My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

AIBU?

To ask if anyone else constantly has music running in their head?

184 replies

Mypremiumwhat · 07/05/2021 15:38

I have music running constantly in my head all the time for as long as I can remember. It's normally there in the background like a low barely noticeable hum, but sometimes it becomes louder and more fucking annoying apparent. It's there regardless of what I'm doing, whether I'm watching tv, having a conversation, working, and the only time I can't (mentally) hear it is when I'm meditating or actually listening to music in real life.

Song changes are triggered by things I see, or words/phrases that I read or hear, and the music can be anything from songs I love, to songs I hate, to annoying jingles, to random instrumental music. One particular tune that gets stuck in my head regularly is the song that a toy telephone belonging to a girl I babysat 20 years ago used to play Hmm

I don't suffer from anxiety or any other mental health condition, and have no history of adhd or anything like that. But still the music persists. It doesn't bother me too much on a day-to-day basis but sometimes the songs turn into earworms and become infuriating. I never really paid much attention to it before, but read someone asking a similar question on another forum a while back and realised that it actually doesn't happen to everyone, and I've been very conscious of it since.

Is there any way of stopping it??

OP posts:
Report
Mabelface · 07/05/2021 15:40

I have the same. I'm autistic and have a constant soundtrack playing in my head.

Report
89redballoons · 07/05/2021 15:47

I have the same! I do/have regularly suffered from anxiety though. When I was on an antidepressant called Sertraline I noticed it much less.

Report
LigPatin · 07/05/2021 15:50

I have that. I have ADHD. I've heard ritalin stops it, which I start next week so here's hoping.

Read up on Adult ADHD, OP. It's not what most people think it is

Report
Dragonfly3 · 07/05/2021 15:53

Me too. I was talking to my sister about this last week and she had no idea what I was on about - I thought an internal jukebox was pretty common but it seems not! The earworms are the worst, it always seems to be a song I don't like. I have it with words too, I have a specific word stuck in my head and it repeats on a loop. I'm used to it but it would be nice to have a quiet brain sometimes.

Report
Aisforharlot · 07/05/2021 15:56

Very often, but I have ocd and my brain is prone to loops.
I will also wake up and music is playing from my dream...sometimes a song about the dream my brain has apparently come up with Grin

Report
TimeForTeaAndG · 07/05/2021 15:56

I do pretty much always have a song/tune/conversation in my head.

Sometimes it's just made up tunes other times it's stuff I've been listening to or something which kicks in after someone says a phrase that's a line in a song.

Report
Aisforharlot · 07/05/2021 15:56

I literally cannot get rid of ringtones... I hallucinate them even after they stop.

Report
Mypremiumwhat · 07/05/2021 15:57

The autism and adhd connections are interesting as I have a dc who is being assessed for both and definitely has either one or the other. But I definitely don't have adhd (I don't have any signs or symptoms of it), and I also don't have any signs that would suggest autism.

OP posts:
Report
6heartsforhumphrey · 07/05/2021 15:58

Well I didn't think I did but come to think of it I have 20th century boy by t-Rex streaming at the moment Grin

Report
Joolsin · 07/05/2021 15:58

I usually wake up in the morning with a song in my head. Then the inner monologue takes over!

Report
AliceBanned · 07/05/2021 15:59

Yes, and it’s infuriating at times. Tends to be the last thing I heard, whether it’s a song/advertising jingle/theme tune, anything really. Especially annoying when it’s one I don’t like!! Angry Sometimes I will deliberately seek out something else to hear in order to ‘change the record’. Hmm

Report
Mypremiumwhat · 07/05/2021 16:03

TimeForTea that's exactly how mine start too!

The ocd point is interesting, I'll have to read up about brain loops and see if anything fits with me.

Forgot to mention, I have thyroid issues (the constant music predates this so it isn't caused by it) and I've noticed that when I stay into overactive thyroid territory then I'm much more prone to very persistent very annoying earworms.

As a pp said, I'd love a quiet brain sometimes!

OP posts:
Report
BeautifulandWilfulandDead · 07/05/2021 16:06

Not always, but often. My brain is also prone to loops, particularly when I'm anxious or tired.

Report
Fyredraca · 07/05/2021 16:06

I have this, I thought everyone did. At the moment I've got the music from when Elizabeth and Darcy dance together in the BBC Pride and Prejudice on a constant loop.
It doesn't really bother me most of the time. If it's annoying I have found listening to the song on YouTube helps get rid of it. Although then my brain just picks up a new one.
@LigPatin I've just read the presentation of ADHD in women though and I'm a bit scared now.

Report
KrisAkabusi · 07/05/2021 16:29

Most people do apparently, and it's nothing to do with autism. If you want to change the record,or get rid of an earworm, just sing Smoke on the Water in your head. It can drive out anything!

Report
Lillyhatesjaz · 07/05/2021 16:48

I thought everyone had this, I have it some days more than others, some music I like I can't listen to as it gets stuck for ages and becomes really annoying

Report
SleepingStandingUp · 07/05/2021 16:51

My husband has a quiet brain. It confuses me. It would be so odd.

Right now there's the tinnitus and 5 little ducks inside my head and the convo I'll have with DH later about DS

Report
Enb76 · 07/05/2021 16:54

I have a permanent jukebox in my head as does my daughter. I find people who don’t a bit weird tbh.

Report
UhtredRagnarson · 07/05/2021 16:54

I do OP. As well as several different commentaries of what I’m thinking, reading, listening to, planning etc. It’s noisy in there.

Report
Want2beme · 07/05/2021 16:55

I constantly have songs in my head. To quieten the songs I don't like, I literally have to shout out "Shut up!", to them.

Report
20viona · 07/05/2021 16:56

Yes quite often il get a song stuck in my head all the time even during the night it drives me mad!

Report
lonel · 07/05/2021 16:57

Quite often but not always. I do have bad tinnitus at the moment and at night I dream loud noises (shouting, music whatever) and it wakes me up. I wonder if that is the tinnitus getting into my dreams.

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

CuriousaboutSamphire · 07/05/2021 16:58

Yes. I always have. I also remember and date many things by songs.

When stressed, bored or tired they sometimes escape.

I have been glared at for doing the 'bom bom bom' from Frankie's - a colleague was having a hellacious time on a rostrum and I was willing him to Relax 😊

Worse was actually singing a lyric after 2 hours in a meeting, bombastic male manager kept on and on about his achievements and how we should emulate him, even though we didn't do the same job, have the same opportunities. Cue me "we gotta get outta this place, if it's the last thing we ever do..."

My boss walked me out. Then bought me coffee and cake, laughing about it being the best excuse to leave a meeting ever - chastising an employee for inappropriate singing.

I have many stories, many songs! 😁

Report
trevthecat · 07/05/2021 17:04

Me!! I always have. It tends to be the same song or 2 songs for weeks then it will change. I don't notice the change though. It drives me mad!! I know people get it now and again but I've never had anyone tell me it's all the time like mine is!

Report
HemanOrSheRa · 07/05/2021 17:15

Yes! Pretty much all the time. Sometimes it'll be an earworm that goes on for days. But I also have tunes in my head for different moods. So, if I'm busy, in a good mood and feeling efficient, its Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert. If I'm busy, in a bad mood and feeling stressed it's the chorus of Ring Of Fire by Johnny Cash Confused.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.