A few weeks ago, the term “digital drugs” went viral when the Saudi government said that binaural beats, sounds that create specific physical stimuli, could have a drug-like effect on teenaged listeners. Khaled Rafaat, 21, a student at the Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University, heard about “digital-drug” websites that provide such stimuli from one of his friends. The friend had tried them and said they improved his mood in a safe way. “My friend told me that they would give me the effect of marijuana but without the side effects,” Rafaat said. Rafaat said there were procedures to be followed before trying the so-called digital drugs. “First, go into a dimly lit room, switch off electronic equipment, wear loose clothes, put headphones on your ears, relax, close your eyes, and start listening,” he said. The feeling was a bit like from a drug, Rafaat said, adding that he used to visit the websites on a regular basis and that this had caused him to become isolated from his friends and family. “I began to neglect my friends, family and university studies. My life was devoted to listening to this music,” he said, adding that he had decided to wean himself off the websites and consult a psychologist to help him recover from his addiction to digital drugs. The power of music is no secret: its subliminal effects have been known to humanity since the dawn of civilisation. The positive effects of music on mental health have long been known to psychologists. The first school of music therapy was set up in Europe in 1959, according to Ahmed Al-Moghazi, a psychologist and addiction therapist. “Music therapy helps promote mental, emotional, physical and social health,” Al-Moghazi said, adding that music therapy should be done by a qualified therapist in order to be effective. “Even the Rosetta Stone records the use of music for therapeutic purposes,” said Sherif Hamdy, a professor of music at Helwan University. “Research on the effects of music has been going on for generations, and it has shown that effective music therapy can help patients,” he said. When a patient hears a type of music he likes, for example, the energy in his brain will be directed toward it and this will help him focus away from his problems. Said Hamdy, “When patients hear songs they love they begin to think about happy memories associated with the songs and forget about their illnesses, for example.” Scientists have discovered that music can improve the outlook for children suffering from speech disabilities and autism. Hamdy continued, “If you talk to an autism patient he might never look at you, but if you sing to him he may look at you because music reduces the ‘inwardness' that the autism patient can be suffering from.” But could music be a source of addiction as well as a therapy? “Addiction from a psychological point of view is a need that forces a person to use a thing or do something whether it will harm him or not,” Al-Moghazi said. According to this definition, some people may become addicted to certain types of music by listening to it to the extent that they have difficulty functioning without the music, or it distracts them from things they should be doing. However, since music is not in itself harmful, becoming addicted to it will rarely require addiction therapy unless it threatens functioning, such as causing a person to neglect work, education, family and friends for the sake of the music. “In this case therapy is needed,” Al-Moghazi said. “Research has found that substances in the human brain responsible for feelings of happiness are released when a person listen to the music he loves, making people strongly attached to the music they love. “‘Digital drugs', more accurately called binaural beats, are sounds that are thought to be capable of changing brain-wave patterns and inducing an altered state of consciousness similar to that caused by taking drugs or achieving a deep state of meditation,” he added. Binaural beats occur when two tones with slightly different frequencies are played together. Al-Moghazi explained that without headphones the slight difference in the two frequencies is perceived by the listener as a single tone that wavers slightly. But with headphones, the two tones are isolated and the listener hears each frequency clearly. “As the brain processes the two tones, it must take into account the slight difference between the frequencies. To the listener, this difference is perceived as rhythmic beats inside the head, or binaural beats,” he said. The brain processes rhythmic stimuli as electrical impulses. The goal of ‘digital drugs' is to purposely control such electrical impulses and encourage the listener's brain to synchronise brain waves with the binaural beats. “This synchronisation, achieved by selecting binaural tones within a particular frequency level, is called frequency following response (FFF) and is part of a concept called ‘entrainment',” Al-Moghazi said. Entrainment, the synchronisation of one biological rhythm with another, is not a new concept and forms the basis of many types of meditation and medical bio-feedback. Mohamed Ragab, a neurologist, said that “digital drugs” have not yet spread to Egypt. “There are over 20,000 digital drug addicts in Turkey and a handful in Lebanon and Saudi Arabic,” Ragab said. The most dangerous side effect of digital drugs is that they alter regular brain chemistry. “This can even result in convulsive seizures, epileptic seizures, or headaches,” Ragab said. An addict can also lose concentration and break away from reality, leading to problems in work or education. “The solution is not to trust the ‘digital drug' websites, and if someone is already using them then addiction therapy is a must.” However, there is still controversy among doctors over whether so-called digital drugs are addictive or not. “We are not sure whether digital drugs are physically addictive or not, but what we are sure of is that they can be psychologically addictive. Psychological addiction is not less dangerous than physical addiction. In fact it can be more so,” Al-Moghazi said. The writer is a freelance journalist.
