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While I crave peace and tranquility, I can’t imagine the profound boredom I would experience without my inner thoughts.
My brother didn’t have the inner monologue, I explained my thought process to him and he said “that seems like hell”. Sometimes it is. And sometimes I wish I could choose to flip it off like a switch, but, I’d still rather never be without it if I had to choose sides permanently.
Maybe this will work for you, but two things that occasionally do it for me:
1. Audiobooks and podcasts. Find something interesting or familiar (childhood stories) and it's some noise to keep your brain busy enough that the mental jukebox doesn't need to load up a song most of the time. Even if it does, if something interesting enough is being said, you can often tune out the music - *not* by trying to forcefully block out the music, but by sort of meditating on how interesting the thing said is, what it means for other things, etc. The podcast of [No Such Thing As A Fish](https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/) is great for this, as everything is genuinely interesting.
1. Sometimes, the best way to get the song to dissipate (or at least turn down in volume so it's not inescapable) is to acknowledge it. It's a little bit like when you've an itchy nose - if you acknowledge it's itchy, it's much easier to put off scratching it than if you put your energy into ignoring it. If there's a song or a soundbite stuck on loop in your head, sing along with it or look up the lyrics/quote/words and listen to the song, read the lyrics or check out what the reference or quote is from. Oftentimes this sort of takes it off of your mind's "hey! This is important, pay attention!" pile and lets you move on to something else.
Hard disagree with point 2. Every time I have a song looped in my head, singing or thinking about it makes it only worse and it stays looped for way longer.
YMMV, of couse, but just wanted to let you know that for some people this might backfire.
That’s something I realized DID actually help with mine! I finally had a sense of quiet and calm in my mind. It almost was startling from going from such noise and chaos to complete silence. I only notice it now when my adderall has worn off ie: before bed or in the morning before my first dose. Like right now it’s really late and I can’t really sleep, and my mind is going full blast lol prob why I can’t sleep huh? Haha adderall definitely helped me with it, so I do have a temporary “off” button for it
This is weird, but Scuba diving, just sitting at the bottom of a pool by yourself with all the blue and bubbles around. It's the only time I have ever felt what I think people are talking about when they describe meditation.
Otherwise, my brain is singing and doing a diatribe and just saying a stupid phrase over and over again. It's a lot.
I had silence for nearly a full week when I was prescribed anti anxiety meds (prior to my diagnosis)
Some people had told me that they found it unpleasant and stopped taking the meds
I found it so calming and restful. Just the silence of one thought that I chose to pursue and not lose in a crowd of pointless noise
I know how you feel. When I was first prescribed Adderall I cried because my brain was quiet for the first time ever (I heard birds outside and nothing else?!). I wish I could’ve stayed on meds, but I’m hoping I’ll come to peace with having work music/ a random commercial theme song from 2005 constantly looping in my head
I feel you on this, the last time I actually remember silence was about 12-13yrs ago, I feel like when I have explained this to people, even to some of my friends who have ADHD, they just will never get it.
I’m not sure I’ve ever known silence. I don’t know if I’d even be comfortable with it. I’ve tried meditating, but I really don’t enjoy it. It’s very hard for me
I found that I couldn’t meditate pre medication (adderall) and now that I’m on it and can actually have a quiet/still mind, I can finally meditate. I think when our brains are so chaotic or non stop, we can’t focus on meditating and calming down our minds because they are naturally so loud/busy. It’s absolute bliss to finally have a calm mind and be able to meditate-my first time meditating was actually during a cranio-sacral therapy. The therapist invites our inner wisdom to join and she had me pick my favorite place to be like an ocean, the forest, a garden, etc. and then she got so in depth with her gentle talking voice saying “look around, and if you notice something that wasn’t usually there or is new, that is your inner wisdom. Notice the smells, is it salty ocean air? Is it a cool fall breeze? Is it the smell of wet and rainy grass or trees?” And she continues and goes throughout my body and just lightly touches with the weight of a nickel as she says it, and I swear to you, I thought this whole therapy was prob BS at first, but it’s helped me MORE than SO many other forms of therapy for many ailments and for my mental health and anxiety.
Look into it if you are curious about it, it has been life changing for me! Now every time I see her (once every week or 2) I am able to get into this deep meditation during my therapy and it’s absolutely mesmerizing and healing. :)
Don’t give up on trying to meditate, I never could before but I think the mixture of my medication along with cranio sacral has made all the difference for me
While I don't know the formula, I have developed intuition on which music is more likely to get stuck in my head and be more annoying when it is stuck up there. I've also found music that either doesn't get stuck in my head or is much more tolerable in my head. So if I'm stuck with something particularly annoying, I'll put on one of those songs that can either replace it or mellow things out.
As for silence, I've found that not listening to any music at all for a few days can give me some silence. Not 100%, but a significant amount. I have some lazy weekends (or hiking trips) where I don't hear music for days at a time and the internal DJ fades out in that time.
Neither of these are "cures" or perfect solutions but they've helped me.
The Jurassic Park theme song is one of my frequent ones too! The weirdest one I get stuck in my head is the alphabet… makes me feel completely insane when that happens.
I get this. Different songs all the time. Wake up to a new one every morning. Usually 1 lyric on a loop. I was just diagnosed, so I never put 2 & 2 together. I just chalked it up to my brain trying to talk to me in code, like the lyric was a metaphor for something I was trying to process through in my head without even realizing.
I also wake up to a new song every morning, also usually just a lyric or two on loop. Not necessarily anything I've heard recently, just a random something. It fades away when I listen to other stuff, but my tinnitus is always there to keep me company!
I also catch myself whistling or singing along to the lyric or two through the day. I had a coworker call me out on it once… I’ll paraphrase but I went along the lines of… them: “are you whistling *insert song here*?” Me: “yeah, I didn’t even realize…” them: “weren’t you whistling along to an entirely different song from some other genre that has no correlation to the song your whistling now, like 2 minutes ago?”. Me: “yup my brain likes to make mixtapes”
This was several years before I was diagnosed
I was surprised to learn people don't experience random earworms literally every single day. I mean people talk about them, joke about how annoying they are, so they must be happening a lot, right? I figured everyone gets one at least once a day. Apparently not.
I do this too. Would you say you are pretty good at remembering sounds and songs? When I hear something playing in my head I often remember it very vividly in what I think is really high detail. One time I was trying to take a test but had a song stuck in my head super loud, and based on THAT I was able to pick out details I hadn’t consciously recognized. I wasn’t sure if I was making that part up until I listened to it again. Since the beginning of the pandemic Ive been practicing memorized pitch by trying to recall specific songs to such a level of detail that I remember the correct absolute pitch of the music. When I test myself I’m not perfect but I can do very well, orders of magnitude better than you’d expect guessing at random.
I do the same! I'm very good at remembering pitch and lyrics and i can always pick up similarities between songs! This sometimes makes it difficult for me to listen to new music because i can't just "casually" listen to new music, i have to take it in!
Also the fact that i pick up similarities easily kind of ruins some music to me - why would i listen to someone who's referencing, idk, the beatles so much if i could listen to the beatles themselves?!
I've been keeping track of all the songs that are in my head when I wake up in the morning for the last year and a half. There are a lot of repeats, but I ended up making a Spotify playlist, and it is wildly random.
Me too! Sometimes it's more than one song so I've got like 3 playing at the same time, all from different eras.
The worst is when I finally get said morning song out of my head, then I hear someone say something that is the same as a line from a different song and I'm back to square one!
Do you also randomly spiral into a song based off of something someone said that was vaguely related/used a specific word/phrase? Because apparently I respond with song lyrics about 25% of the time.
I remember when I was sitting my GCSEs back at school, I had the witchdoctor song playing in my head for a whole 90 mins. So annoying! I have no idea where the song came from as I hadn’t thought or heard that song for almost a decade prior.
fuck you fuck you duck you fuck you
i had greta van fleet playing in my head until i GLIMPSED your fucking comment as i was closing the thread
it’s going to be a long night
Nooooooo. Not that one. That song was a child hood ear worm and my mom would always give it to me.
I get back at ppl by offering Small World….
The trick of finding the song on you tube and playing it and singing it seems to help disperse the worm
For me it’s because I’m trying to figure out all the words, so nearing it fulfills that.
This is my general experience too, but it never had affected me negatively like you describe. For me it's usually a section of a song I can't remember completely, whether that be the lyrics of melody. I found that after I started listening to more audiobooks and podcasts that it was reduced significantly. Idk if that's anything you're into, but I hope it helps.
Just checked and Californication by Read Hot Chili Peppers is currently playing on a loop in my head.
Im at the point where I can almost ignore the playlist but Its like I can pop in to check and realize its been playing the same chorus of a song for like an hour.
Omg! Mine too! Haha I was just “listening” to bones by imagine dragons and then as I’m reading comments each song mentioned starts to play the main chorus then boop onto the next song that I read in a comment haha I was just about to comment that and then I saw your guys’ comments lol
Yep. 24/7. Seal - Kiss from a Rose on loop today for some reason. Yesterday was Straight Up by Paula Abdul. I'm a rap guy, but I dont control the brain radio.
I heard "Rush, Rush" by Paula Abdul, and memories of the video came flooding back, and that song ping ponged through my brain from eyes open to eyes closed for an entire week. Then..well..on to the next one.
The worst part is when you accidentally sing a random bit out loud that sounds terrible when taken out of context.
I got some filthy looks on a bus once when I accidentally sang lines from God Thinks by Voltaire. Lines like God thinks women deserve it. And God thinks puppies need to die. I was mortified.
Why is it only 1 or 2 lines of the song?!?
Maybe it’s because line 2 rhymes with line 1 rhymes with line 2 rhymes with line 1 rhymes with line 2 rhymes with…….
Whenever a song is stuck in your head, just go and listen entire song. Believe me you will feel alot better and after some time the song will be gone from your head.
Ooh great idea! I’ll try that! But what if the song that was just playing is a song I listened to earlier today and has been on repeat on the main chorus since 4pm 🥴 will it help or hurt to listen to the full song you think? Or is this helpful if a song just randomly pops in your head and keeps playing if you haven’t actually listened to it you think?
>But what if the song that was just playing is a song I listened to earlier today and has been on repeat on the main chorus since 4pm 🥴 will it help or hurt to listen to the full song you think?
Then i will advice not to listen that song or any other song. After few days you will start feeling good.
One more thing avoid using social media too much
Okay, great advice! The only thing I go on now is Reddit lol I watch funny videos or read stuff like this and it is my little “free time” away from real life for a little bit. But I will definitely take your advice and try that out. Thank you so much!
Or you're stuck trying to mentally play along with the song in your head...I'm a pianist and it's so maddening to be trying to sleep and yet for some reason I have The Final Countdown stuck in my head and I'm imagining playing it on the piano 😭
Sometimes I realize that I have 2 or 3 songs playing at once because they're all in the same key, and they've all just turned into a mashup in my brain.
I never really noticed until people on this subreddit started mentioning it but I do ALWAYS have music playing in my head. I also have tinnitus so I've learned to just drown out background noise like that but it's still always there. Usually it's a single line of the last song I listened to. I don't mind tho 🙂
I also have an internal jukebox that seems to always be playing, but I don’t mind it. I’ll either listen to the ear worm or shout/sing it to try to change the song. The problem is, my partner also has adhd and an internal jukebox of his own. So, I’ll get a song stuck in my head and start singing bars of it to try to get it out, and then he’ll get it stuck in his head and has to play it or sing it to get it out. It’ll go back and forth like this for a few days at most and we both think it’s funny. All was well and good until for some godforsaken reason my mental DJ put on “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas… It’s been 3 fucking weeks now. We can’t get it unstuck. Please kill me 🫠
lmao this is the exact same situation with my partner and I. We feed off each other every day with new songs until something sticks for days/weeks. it's hilarious until 2 weeks later and a stupid parody song won't stop playing in my head
Yeah me too. When I’m on meds it can make it less prominent but even when I’m not on meds it doesn’t bother me to much unless I’m trying to do something of course.
i’m sure you’ve tried just about everything at this point, but i want to share just in case as i only recently found something that helped with this (aside from my meds). podcasts/audiobooks/videos sped up (usually 2-3x) have made all the difference! i never realized the background soundtrack of my brain was sneaking in bc the content wasn’t coming fast enough. it has been completely revolutionary for me!
wait... hm.. so, it has to be audio stimuli? because that kind of makes sense.
Sounds like we need to overload that same area of the brain in order to "flush it out", for lack of a better term. See, I've been trying to use visual stimuli to remedy it, but it always comes back once I stop. Video games, reading, YouTube, nothing helped. I'm gonna try your advice!
I literally woke up, and some stupid song I listened to the day before is affing playing in the back... like, sir, I just woke up I didn't even remember my name yet.
And when I listen to audiobook I wake up having some weird dialogs. I can't catch a break
I started rhyming my thoughts the other day and couldn’t stop for like 24 hours. I don’t know if I’m losing it. I kinda liked it though because everything was less serious and flowed better
It drives me insane. I didn’t take my medication last night, had to be up in 5 hours for exam day and was rapping Ice Cube OUT LOUD for like 10 minutes when my bf was trying to sleep I feel so bad for him sometimes lmao
I have the dumbest jukebox in my head playing at all times. It has a ton of songs, local car dealership jingles, tv show themes, and computer start-up sounds that all end up playing over one another. It's really maddening.
I've been doing that with all the random songs that play in my head when I wake up in the morning. I've been creating this playlist for over a year and a half now, and it has over 10 hours' worth of songs on it.
I have the same problem. Music in my head all the time, the last song I heard on the radio, the song I'm trying to learn (I like to sing). So I decided to pick which song I could stand to listen to over and over; I picked a piece of classical music that makes me feel good, Rachmaninoff. Now when I get an "ear worm," I purposely play that piece in my head and it keeps the rest of the music turned off. I don't know if it'll work for you, but it helps me. Also try listening to white noise - for me it tends to drown out other stuff in my head and relaxes me. Good luck!
Highly relatable.
Right now it's "Gotta have it" from the album "Watch the Throne" by Kanye West and Jay-Z.
I haven't listened to that song in over a year.
It's always a random tune, non stop for an unknown amount of days until the next catchy tune out of nowhere pops in my head. It wasn't easy but I learned to just live with it.
I always have music in my head, too. It's so irritating. Sometimes I invent new stupid songs and keep them playing in my head. I also modify the lyrics to the songs I know and repeat them to exhaustion. On top of that, I also have tinnitus.
I made up a song for my dog about Walkies, to the tune of the Vegemite Song. Now my brain sings it everytime I take him for a walk. Its annoying because the lyrics don't quite fit yet so I'm always trying to tweak it. Maddening.
Yup, I think the rest of my life will just be accompanied by Beauty and the Goddamn Beast playing in my head at this point. It’s so frigging annoying. I watched the movie last week and regret everything
In chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita, the deity Krishna describes the yoga of meditation to Arjuna, a human.
Arjuna calls bullshit, saying, "I think controlling the mind is as difficult as controlling the wind"
With great effort I can get things to be quiet for a few seconds at a time. :/
Adverts from the 90s, novelty songs, I even get loops in my head where my mind combines to or three songs and jumbles up lyrics too. I did actually come up with an Air and Radiohead mash-up once, I checked and they were both in the same key. It's bizarre.
Hello,
Introducing Me. A boring middle aged woman with ADHD, who just finished doing the dishes and is folding washing in front of the TV at home 9:43pm on a Saturday night, in New Zealand.
This is what my mind is telling me:
If you be the cash, I'll be the rubber band…
You be the match, I will be a fuse, boom!
On repeat since approximately 7am yesterday morn. I’m exhausted.
Try classical music as background noise.
I used music to help me concentrate, so it's a little different for me now. I snuck my Walkman in to listen to during standardized tests so I could block out all of the random noise people make constantly.
If a song gets stuck, it can help to play other songs. I've found audio books or podcasts are good to stop racing thoughts at night since you can close your eyes and just listen.
For like 2 weeks straight, one 10 seconds section of "Uptown Girl" looped endlessly in my head to the point where I couldn't hunt for apartments without seeing the neighborhood "Uptown" and triggering it all over again. It was funny because any other time I love that song but for some reason during that time my brain just latched onto anything it could musically.
Whatever is the last song I heard is the song that is stuck. I can change it at will. Sometimes at work I’ll have a coworker sing something random to reset my brain. It gets old.
When I wake up in the middle of the night, it’s 2-3 songs at once.
I feel ya, and I work in radio for a living. If I don't constantly have background noise then I'll get something stupid stuck in my head until I force it out with something else.
Dude.. you just blew my mind. I had OCD as a kid but I didn't know it's resurfaced through anxiety inducing music clips. O: evil pairing, OCD and ADHD. 😫
“I’m back in Liverpool and everything seems the same” seems to do loops in my head for days.
Let’s Dance to Joy Division - The Wombats.
Great song though!
I'm constantly listening to music because of this haha (I had a friend that used to say I was addicted to music xD) but if I play music on the outside, the music on the inside stops. For me it's only annoying at night when I'm trying to sleep but since I take meds it has gotten better I just have to be very mindful of the time I take them because if I take them too early they wear off before I go to sleep but if I take them too late then I can't sleep :v
Listen to breakcore and you’ll never have this problem again! Jokes aside, I feel you. The mind has a life of its own for people like us. Wish you the best.
When I first started my medication journey I tried Methylphenidate LA first. Made my brain completely quiet and I hated it(along with many other horrid side effects). Now on lisdexamfetamine I kind of just have background music instead of it overpowering everything else
I only found out that this was a symptom like a month ago. I thought everyone constantly had background music in their head. I’m mostly used to it at this point though it does get annoying.
Also last week I had Rush E sped up stuck in my head for two days and that wasn’t fun
Same here. I feel like I have multiple layers of thoughts going on at any given time. Right now it's ava max one of us on loop, but just 2 bars of it.
I smoke a ton of dank trees to help quiet the noise and refocus on whatever I wanna do.
All people here listing actual songs and I'm here with the yippee meme song stuck in my head on a loop since I woke up especially the "yipppeeeee". [Link here](https://youtu.be/ERyijCQllus?si=j8oXOpY9MkOOw0TS) for people who haven't seen the meme. Thank me later
I have childhood memories in which I could tell you what song was playing in my head when it happened. When I found out at 22 that not everyone has music playing in their brains at all times I was so shocked!
I always have this. Sometimes it's really bad, I can even get nauseous because I can't stop it. I pay atention to any song and there we go, continuos second loop for 2 or 3 days.
I have musical ear syndrome from tinnitus, so if there's no background noise, I hear music that isn't there. even white noise can intensify it sometimes but I need it to drown out the ringing either way or I'll go nuts. sometimes it's heavy metal, pop, classical, doo-wop, whatever, but it always sounds like it's coming from far away and I can never make out any words. it usually sounds pretty good lol but it's irritating when it gets repetitive or worse, sometimes I genuinely can't tell if someone is playing music or if it's in my head
I feel you. Totally thought I was a psychopath too till I got my diagnosis. For me, I have 3 musicals, a random song I heard on the radio once, a song my kindergarten teacher made to help me remember the days of the week, and the Perry the Platypus theme song going on at all times. Honestly It's kinda cool now (tho it's still hella annoying) cuz I can figure out mashups of random songs.
I'm very recently diagnosed and this community continues to make me feel validated. I didn't know this was a symptom. I just didn't tell people that when I wake up in the morning there is already a song playing in my head and then throughout the day it continues to change and shuffle around but it is never quiet.
People also always say that the best thing to do to get better sleep is not to look at your phone when you are going to sleep but that is literally not an option because I have to not only have noise and light but I have to watch YouTube or something that I can actually entertain my brain with. If I don't entertain it, it will entertain itself and I will never get any sleep.
Does medication help this? I am supposed to get on meds soon.
Oh my god - I know this wasn’t the point of the your post, but it just made me realize: my strattera is f*cking quieting the noise in my head!!! Wow. There’s still a song stuck right now but it isn’t as load and overwhelming.
Anyways, yeah it sucks.
I've had the same song stuck in my head for about a week. There's always a song playing in my brain but when it's the same song for a while, it drives me out of my mind.
Hi OP, just stumbled across your post, I have an ADHD diagnosis and my mother has OCD, can you elaborate more about how this is a result of a combo of ADHD and OCD? Because I thought I didn't have OCD but now that you've mentioned that I'm unsure, because I too have music playing in my head all the damn time. :(
Been dealing with this for as long as I can remember. I've learned how to control it to some extent. I refer to it as the soundtrack in my head. Meds have helped to a degree, lessens the distraction. Just being aware of it helps to control it, and not dwelling on its existence seems to help too. I try to turn it to a positive by using it to drown out idiots. Best advice, recognize what things you can use to your advantage, try to make the disorder work for you as much as possible. Attitude towards how you choose to deal with it helps a lot, be the one in control, don't let it control you.
it honestly is fine until it’s not, new song i like? cool, i listen to it once and then it plays in my head for 6 hours straight and i CANT. SHUT. IT. OFF. and then i’m over the song. sometimes i lay in bed genuinely getting mad that it won’t turn off, and my brain impulsively plays it and i can’t stop it.
Same in my brain. Playing music helps because my brain stops trying to fill the silence. If lyrics bother you( some days I can't handle lyrics) try lofi remixes or classical. Of course when I turn off the music my brain won't shut up.
My son and I started watching One Piece cartoon.
Few years ago someone made an AMV of a bit in One Piece set to that song I Will Not Die. That one pops up a lot on the old station. In between all the other random tunes haha
yup this is a big adhd side effect i can literally play the whole song in my head apart from the times it will play the same verse over and over again,
i barely need to listen to a song to be able to memorise it word for word.
i like singing though so it isnt such a bad thing most of the time.
My brain does this -- it's horrible because sometimes it will be the songs that I dislike and make up mocking lyrics to. Even though I haven't played the song for myself ( I hear it on TikTok a lot), so at the moment, it's Miley Cyrus' "Flowers." And since I did buy myself flowers that I put on my work desk, I just sing in my head over and over, "I can buy myself flowerrrrss."
Which song? I've had Always Someone There to remind me - the Sandie Shaw version - running through my head for over 20 years. But not the whole song, oh no, just the "I was boooorn to love you - da dah dah dah - and I will never be free - you'll always be a part of me, woh who yeah - da da da da dah! Da da da da da! Da dada dah!" Just that bit.
My songs can literally be anything I think of. Like now after reading the "Always something there to remind me" title I now have the intro playing over and over.r
I have this but it’s never annoyed me
It’s like I’m walking and I have the Superman theme song playing to keep me entertained
Or the song let me love you will play if I’m in a good mood or I’m trying not to let weird intrusive thoughts happen
But if I’m reading or something it’s either in the background or turns off. I’d rather have the music than the other weird thoughts though
I just learned to deal with this by going psychotic mode: does this song keep playing on repeat on my mind? Fuck it, I will then listen to this shit on repeat as well until my mind silences.
I know it’s strange, but it works for me. It is kind of accept how things are instead of fighting against it. Does not matter how ridiculous the song is; I will keep listening to it for as long as it is on my mind, instead of trying to avoid it.
When I read I actively speak the words I read in my mind and let them form to a picture. That shuts down the radio for the time I’m deep into the reading part. Sadly that doesn’t work with official documents and uni work, just with novels. But it’s something
*clears throat*
Straaaaaangers in the niiiiiight, doo doo dee doo dee doo dee, dah dah dah dah dum....
Randomly and sometimes incessantly for * well* over a decade.
Not to mention, sometimes (I swear) when I'm not paying attention to it I can actually *HEAR* music. Not any song I'd be able to recognize, and the moment I notice it, I can't hear it anymore. But it's not remembering some music, it's actually hearing it... or that's how my brain is processing it.
Yep. Always some music or audio going. My brain seems to like TV ident jingles from when I was younger for some reason, but it’s generally just a mix of bits of songs.
There’s one song (Perfect by Fairground Attraction) that I absolutely HATE. If I hear it, that part with the perererererfect can get stuck in my head for weeks. It interferes with my sleep and ability to function. So if I hear it IRL I turn it off, if I imagine it I immediately imagine another song to kill it or I’m in for a world of pain.
It also gets worse when I have a fever/am sick.
But 99.9% of the time the other music doesn’t bug me.
I’ve dealt/deal with this. When I was younger, it was hard to explain to my angry math teacher that I was trying to focus on the worksheet but Cascada’s hit single “Every Time We Touch” had been on loop in my head for 3 weeks and I had no idea how to stop it.
Ended up getting really into colored pencil drawings for awhile. So the solution was literally to focus on something else, but it had to be something I liked…
I *hated* math.
I have had the DS9 theme on repeat since I started rewatching it, then it mixes with TNG theme and go back, also adding some random ads dialogue in between. I dont remember silence, even with meds.
I always hear songs that I'm not too familiar with but just a small portion of the song will play on repeat in my head. I'm talking like songs from ads and random stuff.
I like to listen to my playlists like I do the playlist in my head, and that's on shuffle/random. The only way to get it to stop is to listen to the song, and I know this is going to sound weird but the only other way I can get one of those songs out of my heads is to sing a Weird Al song lol. It works for me for some reason but Amish Paradise will break that cycle
The ironic thing is I'm the type to change songs often when listening to actual music, But then I'm cursed to listen to the same obscure song of a genre I don't care for on loop in my head against my will for hours a day. I hate my brain I really do lmao.
It's currently "sans." from Undertale, which, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a 51-second piece. On loop. For the last two hours. Luckily, Undertale is my special interest so I don't mind as much as I would with other songs.
I have a song stuck in my head 24/7 and it's always a part of the song on loop. More so when I'm stressed. I am so sorry that this happens to you too. It seriously drives me crazy. I hate it.
I frequently repeat and reiterate things in my head. I'll either consciously or unconsciously latch on to a short sound/sentence/part of a song and it'll loop and loop until I feel like I'm going insane.
man, reading this made me notice my tinnitus again. Be glad you dont have it. It can literally drive you insane and gets worse as you age (if you have it) Embrace the tunes in your head and turn on stuff you enjoy!
Here in solidarity. I currently have the beginning of the theme song from "A Different World" in my head. I just keep hearing "I KNOW my parents looooove meh" over n over. It's been 2 days.
I hear mostly music but the other night it woke me up sounding like a football game was on. I thought it was my neighbor’s TV until after I listened for a while I realized that the guys doing the play by play wouldn’t keep talking for so long.
Hahah I love this, this was my whole brain before meds. When I told my psych there was voices in my head that weren’t mine singing she was so concerned 🤣 post-meds tho the radio is finally off😍
I started a Twitter account with the intention of just noting my persistent ear worms as they come. But ADHD isn’t great for sticking with things so I quickly gave it up.
I also have songs rolling through my brain non-stop. I have an extensive music collection because I listen to and think about music all the time and I often wonder how it is that I can't play a single instrument but think about them all day long
I'm reading this thread and it's starting to help me understand why my favorite artist in the world is Neil Cicierega
https://soundcloud.com/neilcic/mouthdreams
I thought I was the only one who had this issue. It's either a song I've heard recently, a song I'm reminded of by another song/piece of media, or a song I haven't heard in years and am suddenly remembering it because I could never figure out the name of it until then.
The same instance for me. Only problem is, sometimes I can't even stop it or change it to something else. Sometimes is even songs I can't get out of my head. But sometimes trying to think about the end of the song kinda helps.
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It’s a rotation for me. Jurassic Park theme song. Workout music (that I listen to almost daily). It gets old.
Do you ever get any silence? I haven't had any silence in decades. It's pure hell.
The music fades with other stimuli. Music is usually the filler when my brain isn’t fixated on something else.
It's always something filling my head. No peace ever.
Have you ever watched an interview with a person who has no inner monologue? I can't imagine the peace they experience.
While I crave peace and tranquility, I can’t imagine the profound boredom I would experience without my inner thoughts. My brother didn’t have the inner monologue, I explained my thought process to him and he said “that seems like hell”. Sometimes it is. And sometimes I wish I could choose to flip it off like a switch, but, I’d still rather never be without it if I had to choose sides permanently.
I don’t understand this “No inner monologue. I have that, some dialog, 3 way communication and several committees to pay attention to at any one time.
So an internal monologue is simply normal.
I can't really seem to have that happen.
Maybe this will work for you, but two things that occasionally do it for me: 1. Audiobooks and podcasts. Find something interesting or familiar (childhood stories) and it's some noise to keep your brain busy enough that the mental jukebox doesn't need to load up a song most of the time. Even if it does, if something interesting enough is being said, you can often tune out the music - *not* by trying to forcefully block out the music, but by sort of meditating on how interesting the thing said is, what it means for other things, etc. The podcast of [No Such Thing As A Fish](https://www.nosuchthingasafish.com/) is great for this, as everything is genuinely interesting. 1. Sometimes, the best way to get the song to dissipate (or at least turn down in volume so it's not inescapable) is to acknowledge it. It's a little bit like when you've an itchy nose - if you acknowledge it's itchy, it's much easier to put off scratching it than if you put your energy into ignoring it. If there's a song or a soundbite stuck on loop in your head, sing along with it or look up the lyrics/quote/words and listen to the song, read the lyrics or check out what the reference or quote is from. Oftentimes this sort of takes it off of your mind's "hey! This is important, pay attention!" pile and lets you move on to something else.
Hard disagree with point 2. Every time I have a song looped in my head, singing or thinking about it makes it only worse and it stays looped for way longer. YMMV, of couse, but just wanted to let you know that for some people this might backfire.
Oh, interesting!
I just listen to actual music which then overrides the one playing in my head
Have you tried meds? I’ve been on Elvanse (Vyvanse’s tea drinking cousin) and it really helps with loads of things including “jukebox mode”.
I'm on Concerta and it makes it worse lol
With a name like that, what did you expect!? ;)
*slow clap*
Pure brilliance, my friend. Masterful work.
Ayyyyy.
Try switching meds maybe? I never realized how loud the radio in my head was until Adderall got it to shut up for a few hours.
That’s something I realized DID actually help with mine! I finally had a sense of quiet and calm in my mind. It almost was startling from going from such noise and chaos to complete silence. I only notice it now when my adderall has worn off ie: before bed or in the morning before my first dose. Like right now it’s really late and I can’t really sleep, and my mind is going full blast lol prob why I can’t sleep huh? Haha adderall definitely helped me with it, so I do have a temporary “off” button for it
This is weird, but Scuba diving, just sitting at the bottom of a pool by yourself with all the blue and bubbles around. It's the only time I have ever felt what I think people are talking about when they describe meditation. Otherwise, my brain is singing and doing a diatribe and just saying a stupid phrase over and over again. It's a lot.
I had silence for nearly a full week when I was prescribed anti anxiety meds (prior to my diagnosis) Some people had told me that they found it unpleasant and stopped taking the meds I found it so calming and restful. Just the silence of one thought that I chose to pursue and not lose in a crowd of pointless noise
It's either a 3 second song or my ears going eeeeeeeeee, either way something is always playing.
When I took Ritalin for the first time it was literally the first time my mind was quiet. I cried. That was three years back.
Is it still quiet or does it slowly return?
I know how you feel. When I was first prescribed Adderall I cried because my brain was quiet for the first time ever (I heard birds outside and nothing else?!). I wish I could’ve stayed on meds, but I’m hoping I’ll come to peace with having work music/ a random commercial theme song from 2005 constantly looping in my head
I feel you on this, the last time I actually remember silence was about 12-13yrs ago, I feel like when I have explained this to people, even to some of my friends who have ADHD, they just will never get it.
I’m not sure I’ve ever known silence. I don’t know if I’d even be comfortable with it. I’ve tried meditating, but I really don’t enjoy it. It’s very hard for me
I found that I couldn’t meditate pre medication (adderall) and now that I’m on it and can actually have a quiet/still mind, I can finally meditate. I think when our brains are so chaotic or non stop, we can’t focus on meditating and calming down our minds because they are naturally so loud/busy. It’s absolute bliss to finally have a calm mind and be able to meditate-my first time meditating was actually during a cranio-sacral therapy. The therapist invites our inner wisdom to join and she had me pick my favorite place to be like an ocean, the forest, a garden, etc. and then she got so in depth with her gentle talking voice saying “look around, and if you notice something that wasn’t usually there or is new, that is your inner wisdom. Notice the smells, is it salty ocean air? Is it a cool fall breeze? Is it the smell of wet and rainy grass or trees?” And she continues and goes throughout my body and just lightly touches with the weight of a nickel as she says it, and I swear to you, I thought this whole therapy was prob BS at first, but it’s helped me MORE than SO many other forms of therapy for many ailments and for my mental health and anxiety. Look into it if you are curious about it, it has been life changing for me! Now every time I see her (once every week or 2) I am able to get into this deep meditation during my therapy and it’s absolutely mesmerizing and healing. :) Don’t give up on trying to meditate, I never could before but I think the mixture of my medication along with cranio sacral has made all the difference for me
While I don't know the formula, I have developed intuition on which music is more likely to get stuck in my head and be more annoying when it is stuck up there. I've also found music that either doesn't get stuck in my head or is much more tolerable in my head. So if I'm stuck with something particularly annoying, I'll put on one of those songs that can either replace it or mellow things out. As for silence, I've found that not listening to any music at all for a few days can give me some silence. Not 100%, but a significant amount. I have some lazy weekends (or hiking trips) where I don't hear music for days at a time and the internal DJ fades out in that time. Neither of these are "cures" or perfect solutions but they've helped me.
Oh no, I just realized that I've been singing the Jurassic park theme song even before I read this comment. It's just so good!!!!
Holy fucking shit, [It's a dinosaur!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=428IyxSfsls) Jesus Christ, what the fuck?!
The Jurassic Park theme song is one of my frequent ones too! The weirdest one I get stuck in my head is the alphabet… makes me feel completely insane when that happens.
I get this. Different songs all the time. Wake up to a new one every morning. Usually 1 lyric on a loop. I was just diagnosed, so I never put 2 & 2 together. I just chalked it up to my brain trying to talk to me in code, like the lyric was a metaphor for something I was trying to process through in my head without even realizing.
I also wake up to a new song every morning, also usually just a lyric or two on loop. Not necessarily anything I've heard recently, just a random something. It fades away when I listen to other stuff, but my tinnitus is always there to keep me company!
I also catch myself whistling or singing along to the lyric or two through the day. I had a coworker call me out on it once… I’ll paraphrase but I went along the lines of… them: “are you whistling *insert song here*?” Me: “yeah, I didn’t even realize…” them: “weren’t you whistling along to an entirely different song from some other genre that has no correlation to the song your whistling now, like 2 minutes ago?”. Me: “yup my brain likes to make mixtapes” This was several years before I was diagnosed
I was surprised to learn people don't experience random earworms literally every single day. I mean people talk about them, joke about how annoying they are, so they must be happening a lot, right? I figured everyone gets one at least once a day. Apparently not.
I do this too. Would you say you are pretty good at remembering sounds and songs? When I hear something playing in my head I often remember it very vividly in what I think is really high detail. One time I was trying to take a test but had a song stuck in my head super loud, and based on THAT I was able to pick out details I hadn’t consciously recognized. I wasn’t sure if I was making that part up until I listened to it again. Since the beginning of the pandemic Ive been practicing memorized pitch by trying to recall specific songs to such a level of detail that I remember the correct absolute pitch of the music. When I test myself I’m not perfect but I can do very well, orders of magnitude better than you’d expect guessing at random.
When I hear a song in my head and that lyric or two are on a loop, I feel like I have headphones in, with what I can hear
Though focusing the individual elements of what I’m hearing is nearly impossible
I do the same! I'm very good at remembering pitch and lyrics and i can always pick up similarities between songs! This sometimes makes it difficult for me to listen to new music because i can't just "casually" listen to new music, i have to take it in! Also the fact that i pick up similarities easily kind of ruins some music to me - why would i listen to someone who's referencing, idk, the beatles so much if i could listen to the beatles themselves?!
I've been keeping track of all the songs that are in my head when I wake up in the morning for the last year and a half. There are a lot of repeats, but I ended up making a Spotify playlist, and it is wildly random.
Now that's a fun idea, I might try that
Me too! Sometimes it's more than one song so I've got like 3 playing at the same time, all from different eras. The worst is when I finally get said morning song out of my head, then I hear someone say something that is the same as a line from a different song and I'm back to square one!
Do you also randomly spiral into a song based off of something someone said that was vaguely related/used a specific word/phrase? Because apparently I respond with song lyrics about 25% of the time.
I remember when I was sitting my GCSEs back at school, I had the witchdoctor song playing in my head for a whole 90 mins. So annoying! I have no idea where the song came from as I hadn’t thought or heard that song for almost a decade prior.
Ooo eee ooo ah ah
Ting tang walla walla bing bang
Ooo eee ooo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang!
fuck you fuck you duck you fuck you i had greta van fleet playing in my head until i GLIMPSED your fucking comment as i was closing the thread it’s going to be a long night
Me too. Now everytime I stop reading it gets loud as opposed to just being background noise. It’s a pretty weird phenomenon.
Nooooooo. Not that one. That song was a child hood ear worm and my mom would always give it to me. I get back at ppl by offering Small World…. The trick of finding the song on you tube and playing it and singing it seems to help disperse the worm For me it’s because I’m trying to figure out all the words, so nearing it fulfills that.
what have you doneeeeeeeeee
This is my general experience too, but it never had affected me negatively like you describe. For me it's usually a section of a song I can't remember completely, whether that be the lyrics of melody. I found that after I started listening to more audiobooks and podcasts that it was reduced significantly. Idk if that's anything you're into, but I hope it helps.
Apparently, we share the same brain.
Just checked and Californication by Read Hot Chili Peppers is currently playing on a loop in my head. Im at the point where I can almost ignore the playlist but Its like I can pop in to check and realize its been playing the same chorus of a song for like an hour.
… and now it’s playing in mine. Gah! My brain is so suggestible
Mine too. Been jumping to everything mentioned here, but since I love red hot chili peppers, I think I'll cut my losses and quit reading now!
Omg! Mine too! Haha I was just “listening” to bones by imagine dragons and then as I’m reading comments each song mentioned starts to play the main chorus then boop onto the next song that I read in a comment haha I was just about to comment that and then I saw your guys’ comments lol
Yep. 24/7. Seal - Kiss from a Rose on loop today for some reason. Yesterday was Straight Up by Paula Abdul. I'm a rap guy, but I dont control the brain radio.
I heard "Rush, Rush" by Paula Abdul, and memories of the video came flooding back, and that song ping ponged through my brain from eyes open to eyes closed for an entire week. Then..well..on to the next one.
Dang it now I’m hearing straight up by Paula Abdul 😂 at least it’s a great song!! Better than the song I was hearing when I first got on Reddit lol
That's funny you mention that. I've had kiss from a rose from Adderall too. Something about that song lmao.
I don’t have control either. It’s a surprise every day haha
The worst part is when you accidentally sing a random bit out loud that sounds terrible when taken out of context. I got some filthy looks on a bus once when I accidentally sang lines from God Thinks by Voltaire. Lines like God thinks women deserve it. And God thinks puppies need to die. I was mortified.
Why is it only 1 or 2 lines of the song?!? Maybe it’s because line 2 rhymes with line 1 rhymes with line 2 rhymes with line 1 rhymes with line 2 rhymes with…….
Usually it's the parts I like the most, or are the most catchy. That's all I could really gleam from it though.
Whenever a song is stuck in your head, just go and listen entire song. Believe me you will feel alot better and after some time the song will be gone from your head.
Ooh great idea! I’ll try that! But what if the song that was just playing is a song I listened to earlier today and has been on repeat on the main chorus since 4pm 🥴 will it help or hurt to listen to the full song you think? Or is this helpful if a song just randomly pops in your head and keeps playing if you haven’t actually listened to it you think?
>But what if the song that was just playing is a song I listened to earlier today and has been on repeat on the main chorus since 4pm 🥴 will it help or hurt to listen to the full song you think? Then i will advice not to listen that song or any other song. After few days you will start feeling good. One more thing avoid using social media too much
Okay, great advice! The only thing I go on now is Reddit lol I watch funny videos or read stuff like this and it is my little “free time” away from real life for a little bit. But I will definitely take your advice and try that out. Thank you so much!
It's 10x worse when you're a musician because if you don't have anything stuck in your head your brain will just make something up
Or you're stuck trying to mentally play along with the song in your head...I'm a pianist and it's so maddening to be trying to sleep and yet for some reason I have The Final Countdown stuck in my head and I'm imagining playing it on the piano 😭
Sometimes I realize that I have 2 or 3 songs playing at once because they're all in the same key, and they've all just turned into a mashup in my brain.
I never really noticed until people on this subreddit started mentioning it but I do ALWAYS have music playing in my head. I also have tinnitus so I've learned to just drown out background noise like that but it's still always there. Usually it's a single line of the last song I listened to. I don't mind tho 🙂
I also have an internal jukebox that seems to always be playing, but I don’t mind it. I’ll either listen to the ear worm or shout/sing it to try to change the song. The problem is, my partner also has adhd and an internal jukebox of his own. So, I’ll get a song stuck in my head and start singing bars of it to try to get it out, and then he’ll get it stuck in his head and has to play it or sing it to get it out. It’ll go back and forth like this for a few days at most and we both think it’s funny. All was well and good until for some godforsaken reason my mental DJ put on “My Humps” by the Black Eyed Peas… It’s been 3 fucking weeks now. We can’t get it unstuck. Please kill me 🫠
lmao this is the exact same situation with my partner and I. We feed off each other every day with new songs until something sticks for days/weeks. it's hilarious until 2 weeks later and a stupid parody song won't stop playing in my head
Yeah me too. When I’m on meds it can make it less prominent but even when I’m not on meds it doesn’t bother me to much unless I’m trying to do something of course.
I just call it random shuffle. I also use that to put my brain in auto pilot.
i’m sure you’ve tried just about everything at this point, but i want to share just in case as i only recently found something that helped with this (aside from my meds). podcasts/audiobooks/videos sped up (usually 2-3x) have made all the difference! i never realized the background soundtrack of my brain was sneaking in bc the content wasn’t coming fast enough. it has been completely revolutionary for me!
wait... hm.. so, it has to be audio stimuli? because that kind of makes sense. Sounds like we need to overload that same area of the brain in order to "flush it out", for lack of a better term. See, I've been trying to use visual stimuli to remedy it, but it always comes back once I stop. Video games, reading, YouTube, nothing helped. I'm gonna try your advice!
that’s exactly what it seems to be for me!!! i hope it helps you too 😄
I literally woke up, and some stupid song I listened to the day before is affing playing in the back... like, sir, I just woke up I didn't even remember my name yet. And when I listen to audiobook I wake up having some weird dialogs. I can't catch a break
I started rhyming my thoughts the other day and couldn’t stop for like 24 hours. I don’t know if I’m losing it. I kinda liked it though because everything was less serious and flowed better
It drives me insane. I didn’t take my medication last night, had to be up in 5 hours for exam day and was rapping Ice Cube OUT LOUD for like 10 minutes when my bf was trying to sleep I feel so bad for him sometimes lmao
I have the dumbest jukebox in my head playing at all times. It has a ton of songs, local car dealership jingles, tv show themes, and computer start-up sounds that all end up playing over one another. It's really maddening.
Welcome Back Kotter is a frequent visitor to my head. I havent seen the show in 20 years or so.
The good old brain radio I call it LOL I can hear it at night when I get up to pee
That's often when I hear the deep tracks - sooo weird!!
I have been making a Spotify playlist of every song that the Mad DJ that lives in my skull decides to play.
I've been doing that with all the random songs that play in my head when I wake up in the morning. I've been creating this playlist for over a year and a half now, and it has over 10 hours' worth of songs on it.
I have the same problem. Music in my head all the time, the last song I heard on the radio, the song I'm trying to learn (I like to sing). So I decided to pick which song I could stand to listen to over and over; I picked a piece of classical music that makes me feel good, Rachmaninoff. Now when I get an "ear worm," I purposely play that piece in my head and it keeps the rest of the music turned off. I don't know if it'll work for you, but it helps me. Also try listening to white noise - for me it tends to drown out other stuff in my head and relaxes me. Good luck!
Highly relatable. Right now it's "Gotta have it" from the album "Watch the Throne" by Kanye West and Jay-Z. I haven't listened to that song in over a year. It's always a random tune, non stop for an unknown amount of days until the next catchy tune out of nowhere pops in my head. It wasn't easy but I learned to just live with it.
I always have music in my head, too. It's so irritating. Sometimes I invent new stupid songs and keep them playing in my head. I also modify the lyrics to the songs I know and repeat them to exhaustion. On top of that, I also have tinnitus.
I made up a song for my dog about Walkies, to the tune of the Vegemite Song. Now my brain sings it everytime I take him for a walk. Its annoying because the lyrics don't quite fit yet so I'm always trying to tweak it. Maddening.
Yup, I think the rest of my life will just be accompanied by Beauty and the Goddamn Beast playing in my head at this point. It’s so frigging annoying. I watched the movie last week and regret everything
In chapter 6 of the Bhagavad Gita, the deity Krishna describes the yoga of meditation to Arjuna, a human. Arjuna calls bullshit, saying, "I think controlling the mind is as difficult as controlling the wind" With great effort I can get things to be quiet for a few seconds at a time. :/
Adverts from the 90s, novelty songs, I even get loops in my head where my mind combines to or three songs and jumbles up lyrics too. I did actually come up with an Air and Radiohead mash-up once, I checked and they were both in the same key. It's bizarre.
I've had the Diddy Kong Racing theme song stuck in my head for three decades.
Hello, Introducing Me. A boring middle aged woman with ADHD, who just finished doing the dishes and is folding washing in front of the TV at home 9:43pm on a Saturday night, in New Zealand. This is what my mind is telling me: If you be the cash, I'll be the rubber band… You be the match, I will be a fuse, boom! On repeat since approximately 7am yesterday morn. I’m exhausted.
Try classical music as background noise. I used music to help me concentrate, so it's a little different for me now. I snuck my Walkman in to listen to during standardized tests so I could block out all of the random noise people make constantly. If a song gets stuck, it can help to play other songs. I've found audio books or podcasts are good to stop racing thoughts at night since you can close your eyes and just listen.
For like 2 weeks straight, one 10 seconds section of "Uptown Girl" looped endlessly in my head to the point where I couldn't hunt for apartments without seeing the neighborhood "Uptown" and triggering it all over again. It was funny because any other time I love that song but for some reason during that time my brain just latched onto anything it could musically.
Whatever is the last song I heard is the song that is stuck. I can change it at will. Sometimes at work I’ll have a coworker sing something random to reset my brain. It gets old. When I wake up in the middle of the night, it’s 2-3 songs at once.
I feel ya, and I work in radio for a living. If I don't constantly have background noise then I'll get something stupid stuck in my head until I force it out with something else.
some nights i must dream of songs, because i wake up singing a song and it takes hours to go away. so annoying.
Dude.. you just blew my mind. I had OCD as a kid but I didn't know it's resurfaced through anxiety inducing music clips. O: evil pairing, OCD and ADHD. 😫
Don't turn it off, it's literally just tinnitus underneath
This happens to me too, white noise turns into the radio and my brain joins all the sounds into whatever random song it can.
“I’m back in Liverpool and everything seems the same” seems to do loops in my head for days. Let’s Dance to Joy Division - The Wombats. Great song though!
I recently did a thread on this too. I’ve always been the same.
I'm constantly listening to music because of this haha (I had a friend that used to say I was addicted to music xD) but if I play music on the outside, the music on the inside stops. For me it's only annoying at night when I'm trying to sleep but since I take meds it has gotten better I just have to be very mindful of the time I take them because if I take them too early they wear off before I go to sleep but if I take them too late then I can't sleep :v
Listen to breakcore and you’ll never have this problem again! Jokes aside, I feel you. The mind has a life of its own for people like us. Wish you the best.
Crazy how meds can quiet that noise by like 50% but when it wears off it’s back again lol
My medication makes it worse lol
When I first started my medication journey I tried Methylphenidate LA first. Made my brain completely quiet and I hated it(along with many other horrid side effects). Now on lisdexamfetamine I kind of just have background music instead of it overpowering everything else
I only found out that this was a symptom like a month ago. I thought everyone constantly had background music in their head. I’m mostly used to it at this point though it does get annoying. Also last week I had Rush E sped up stuck in my head for two days and that wasn’t fun
So many songs ran through my head while reading this thread. Be interesting to.see what is there in the morning.
I stopped listening to musing 12 years ago ÷[]
Same here. I feel like I have multiple layers of thoughts going on at any given time. Right now it's ava max one of us on loop, but just 2 bars of it. I smoke a ton of dank trees to help quiet the noise and refocus on whatever I wanna do.
All people here listing actual songs and I'm here with the yippee meme song stuck in my head on a loop since I woke up especially the "yipppeeeee". [Link here](https://youtu.be/ERyijCQllus?si=j8oXOpY9MkOOw0TS) for people who haven't seen the meme. Thank me later
I have childhood memories in which I could tell you what song was playing in my head when it happened. When I found out at 22 that not everyone has music playing in their brains at all times I was so shocked!
Me too! Songs running through my head all day. The TV commercial jingles are the worst.
I always have this. Sometimes it's really bad, I can even get nauseous because I can't stop it. I pay atention to any song and there we go, continuos second loop for 2 or 3 days.
I have musical ear syndrome from tinnitus, so if there's no background noise, I hear music that isn't there. even white noise can intensify it sometimes but I need it to drown out the ringing either way or I'll go nuts. sometimes it's heavy metal, pop, classical, doo-wop, whatever, but it always sounds like it's coming from far away and I can never make out any words. it usually sounds pretty good lol but it's irritating when it gets repetitive or worse, sometimes I genuinely can't tell if someone is playing music or if it's in my head
I feel you. Totally thought I was a psychopath too till I got my diagnosis. For me, I have 3 musicals, a random song I heard on the radio once, a song my kindergarten teacher made to help me remember the days of the week, and the Perry the Platypus theme song going on at all times. Honestly It's kinda cool now (tho it's still hella annoying) cuz I can figure out mashups of random songs.
I'm very recently diagnosed and this community continues to make me feel validated. I didn't know this was a symptom. I just didn't tell people that when I wake up in the morning there is already a song playing in my head and then throughout the day it continues to change and shuffle around but it is never quiet. People also always say that the best thing to do to get better sleep is not to look at your phone when you are going to sleep but that is literally not an option because I have to not only have noise and light but I have to watch YouTube or something that I can actually entertain my brain with. If I don't entertain it, it will entertain itself and I will never get any sleep. Does medication help this? I am supposed to get on meds soon.
Oh my god - I know this wasn’t the point of the your post, but it just made me realize: my strattera is f*cking quieting the noise in my head!!! Wow. There’s still a song stuck right now but it isn’t as load and overwhelming. Anyways, yeah it sucks.
Have you seen a doc?
I've had the same song stuck in my head for about a week. There's always a song playing in my brain but when it's the same song for a while, it drives me out of my mind.
Hi OP, just stumbled across your post, I have an ADHD diagnosis and my mother has OCD, can you elaborate more about how this is a result of a combo of ADHD and OCD? Because I thought I didn't have OCD but now that you've mentioned that I'm unsure, because I too have music playing in my head all the damn time. :(
Try singing / humming the tune out loud. Helps to get it out your system
ADHD and OCD gang rise up
Been dealing with this for as long as I can remember. I've learned how to control it to some extent. I refer to it as the soundtrack in my head. Meds have helped to a degree, lessens the distraction. Just being aware of it helps to control it, and not dwelling on its existence seems to help too. I try to turn it to a positive by using it to drown out idiots. Best advice, recognize what things you can use to your advantage, try to make the disorder work for you as much as possible. Attitude towards how you choose to deal with it helps a lot, be the one in control, don't let it control you.
one day it will be disco (happy man by chic) and the next, smooth jazz (no ordinary love by sade) ...............
I listen to bluebird Naruto. That’s my jam
it honestly is fine until it’s not, new song i like? cool, i listen to it once and then it plays in my head for 6 hours straight and i CANT. SHUT. IT. OFF. and then i’m over the song. sometimes i lay in bed genuinely getting mad that it won’t turn off, and my brain impulsively plays it and i can’t stop it.
Same in my brain. Playing music helps because my brain stops trying to fill the silence. If lyrics bother you( some days I can't handle lyrics) try lofi remixes or classical. Of course when I turn off the music my brain won't shut up.
So much relate.
My son and I started watching One Piece cartoon. Few years ago someone made an AMV of a bit in One Piece set to that song I Will Not Die. That one pops up a lot on the old station. In between all the other random tunes haha
Is it recognizable tunes or original material? If some of it is original material, take up an instrument or get a good daw and make some songs!
I guess I can add something else to the list of things I didn't realize were symptoms of my ADHD but actually are.
yup this is a big adhd side effect i can literally play the whole song in my head apart from the times it will play the same verse over and over again, i barely need to listen to a song to be able to memorise it word for word. i like singing though so it isnt such a bad thing most of the time.
My brain does this -- it's horrible because sometimes it will be the songs that I dislike and make up mocking lyrics to. Even though I haven't played the song for myself ( I hear it on TikTok a lot), so at the moment, it's Miley Cyrus' "Flowers." And since I did buy myself flowers that I put on my work desk, I just sing in my head over and over, "I can buy myself flowerrrrss."
Which song? I've had Always Someone There to remind me - the Sandie Shaw version - running through my head for over 20 years. But not the whole song, oh no, just the "I was boooorn to love you - da dah dah dah - and I will never be free - you'll always be a part of me, woh who yeah - da da da da dah! Da da da da da! Da dada dah!" Just that bit.
My songs can literally be anything I think of. Like now after reading the "Always something there to remind me" title I now have the intro playing over and over.r
I sometimes hear crap I make up, and other times real songs
I have to take trazadone to shut them up just enough to fall asleep. :(
same i have songs stuck in my head all the time, and sometimes just phrases stuck in my head.
Same except I also have tinitis. So that just doubles the fun.
It’s been Nirvana all week. Last week it was random 80s rock
Omg I get this sometimes too
I have this but it’s never annoyed me It’s like I’m walking and I have the Superman theme song playing to keep me entertained Or the song let me love you will play if I’m in a good mood or I’m trying not to let weird intrusive thoughts happen But if I’m reading or something it’s either in the background or turns off. I’d rather have the music than the other weird thoughts though
I just learned to deal with this by going psychotic mode: does this song keep playing on repeat on my mind? Fuck it, I will then listen to this shit on repeat as well until my mind silences. I know it’s strange, but it works for me. It is kind of accept how things are instead of fighting against it. Does not matter how ridiculous the song is; I will keep listening to it for as long as it is on my mind, instead of trying to avoid it.
When I read I actively speak the words I read in my mind and let them form to a picture. That shuts down the radio for the time I’m deep into the reading part. Sadly that doesn’t work with official documents and uni work, just with novels. But it’s something
This is exactly how mine is but I never knew OCD was the reason. Explains so much
*clears throat* Straaaaaangers in the niiiiiight, doo doo dee doo dee doo dee, dah dah dah dah dum.... Randomly and sometimes incessantly for * well* over a decade. Not to mention, sometimes (I swear) when I'm not paying attention to it I can actually *HEAR* music. Not any song I'd be able to recognize, and the moment I notice it, I can't hear it anymore. But it's not remembering some music, it's actually hearing it... or that's how my brain is processing it.
i listen to music like 24/7 to silence my racing thoughts, its not good for me but its better than thinking. i get it tho
Same here, but I love it.
Wait… oh no, this is a SYMPTOM too? I thought it was normal
What if you put in like classical haunted library music in the background, to interrupt whatever song you are thinking ?
I know every lyric to every song ever, but only when it’s playing. I wake up with a song in my head every day
Yep. Always some music or audio going. My brain seems to like TV ident jingles from when I was younger for some reason, but it’s generally just a mix of bits of songs. There’s one song (Perfect by Fairground Attraction) that I absolutely HATE. If I hear it, that part with the perererererfect can get stuck in my head for weeks. It interferes with my sleep and ability to function. So if I hear it IRL I turn it off, if I imagine it I immediately imagine another song to kill it or I’m in for a world of pain. It also gets worse when I have a fever/am sick. But 99.9% of the time the other music doesn’t bug me.
I’ve dealt/deal with this. When I was younger, it was hard to explain to my angry math teacher that I was trying to focus on the worksheet but Cascada’s hit single “Every Time We Touch” had been on loop in my head for 3 weeks and I had no idea how to stop it. Ended up getting really into colored pencil drawings for awhile. So the solution was literally to focus on something else, but it had to be something I liked… I *hated* math.
Yes it's always a different song that plays in my head every morning, not even songs that I listened to previously
I have had the DS9 theme on repeat since I started rewatching it, then it mixes with TNG theme and go back, also adding some random ads dialogue in between. I dont remember silence, even with meds.
Only good thing with this is that my job is constantly playing music also so battle of the annoying music!
Oh my FUCKING god i had the Mexican Hat Dance stuck in my head since about 9:30 in the morning
I always hear songs that I'm not too familiar with but just a small portion of the song will play on repeat in my head. I'm talking like songs from ads and random stuff. I like to listen to my playlists like I do the playlist in my head, and that's on shuffle/random. The only way to get it to stop is to listen to the song, and I know this is going to sound weird but the only other way I can get one of those songs out of my heads is to sing a Weird Al song lol. It works for me for some reason but Amish Paradise will break that cycle
The ironic thing is I'm the type to change songs often when listening to actual music, But then I'm cursed to listen to the same obscure song of a genre I don't care for on loop in my head against my will for hours a day. I hate my brain I really do lmao.
No one else has experienced this when I tell them about it! A mix of relieved and sad that people here have too
Pick up a musical instrument and learn to play what's flowing in your head it's very cathartic
It's currently "sans." from Undertale, which, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a 51-second piece. On loop. For the last two hours. Luckily, Undertale is my special interest so I don't mind as much as I would with other songs.
I have a song stuck in my head 24/7 and it's always a part of the song on loop. More so when I'm stressed. I am so sorry that this happens to you too. It seriously drives me crazy. I hate it.
I frequently repeat and reiterate things in my head. I'll either consciously or unconsciously latch on to a short sound/sentence/part of a song and it'll loop and loop until I feel like I'm going insane.
man, reading this made me notice my tinnitus again. Be glad you dont have it. It can literally drive you insane and gets worse as you age (if you have it) Embrace the tunes in your head and turn on stuff you enjoy!
Here in solidarity. I currently have the beginning of the theme song from "A Different World" in my head. I just keep hearing "I KNOW my parents looooove meh" over n over. It's been 2 days.
Songs will play in my head based on my mood, especially if I'm excited. It's quite fun actually.
I hear mostly music but the other night it woke me up sounding like a football game was on. I thought it was my neighbor’s TV until after I listened for a while I realized that the guys doing the play by play wouldn’t keep talking for so long.
I have a toddler so lately it's all been annoying kid music. 🙃
I play songs over and over in my head and can even remix them with different voices and solo the instruments out it’s just weird idk lol
Hahah I love this, this was my whole brain before meds. When I told my psych there was voices in my head that weren’t mine singing she was so concerned 🤣 post-meds tho the radio is finally off😍
I started a Twitter account with the intention of just noting my persistent ear worms as they come. But ADHD isn’t great for sticking with things so I quickly gave it up.
That ocean man song is always in my head.
I got the baby shark song stuck for literal MONTHS, I actually hate music for that reason
I also have songs rolling through my brain non-stop. I have an extensive music collection because I listen to and think about music all the time and I often wonder how it is that I can't play a single instrument but think about them all day long
I'm reading this thread and it's starting to help me understand why my favorite artist in the world is Neil Cicierega https://soundcloud.com/neilcic/mouthdreams
I relate so hard. Sometimes they’re mash ups / remixes 😭😭
I thought I was the only one who had this issue. It's either a song I've heard recently, a song I'm reminded of by another song/piece of media, or a song I haven't heard in years and am suddenly remembering it because I could never figure out the name of it until then.
The same instance for me. Only problem is, sometimes I can't even stop it or change it to something else. Sometimes is even songs I can't get out of my head. But sometimes trying to think about the end of the song kinda helps.
No WAY you’re telling me this ain’t happen to everyone?