Using Music to Overcome Anxiety, Depression, OCD and Health Anxiety

07.20.2026

Using Music to Overcome Anxiety, Depression, OCD and Health Anxiety

by Ryan Bronson

I’ve lived with anxiety, depression, OCD, and health anxiety for most of my life.

My struggles started when I was a kid. I developed anxiety, OCD, and depression at a young age, and with it came tics and compulsions that controlled so much of my day. I would wash my hands over and over until they were raw because my brain convinced me they were never clean enough. I also developed rituals that, to anyone else, would seem completely irrational. Even today, I sometimes have to tap my toes while walking through a doorway until it “feels right.” If I don’t, my brain tells me something bad is going to happen. Logically, I know that’s not true, but OCD isn’t driven by logic. It’s driven by fear.

Those behaviors made me an easy target growing up. I was bullied throughout elementary and middle school because of my tics and compulsions. At an age when all you want is to fit in, feeling different only made my anxiety worse.

Health anxiety became another battle. A bruise, a bump, or any unusual feeling in my body would immediately send my mind to the worst possible conclusion. I was convinced I had cancer or another life-threatening illness more times than I can count. I would beg my parents to take me to the emergency room because I genuinely believed something was wrong. Even when doctors reassured me I was healthy, the relief was often temporary before another fear took its place.

In 2015, those struggles reached a point where I spent some time in a mental hospital for anxiety, OCD and depression. That experience changed the way I looked at mental health. I realized that these illnesses are invisible to most people, but that doesn’t make them any less real.

Today, I still have anxious days. I still have OCD. I still catch myself fighting irrational thoughts that I know don’t make sense. But I’ve learned that recovery isn’t about eliminating every symptom, it’s about refusing to let them define your life.

Music was always my escape growing up. It became the one place where my mind finally felt quiet. As I got older, I started creating the music I needed to hear when I was younger—songs that remind people they’re not alone, that it’s okay to ask for help, and that there is hope even on the hardest days. Although my initial journey with medication was rocky in those elementary years, I eventually found the right therapist and was put on the right medications and it’s been a drastic improvement since then.

If sharing my story helps even one person realize they aren’t alone, then every difficult chapter has served a purpose. Mental illness can convince you that you’re isolated, broken, or beyond help. You’re not. There are people who understand, there is treatment that can help, and there is hope, even when your own mind is trying to convince you otherwise.

To continue supporting mental health awareness, I’m donating $1 from every iTunes pre-order of my new album, Summer Never Lasts, to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. I’ve done this for every album release since 2015 and will continue to do so. I chose to donate to ADAA because of their educational elements and for the awareness that they raise. ADAA does a lot of great things and have been doing it for a long time.

If you’d like to support both my music and the mission of the ADAA, you can pre-order the album here.