After attending my first concert, I expected to feel tired and exhausted from using all my energy in singing and jumping along to the music. What I didn’t expect was to feel a sense of sadness and longing. Rather than replaying the night with excitement, I woke up with a heavy feeling, endlessly scrolling through blurry concert photos and videos, wishing that I could relive the experience. If you’ve ever been to a concert or a highly anticipated event and have felt these same emotions, you are not alone. This feeling is known as post-concert depression (PCD). Such a feeling happens more often than people think, and you might have experienced it when zoning out in class, reminiscing the time you saw your favorite artist perform live. Post-concert depression, or PCD, is not a mental illness or anything to panic about. It is simply the feeling that you get after experiencing a stimulating event, such as a concert, due to the decrease of dopamine and endorphin levels that were felt in the moment. Once the lights go out and the music stops, the rush of adrenaline you were feeling is slowly replaced by a feeling of emptiness. One minute you are singing along with other fans and your favorite artist, and the next you are laying in bed, wondering when your next concert will be. Other common signs of PCD include replaying concert videos, scrolling through photos nonstop, or even feeling anxious about going back to your everyday routine.
While these symptoms may last for a good two weeks or so, there are several ways to cope with PCD that don’t require medication. One of the best methods to cope with PCD is by communicating with others who went to the same concert as you! Talking with friends about your experience or sharing posts online about it can help you give a more positive outlook at your time at the concert. Instead of pessimistic thoughts post-concert, look on the brighter side and think of it as a bucket list achievement. Simply listening to the artist’s music can also be a way of coping as you can learn to appreciate it more after hearing it live. With these methods, you are more likely to remember the joyful moments from the concert rather than focusing on the sad ones, like leaving the venue. Post-concert depression shows how powerful music can be, as it is a meaningful shared experience with people who have the same interests. Feeling a little sad after the concert is normal, but it is important to remember that you are also leaving with lifelong memories.
My own experience has allowed me to understand firsthand the effects of PCD and how I coped with them. The day after my first concert, ENHYPEN’s Walk the Line Tour, I woke up with a pounding headache and a dry, itchy throat. It was like I was the one who performed. Too exhausted to get up, I stayed in bed and opened my camera roll to rewatch the shaky videos and pictures that I took. The concert was something I had anticipated for months, yet it felt as though it passed in seconds. Watching the videos slowly transported me back to the night where I sang my heart out with thousands of other fans. I wished I could relive the experience, or attend another show. Thinking about how I felt, I realized that I was experiencing PCD. I found myself reminiscing about everything that led up to the event from buying the tickets, to waiting in line to buy merch. But the thing I missed most was the shared excitement of the crowd. After I finished rewatching my own videos, I opened different social media apps like X and found countless relatable posts of others who attended the same show. Seeing that we all shared the same feelings reassured me that I was not being dramatic. While social media posts offered comfort, talking with my cousin who I attended with helped the most. Even though we were right next to each other at the concert, I was still excited to listen to what she felt during the show and her favorite parts. Learning that I shared the same feelings as my cousin and thousands of other fans, I felt thankful that I had experienced the show, rather than continuing to mope about the night ending.
