Chuck(G) wrote:No, but I'm saying that the mindset is what will get you into trouble. Taking drug "A" is okay as long as it helps me with my performance. Perhaps taking other drugs will also help; after all, it's my livelihood on the line.
So don't touch drugs, because it will lead to the hard stuff before you know it, and 9 year old girls will be using it for their piano recitals, etc.
Except, if you're already taking the drug in question for a non-mental medical reason like blood pressure. Except, if the drug in question is one that you and your friends are accustomed to using, maybe alcohol or caffeine.
This kind of perspective (or lack of, really) essentially creates a great big blind spot that can make you vulnerable, and you can see it happening, people getting hooked on pain killers etc.
Donn wrote:This kind of perspective (or lack of, really) essentially creates a great big blind spot that can make you vulnerable, and you can see it happening, people getting hooked on pain killers etc.
I'll confess a strong bias against medicating things that might otherwise be handled through other means.
Yes, at my age, I have hypertension, but was able to talk my physician out of throwing the whole pharmacopeia at me. For one thing, ithe massive drug dose was playing havoc with my hearing.
I got on a simple diuretic, lost weight and upped my exercise. My BP is under control without any fancy drugs and has stayed that way for several years now.
At one point in my life, I experienced severe tension headaches. The cure suggested was to give me a sublingual vasodialator--just slip the pill under your tongue and you'll feel positively lightheaded. Instead, I learned to deal with stress and was a much happier person for it. I imagine that now it's pretty easy to find a doctor to prescribe oxycontin for just about any little ache or pain.
I had problems sleeping through the night--my physician first prescribed trazadone, then Ambien. I found that if I wore a warmer set of pajamas, I slept like a baby.
Now we're giving a close cousin to cocaine--Ritalin--almost indiscriminately to kids who may or may not have ADHD. Some, it's been discovered, only need some parental guidance and discipline. But it's easier just to pop a pill. Well, that one's beginning to come home to roost:
The siren song of modern drugs is powerful--and it's pretty easy to get a prescription for just about anything--even cannabis in some states. But I think learning not to fall into the drug trap might be good for us all.
Taking a pill is a western remedy. Both western and eastern remedies work to achieve personal goals such as sustained performance and serenity.
There is nothing wrong with being attuned to one's body. Methods of eastern traditions comprise paying attention to the senses of balance, digestion, blood pressure, and what Buddhists call "monkey chatter."
Get help when it is needed. However, nothing to excess. Tertiary consequences with personal growth and effectiveness, law enforcement, families, friends, and jobs may result from the overuse of, abuse of, and addiction to anxiety and pain relieving remedies.
Feel the energy of your excitement and adrenaline, and use the energy to your advantage.
Dean E
[S]tudy politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy . . . in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry [and] music. . . . John Adams (1780)
Speaking for those that are not here, the people I know in the symphony who were taking WERE under a doctor's supervision, and it was a last resort, not an easy fix. It did not make you play ANY BETTER, only prevented deterioration under foreseeable circumstances. And in conversations, they saw it AS THEIR DUTY, to the people who had shelled out good money to be in the seats.
I wouldn't have wanted anything that would dull my joy at playing such great music (even with violas present), but there it is. I don't feel that suggesting to a horn player that after 20 years of hard study she was in the wrong business (gee, they don't know it by then in their pocketbook, at least!?) and should be retrained is very productive.
Nor can I pass judgement if art is better or worse for possibly not having that voice.
I do know that it's hard enough to find decent, paying work in the classical field, and I've never heard of anyone besides legitimate, classical musicians taking BB's. In that respect, it IS like sports, tenure or not, you're only as good as your last performance, and if the skip decides they don't like you any more, you're GONE! (but no pressure or anything... )
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still grow, but only to be troubled and insecure?
Being close friends with a number of MD's, I can tell you that they prescribe inderol for performance anxiety in LOTS of people in different professions. Just for example: corporate executives who struggle with nerves at public speaking engagments; golfers; actors; dancers; politicians; job interviewees - the list could go on.......
Why do people keep it a secret? As is evident in this thread, there are people who think it is a really bad thing and would possibly deny employment to someone based solely on the fact that they take inderol. I've never seen any evidence that 10-30 mg of inderol prescribed by an MD for an appropriate patient is harmful or addictive or can lead one to addiction to other drugs. If someone presents such evidence, maybe my thinking will be different, but from my point of view, it's really nobody's business if someone takes inderol. I'm sure there are individual cases where inderol is harmful, but there are individual cases where tylenol, aspirin, and any other drug is harmful. If someone struggles with performance anxiety, I would suggest they ask their doctor about it.
I have heard of some institutions that offer desensitization classes that essentially put you in a more hostile environment--on stage, alone, with the temperature turned up, members of the audience talking, joking, heckeling staring, walking in and out, etc. Perhaps some of the education professionals on the BBS can point you in the right direction.
Another thought is to enroll in a couple of drama classes. It might take the edge off the tension and it couldn't hurt your playing.
jomazq wrote:
Having read this entire post, I wonder about the use of beta blockers for situations like auditions. The reason the music dept includes these "Juries" as part of my finals is to help prepare us for what is to come in auditions and and playing before panels in professional situations.
What are the dangers of taking BB's in doeses of 10-50 Mg? As a young healthy musician am i condemned to 1000's of practice hours without the so-called "assistance" of BB's to yield to me the fruits of my labors?
I put a great deal of work into my low register as perscribed by my teacher in order to extrapolate the sound from my playing. The result at the panel was pathetic.
Personally, I would advocate performing much more in public before considering beta blockers. If after a few years of frequent performing you still sound great in the practice room but crash and burn in public, then you might try beta blockers.
See if you can overcome your anxiety on your own first. It may make you a stronger player or more compassionate teacher in the long run, even if you eventually decide to use beta blockers.
Perform daily for somebody--drag a friend in to the practice room and see if you can improve that way. Pretend that you are performing when you practice. Play for your dog. Then go out in public and play on a street corner. Play in a public school. Put on an unaccompanied set of tunes and play it anywhere you you can. Blazhevich, Bordogni, B-flat scales anything that gets you in a performance situation. I made money playing Blazhevich in the Chicago Train Station during a 6-hour layover. People dig that stuff.
You want a cure for performance anxiety? As a freshman in high school, you march your first show of five completely different shows you are going to learn and march that season and each year thereafter with an instrument you had never even picked up, much less played until two weeks before, and definitely never performed with, then drop your mouthpiece and bits on the run in, try to mime your part anyway, and have to run around and through the football players after the show is over looking for it, and you're looking like you're doing the funky chicken trying to find it because you can't see it under the glare of the stadium lights because it fell exactly lengthwise in the middle of a yard line. After that, nothing is worse, no calamity can phase you because you've just finished making the worst fool of yourself you can, and all you can do is go up. At least you can brag about your straight marching because of the way the mouthpiece and bits landed! The effects of the incident pay off seven years later when, in grad school (a non-music degree program) at an NCAA I school marching band, you are the only souzy who can march and play the signature bass riff to "Big Noise from Winetka" cleanly, in the key of concert D major, even better than the so-called music majors and grad asses, and get a standing ovation from the entire band when the director, frustrated at the riff not being clean out of the section, has individual tryouts right then, right there, in front of everybody, and after the rest muck it you nail it to the wall because you've been there, and you know as far as you and your souzy are concerned, you fear nothing because you know you are the meanest sob in the valley, er, football field.
Yes, medicine for jitters is sometimes required, but just like the old saying, you gotta get back on that horse and ride, and in the long run, it's the best cure, and even if some sort of prescribed medicine is still needed, you still have to take the reins and go. Pick your saying: the English, "Get on with it," the Eagles, "Get over it," the mid-70's slang, "Get your $#!+ together," Nike, "Just do it," etc.
Opinions were solicited and I gave mine. I'm sorry that it wasn't the one you wanted to read.
Look, if you're going to attack something, attack the opinion, not the person rendering it. TV talk shows have adequately demonstrated that ad hominem sniping is the territory of the small-minded--and politicians.
I'm not a tuba professional, nor can I honestly say that I've ever had the smallest desire to become one. But a lifetime of having to give public presentations (including testifying as an "expert" in court) has given me my share of the feeling of wanting to run away. Note that I put "expert" in quotes to make up for the "artist" thing that someone took umbrage at.
