Ryan Brown began singing and writing songs when she was in elementary school.
“We actually have a video that shows up on Facebook every year of her sitting, when she was probably 6 or 7, with a little notepad in front of her, and she was writing a song,” Brown’s mom, Trisha, said Wednesday. “And she was not the strongest singer. The video is me saying pretty much like, ‘Oh my god! She keeps singing this over and over.'”
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Brown, now 19 and a sophomore at Rowan University, has grown a lot as a singer-songwriter since then.
She has sung the national anthem at numerous sporting events, including the Philadelphia Eagles game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium last December. Brown has also performed three times at Fenway Park in Boston and before Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Union, Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds games.
On Sunday, Brown, of Marlton, New Jersey, is singing at the Ravens game in Baltimore against the New York Jets.
Brown has recorded her music, most recently a song she wrote called “Wildflower Highway,” available on most streaming platforms. She wants to bring music into the classroom as an elementary school teacher.
Brown also has found that singing and performing has helped her cope with obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and depression.
Music and singing “really saved me,” Brown said. “When I was in dark places, I would write music, or I would sing. And I still do that when I’m stressed out or not feeling great.”
How music boosts mental health
Brown is onto something when she talks about how singing has helped her with her OCD, anxiety and depression.
Studies have linked music with the production of endorphins – neurotransmitters also released during exercise and sex – that help reduce pain and improve a sense of wellbeing.
Listening to music is linked to the release of dopamine, known as the “feel good” hormone, arousing a sense of euphoria.
A 2017 study found that music helps alleviate anxiety and improve functioning in people with depression. Research also shows that music combined with talk therapy and medication helps ease depression more than talk therapy and medication alone.
Trisha said she and her husband, Randy, a senior special teams coach for the Ravens, have witnessed over and over again how singing and music has benefited their daughter’s mental health.
Brown is “the happiest that we see her when she is performing,” Trisha said.
But learning to cope with her mental health issues has been a long process for Brown and her family.
Provided Image/Trisha Brown
Ryan Brown, 19, sings the national anthem before a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park. She has performed there three times.
‘I’m doing something that makes me happy’
The first time Brown had a panic attack, Trisha said she had “zero idea what to do.”
Brown’s anxiety and OCD caused her to have panic attacks if her homework “wasn’t perfect,” she said.
Exposure therapy – a cognitive behavioral method that gradually exposes people to objects or experiences that cause them fear – taught her to make intentional mistakes in her schoolwork to learn that “I’m still going to get a good grade, and if I don’t, the world isn’t ending,” Brown said.
Medication and her family’s support also has helped her deal with her OCD, anxiety and depression.
Trisha said she has learned from watching her daughter about the importance of doing things even when they make you uncomfortable.
“I think Ryan does a great job with that,” Trisha said. “And it’s not like, ‘Oh, just do this, and you’ll be better.’ It’s truly a journey through, little by little, of just doing things that make you feel just a little bit uncomfortable.”
Singing in front of crowds at events does make her nervous, Brown said.
“But the one thing my dad always says is that if you’re not nervous, you don’t care,” Brown said. “And nervousness and anxiety are very different for me. I don’t get anxiety, I don’t get a debilitating feeling (from singing).”
She does have moments when she is performing when she is afraid that she might forget the lyrics, Brown said.
“But because I’m singing – because I’m doing something that makes me happy – those anxious thoughts just pass right by.”