making.
- Opioids (heroin, prescription drugs)
- Mood: Initial euphoria followed by fatigue, depression, and/or irritability.
- Sleep: Reduces overall sleep time and can result in daytime fatigue.
- Cognitive changes: impaired focus and decreased motivation.
- Nicotine:
- Mood: Initially boots feelings of well being and motivation, followed by irritability and/or anxiety, particularly during withdrawal.
- Sleep: Reduced overall sleep, insomnia, and/or sleep apnea.
- Cognitive changes: Short term burst in alertness and focus, followed by
When Coping Slides Into Misuse
Substance use — the use of any mind-altering substances, such as drugs or alcohol — can slide into substance misuse over time.
Substance misuse happens when you use drugs or alcohol in a way that could hurt yourself or others. (We often talk about “addiction” and “substance abuse,” but experts recommend using language such as “substance misuse” and “substance use disorder” to dispel feelings of shame.)
Substance misuse can look like:
- Binge drinking regularly
- Using multiple times a day
- Taking prescription medication to get high
- Using substances alone or in risky situations
- Lying to friends, bandmates, or crewmates about how much you’re using
Early warning signs include:
- Needing more drinks or drugs over time to achieve the same effect
- Using increasingly often, such as daily or more frequently
- Repeatedly trying but failing to cut down or quit
- Missing or showing up late for rehearsals, shows, or other work because you’re high, drunk, or hungover
When substance misuse becomes chronic and significantly disrupts your life, it’s called substance use disorder (SUD). If you’re concerned about your relationship with alcohol or drugs, one of the first steps forward is to find better ways to cope.
Maintaining Sobriety While Traveling
In a business that thrives on upbeat energy and crowds of people blowing off steam, maintaining sobriety can be challenging. Not only is access to alcohol and other substances all around, but triggers of stress and reminders of previous experiences can also increase the risk of relapse. To that end, it’s important to plan ahead.
Plan Your Sober Travel Strategy
- Identify potential triggers in advance, Keep a list in your Notes app and share it with your sponsor, mentor, or sober buddy. This builds in accountability and support.
- Build your sober travel toolkit: book virtual therapy and/or recovery counseling sessions in advance and at regular intervals to plan for support, map out local meetings before you even leave your home and put them in your calendar, and find exercise classes or running paths so you can keep your exercise schedule consistent.
Use the Rider to Your Benefit
- Request alcohol-free backstage space.
- Ask for specific non-alcoholic beverages that bring you comfort at home.
- Consider your nutrition needs to support your mental health and sobriety and be sure to list specifics.
- Bring comforts from home that promote relaxation.
- Set clear boundaries. If exposure to alcohol or other substances is triggering, communicate your need for a sober space while traveling.
Use the Buddy System
Prioritizing quality time with your people is the golden ticket to easing stress, per the American Psychological Association. Make time to have fun with tour-mates or FaceTime night-owl family members who are always ready to chat.
- Set up a buddy system for nights when friends are going out. By doing this, you’ll have someone to check in with and someone who will leave with you when you need to go, or someone to stay back with you and keep you company
- Coordinate with your sponsor or other sober buddies for regular text check ins throughout the day.
- Make sober plans to fill your downtime. Routines like visiting an indie bookstore or local coffee shop at every stop promote positive, sober activities to fill downtime.
Healthy Ways to Cope With Stress
Weave Stress-Reduction Routines Into Your Life
Self-care can be difficult with late nights and erratic schedules, but it’s essential. Use micro-routines and strategies to anchor yourself.
- Stretch: Do a mini-yoga session using an app or YouTube.
- Deep breathing exercises: Try the four-seven-eight method (inhale through your nose for a count of four, hold for seven, and exhale through your mouth for eight).
- Healthy snacking: Keep nutrient-dense snacks such as fruit, nuts, and protein bars in stock to fuel your brain.
- Muscle-relaxation exercises: Try progressive muscle relaxation to relieve your tension and hit the reset button.
Build Your Sleep Skills
Whether you’re post-show or winding down after a long day or night in the studio, the rituals you engage in can set you up for good sleep or a sleepless night. Sleep is the key to getting enough rest for your brain and your body, and sleep plays an essential role in positive mental health. Change can be hard, but a few simple swaps can make a huge difference.
- Trade a late-night drink for sparkling water or hot tea to signal your brain to relax.
- Try a protein-rich post-show meal.
- Take a warm shower, if you can. If you’re on the move, try a heating pad while you watch TV or listen to a podcast.
- Use a lavender-scented sleep mask to promote sleep vibes.
Whatever you choose, doing the same thing every night signals to your brain that it’s time to decompress — even when your environment is constantly changing.
Move Your Body
Movement can help ease physical and mental strain. Time and environment can make daily exercise difficult, but building habits such as a daily walk or jog or the use of an exercise app or YouTube series for quick hotel room or outdoor workouts can both increase the production of endorphins in your brain and improve your sleep. Those combined factors can contribute to regulating mood and energy levels.
Learn From Peers
If you don’t yet have a mentor, seek out someone — or a few people — who understands the unique stressors of your space and ask them for advice. You don’t have to figure out everything alone.
Set Boundaries Around Downtime
You probably don’t have a ton of downtime, but it’s important to protect the time you have. It’s OK to say no to functions and outings that don’t serve your stress-reduction needs (yes, even that family reunion) and talk honestly with your partner, friends, and family about reasonable expectations.
Shift Your Mindset
Resilience, the ability to recover from stress, can be cultivated with a growth mindset. Building a growth mindset takes time and practice, so it’s important to be patient with yourself. Mindfulness practice is a good starting point, because it helps you work on self-awareness. In a study on suicidality and mindfulness as an intervention for music industry touring professionals, results showed that mindfulness helped decrease depressive symptoms and suicidality.
- Try a mindfulness practice in the morning and evening with Calm or YouTube. The Jed Foundation (JED) has breathing exercises you can try, too.
- Change your internal dialogue by catching your negative thoughts, examining where they stem from, and replacing them with neutral alternatives. For example: “I blew it tonight; I’ll probably get replaced,” becomes, “I didn’t play my best tonight. I’ll talk to my bandmates about it and get some feedback.”
- Replace self-judgment with self-acceptance by owning mistakes, reminding yourself that failure happens, and using self-talk to process your thoughts.
Try Therapy
Reach out to a therapist if you find yourself feeling anxious, depressed, disconnected, helpless, hopeless, or suicidal. They can help you identify stressors and develop practical coping strategies. Many therapists offer services on a sliding scale based on income.
Learn more about finding affordable therapy here.
Help on the Road and In the Industry
If you or someone close to you is struggling with addiction, suicidal ideation, or other mental health concerns, reaching out early makes a real difference on the path to recovery. Here are some places to start:
Download the MusiCares Resilience on the Road toolkit for resources to help you and your tour-mates thrive on the road.
- Ask for help from someone in your corner, such as a friend, mentor, or family member.
- Call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for confidential, 24/7 support.
- Search for treatment programs at FindTreatment.gov.
- Find a meeting anywhere with the AA Meeting Guide app.
- Send Me a Friend sends a sober companion to meet you on the road and help you stay sober.
If someone you care about is struggling, approach them with empathy rather than criticism and offer to connect them with resources. Learn more about how to manage substance use or help a loved one here.
If you or someone you know needs to talk to someone right now, text, call, or chat 988 for a free confidential conversation with a trained counselor 24/7.
You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting “HOME” to 741741.
If this is a medical emergency or if there is immediate danger of harm, call 911 and explain that you need support for a mental health crisis.