Does anyone else have music playing in their head all the time?

[WoIsMe]

I was chatting to a friend just now and I mentioned in passing that the music in my head was particularly loud today. She was really taken aback and told me that this isn't normal. It's got me wondering how many other people constantly have music playing in their head, apart from when there's external music playing. It's usually something I've listened to recently but random songs do pop in occasionally as well. I just had Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth which I don't think I've heard for years. Music is just always there in the background and it's complete songs or sometimes albums; it isn't like earworms where you get 20 seconds of something annoying playing over and over again. It also isn't mistakable for externally-played music so it isn't a condition such as MES where you get auditory hallucinations.

I know my DH has exactly the same thing and I'm pretty sure my dad did as well because he was always walking around singing random stuff like Gilbert and Sullivan songs but he never listened to anything like that. Does anyone else experience something similar or is it as unusual as my friend says?

I have both at the same time 😂

Yes, nearly always. Might be triggered by actually hearing the song, but other times the trigger is indirect and to do with whatever I've been thinking about or talking about. Sometimes this happens completely unconsciously and the link is convoluted. Eg yesterday my brain was playing 'Your head's on fire' by They Might Be Giants, and it was a while before I realised where that had come from. (I'd been doing a search on my work document earlier for the scientific name of the vermilion flycatcher - Pyrocephalus obscurus.)

Yes me! It's usually faded in the background but I can kind of pull it to the front if I realise or think about it and then send it back into fade again. I do actually suspect some neurodiversity in myself, eldest DC has been referred re ADHD and there is diagnosed and suspected neurodiveristy in the wider family.

The only time I’ve not had music (that I remember) was when I was ICU-level unwell & shortly afterwards. And nobody could understand why I felt my cognition had taken a hit, because not only was I down to only one stream of thought in my head instead of jumping between them; I knew I was scrabbling for words & the ones I found were imperfect but to others my speech was fluent & coherent. If you knew me well, it was slow &… flattened, in a way?

Yup. Yesterday it was "Autoglass repair, autoglass replace" 😞 but today we've got an old friend "I can buy myself flowwwweeeerrs"

Not constant for me but very very frequent. Someone will say something and a certain word or sentence will trigger a song in my head, or I'll see something or read something that triggers it, or then a song will just randomly pop uå. And then usually I end up singing it out loud, which annoys my children and amuses my classmates.

I had the Diary of Horace Wimp in my life at 4am the other day. Awesome song but a tad lively for that timeslot.

Today's keeps defaulting back to Man of the World by Fleetwood Mac.

I like the radio as background noise to mix it up, but my brain will default back to its own song of the day.

I like to sing to myself. Generally this is a good thing... unless it's "Everyone's Talkin'" in which case I'm trying to civily deal with my family being annoying...

I get this, too. What's really annoying is if you get a snippet of a song and you can't think what it is.

I've never been diagnosed with ADHD but then again I've never been tested.

I've never been diagnosed either but my head is just packed full of randoms, singing, dancing, talking, chanting - it's quite exhausting but I'm never lonely!

My mind is quite busy so it can be me talking to myself internally or music. Foo fighters mostly or rock songs with good instrumental bits. More annoying ones are things like mistletoe and wine when it's not Christmas. When the kids were little it was Balamory, in the night garden or various Disney songs. I can't sit still and my thoughts rush about.
Last night whilst trying to sleep I had "breaking the law, breaking the law" I don't even know what song it is but I couldn't get to sleep for it.
Worst one was -Gillette the best a man can get, over and over during the 90s. Hard decade that was.

You've bequeathed me 'Gilette etc' now! 🤣

Me too. It's noisy in my head, and I'm deaf which is ironic! Nonsense by Sabrina Carpenter is doing the current loop repeat.

Yes ~ always and find myself humming the tune often . Even when I’m in company chatting there is still a tune in my head .
I’ve discussed this with a lot of people and no one has ever said they have the same .

I agree with so many of you.
songs, adverts, constant rehearsing of conversations, replaying conversations with things I WISHED I said rather than what I actually said.
Would be very interested to know if there is any link between ADHD / Autism etc because on - line test results recommend I get tested. ( not going to)

@BertieBotts My meds make me feel like I've walked out of a mosh pit into an empty field in the middle of nowhere for an hour or two and the peace is fabulous. But it comes back quite quickly and then I'm busy mentally dancing to a tune on repeat whilst shouting to myself over the noise again 😆

I used to listen to music all the time as a teenager to help me to study. I'm 52 now and can't cope with background music or the TV on randomly. Drives me to distraction, makes my teeth itch!

Me too! No ADHD though. Music, phrases, conversations...all the time.

Today it is Space Cowboy except the lyrics are "this is the return of the big spender". No idea why! I wasn't even really conscious of today's song until I read this thread.

Constantly as well. I sing in a choir so it's often random alto parts. I am not the smallest bit ADHD, however.

If you're not normal then neither am I. I also have a very active internal monologue.

I wouldn't say all the time but quite a bit. They're usually tracks from Zumba sessions. I go twice a week but have one or other of the songs going on on and off throughout the week.

Yep pretty much all of the time. I go past a church and I hear hyms. Also I find random snatches of books I have read pop up in my head. 🤔🤔

Yes! Always and constantly. I wake up with a song in my head and I dream with music too. It's always always there. I thought everyone was the same but now know we're not, however I did mention it in an online group for women with ADHD and the majority of women said they have it too. Interesting!

Yep I get a song going round my head but more often it will be conversations (that I’ve never had) playing out in my head. Sometimes how a real life scenario could have gone but most times my heads like a soap opera playing out scenes of me dealing with the most random situations. If I hear an ambulance or any car with a siren I then continue to hear the siren alllll day!! That one’s annoying haha

Today I have 'The Female if the Species ' by Space.

Yep me too (diagnosed adhd, certainly a thing).

Often unless I’m concentrating on something else. I like having radio or podcast (speech). I’ve got it now while I’m typing, won’t say what in case it becomes an ear worm. I sing in choirs and a lot is bits of the things I’ve sung, not even the whole song. It wouldn’t be coherent because it’s just my part. Autism but no AdHD