The Association For Electronic Music (AFEM) has launched a mental health guide for people working in the electronic music industry. The guide aims to educate, provide practical support, and further destigmatise the subject of mental health.

  Click here or on the image below to read and download the guide:

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“The Electronic Music Industry Guide To Mental Health” updates the 2016 Music Managers Forum Guide to Mental Health and has been produced alongside Help Musicians UK and Music Support. The guide covers key mental health issues that impact those working in the electronic music industry; anxiety, depression, alcohol, substance abuse / dependency, through to work/life imbalance and the importance of sleep. The guide also contains a directory listing key contacts for those needing help, which AFEM will expand to cover all 25 countries in which it has members.

Those working in the electronic music industry at every level are often more susceptible to feelings of isolation and loneliness resulting from a high frequency of, travelling alone and performing throughout the night with little time to recover. Pete Tong highlights the importance of the new guide; “In my 40 years of being around this world, I can’t think of a single person who has achieved success who hasn’t paid a personal price via health, relationships, divorce, broken homes, addiction, depression, and anxiety.”

The guide is published with mental health continuing to receive significant attention at music conferences worldwide. This year alone, Brighton Music Conference, International Music Summit in Ibiza, ILMC, Paris Electronic Week, and Amsterdam Dance Event dedicated discussion to the challenges faced and solutions available. At the IMS Ibiza mental health panel with Avicii’s father in May this year, AFEM’s Tristan Hunt stated “the problem of mental health is complex and nuanced, and it is an issue to which those working in dance music are especially susceptible. It needs our undivided attention. At every level we all need to keep talking, acting and caring in order to further destigmatise the subject, save lives and create lives worth living. Always remember, regardless of whatever you do, however you feel, you are not alone.”

The guide can be viewed online and downloaded here For more information email health@afemorg.net. For mental health support in the UK call Help Musicians UK’s free Helpline on 0808 802 8008. In the USA call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline toll-free on 1-800-273-8255.