[rmbyrro]

It's not magical, this has been found and is supported by scientific research.

WebMD has a brief intro to the subject, if you'd like to explore. [1]

> I can say exactly the same thing about learning a musical instrument

Well, one thing being good doesn't invalidate other, unrelated things also being good.

I enjoy music a lot and played the guitar in the past. My anecdotal experience is indeed positive.

Never researched the mental health benefits from playing an instrument, though. If you have any research to point out, I'd appreciate. If I had to bet, it won't be as significant as playing a sport involving physical activity.

[1] https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/benefits-of-sports-for-m...

[mrtranscendence]

Most of the benefits in your citation apply to general exercise as much as they do to sports. There may be some extra mental health benefit of team sports in particular but relative to simply being fit and having hobbies that involve other people, I don't think it's gargantuan. The most mentally healthy people I've known personally have been deeply invested in something outside of work; I've seen no association between apparent mental health and whether someone plays a sport (unless perhaps you define "sport" broadly to include running or biking noncompetitively).

> Never researched the mental health benefits from playing an instrument, though.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6368928/

[rmbyrro]

This is a much more respectful disagreement than the first reply and I appreciate the effort to lead the conversation to a civil direction, thanks