Remember those delicious days of teen angst, when listening to something moody through your headphones and staring wistfully out of a car window (ideally rain-streaked) was enough to make you feel emotionally cleansed?

My adolescent years are a blur of late nights spent starfished on my bed with music – joyous, dark, uplifting, heartbreaking music – blasting into my ears as I indulged in the youthful luxury of just feeling all my feelings.

Granted, those feelings were often magnified by hormones and sheer novelty, but nevertheless the bass, strings, harmonies and lyrics of songs managed to articulate my emotions long before I had the language to do it myself.

Nowadays, I have decidedly less time to stand under the shower, a hand extended towards my imaginary audience as I perform a dramatic rendition of Mariah Carey’s Hero, but losing myself in music is still my chosen form of therapy.

Music therapy: why music is vital for my mental health