Music gives same high as drugs a new study says

[Photo credit: Brendon Urie's Instagram]

Champagne, cocaine, and music?! Yep, you can feel the same buzz from your favorite music as you do drugs. So if you're addicted to going to concerts, you can now blame your brain for it.

A new study by McGill University researchers reveals that music affects the same areas of the brain as opioids (like painkillers and heroin) do (via McGill University).

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The researchers selectively and temporarily blocked opioids in the brain using a prescribed drug for treating addiction disorders. Next, they measured participants’ responses to music and found that even their favorite songs didn't give them the same sense of joy they felt without the medication. Participants admitted the songs no longer did anything for them even though they knew it was their favorite song—whoa!

“This is the first demonstration that the brain's own opioids are directly involved in musical pleasure,” says Daniel Levitin, senior author of the study. Your brain's natural opioids are responsible for a general calming and anti-depressing effect and flood your brain with dopamine, which gives you a happy feeling.

So what does this mean? It's completely valid that your favorite music makes you happier than other things. Your brain naturally makes you completely obsessed with it as one would be with drugs or food because it wants you to continue feeling good when it releases “happy chemicals.”