Kamran Ahmed is a psychiatrist and writer who focuses on mental health and its correlation to socialising, healthy relationships and music. Born in London but now based in Sydney, he has split his time to both create better mental health amongst those around him through his writing and films as well as through his start up 'Rave Reviewz' - a website which features music listings, reviews and interviews, often which bring to light mental health. He also began ‘Music on my Mind’, a music and mental health campaign to raise funds for mental health charities and awareness of mental health issues in the public and music community.
We heard him speak on a panel recently for the Sydney Nightlife Association. He spoke with consideration and said a number of things which were both resonating and innovative. We caught up with him after to find out more.
Thanks for speaking with us. Firstly could you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi, thanks for having me. So I’m a psychiatrist from London and first visited Sydney in 2011. I had such a good time that I decided to move here, but unfortunately, I arrived just after the lockout laws were introduced in 2014! I’ve always been into music and nightlife and was pretty frustrated with what was going on, so I started a project called Rave Reviewz to promote and support the electronic music scene here.
It’s a hot topic so I wanted to touch on it. You’ve mentioned before in a talk the importance of Pill testing and harm minimisation for music festivals. If you wouldn’t mind giving us some insight into your findings into this?
It’s really sad that there have been five drug-related deaths at festivals in the past few months in NSW. Pill testing has been proven as an effective harm-minimisation approach in Europe and is also supported by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, so we should make it available at festivals to prevent future deaths. I really think public policy should be based on evidence.
Yeah Nah Yeah’s events sector and Rave Reviewz both share a mission, around the idea of providing people with safe spaces to explore sound and colour in ways that make them feel comfortable and able to socialise freely and without anxiety. We believe in the importance of socialising and night freedoms for wellbeing. What are you opinions on the importance of this?
Couldn’t agree more. Music and socialising make us feel better by relieving stress and lifting our mood and there’s some really interesting research out there that shows people who dance or attend musical events have higher subjective wellbeing scores than those who don’t. After music festivals, people have reported lots of psychological and social improvements, especially in terms of self-acceptance, personal growth and interpersonal relationships. So music and music events are important for wellbeing.
What do you think needs to be done to rejuvenate Sydney’s night time culture?
Instead of reactionary policies which penalise the public and damage industries (like the lockout laws and music festival licensing) I think music and nightlife should be supported with proper funding, and evidence-based policies should be implemented to reduce harm. There are lots of great organisations working to improve Sydney’s music and nightlife like the Night Time Industries Association and Keep Sydney Open, so if we can all support them in their efforts I’m sure that would help too.
Can you give us some insight into any other findings you have found around the importance of night-life culture for Sydney.
Another important factor is the mental health of industry professionals, who are already a high-risk group for mental illness. Workers in the entertainment industry have double the rate of suicide attempts, five times the rate of depressive symptoms and ten times the rate of anxiety. If the music and nightlife industries are in decline with festivals being cancelled at the last minute, it could affect the mental health of those who work in them which is a serious concern.
We’ve heard you are looking to put on a mental health & music festival in Sydney. That sounds amazing! Would you mind telling us more about this?
Yes, we ran a campaign called Music on my Mind (www.musiconmymind.com.au) last year to raise money for mental health charities through a rave and online appeal, and raise awareness around mental health problems in the public and the music industry through our content. We managed to raise over $18,000 and got the word out about the importance of good mental health, so we’ll be expanding it in to a festival this year. Watch this space!