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

[Mypremiumwhat]

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

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??

[adhdpunchbag]

@Mypremiumwhat

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.

Are you sure about the ADHD?

I would never have said I have it. Even after two years of reading up about it because of my DS. But now I'm pretty sure I have.

I don't have the soundtrack thing constantly but I constantly sing lyrics when people say things that remind me of them or carry on with tunes in my head when I've a snatch of them somewhere.

[tiredanddangerous]

Yup. I'll have the same song going round in a loop for days until another one replaces it. I have ASD.

[Useruseruserusee]

No, but I always have an ongoing story. I have several that I make up and keep adding events to whenever my brain is not totally preoccupied with something else.

[Sinthie]

After I gave birth to my preemie baby, the Gotye song “somebody I used to know” was playing in my head all the time- very annoying. I also had a phase as a kid where the jingle from an 80s Robin Hood weetabix ad would not go away 😆

[PickAChew]

@Sinthie

After I gave birth to my preemie baby, the Gotye song “somebody I used to know” was playing in my head all the time- very annoying. I also had a phase as a kid where the jingle from an 80s Robin Hood weetabix ad would not go away 😆

Apparently that is a very common earworm. Lady gaga seems to feature a lot in the list here.

www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/11/earworms

[multiar]

When I was quite depressed/anxious and taking Sertraline I used to wake up with a random song in my head, it was like a radio alarm clock, the song would be so clear. Now I've not been off medication for a year and notice at times a faint radio station type noise, I can't even make out the song playing it's so low, I've tried 'tuning in' but it's just background noise. Sometimes I get internal (thankfully) Tourette's just random words I've never told anyone about this they would think I'm crazy. Maybe I am? 🤔

[multiar]

Nice to know I'm not alone, thanks for sharing everyone.

[LittlestBoho]

My brain isn't constantly playing music but I do get very persistent earworms. I've had Orinoco Flow on inside my head for the past 3 days. It's driving me demented.

[mogtheexcellent]

I suffer from terrible earworms. I also do maladaptive daydreaming so constantly have a full head.

[take2bottlesintotheshower]

It's Kylie now.
Thanks for that.

[MissJeanLouise]

I often have the theme tune from The Chase in my head, and find my fingers are drumming along to the ‘dum, dum, du-du-du-du-du-du dum’ part 😂

[WhistlersandJugglers]

I can just turn on and off the music in my head. I'm not musical at all and I can't sing but I play songs in my mind when I'm doing boring things like washing up. I never really thought about it but I think I would have assumed everybody did it.

[Laiste]

Yes. All the time. 2 default songs, either

I'm Blue (da ba dee da ba daa)

or

Scatman (bee ba ba bada bob)

but i can reset to anything at all and it will just play and play. Proper instruments/vocals/bass/chorus ect. I actually enjoy it. I thought everybody had it I sing all the time when i'm mooching round the house and in the car and sometimes quietly in the shops.

[Laiste]

Today it's mostly been Call The Shots [Girls Aloud] :)

[IHateCoronavirus]

I do. Completely floored at the idea not everyone does! That’ll explain why they are not always singing then! I also have a lot of internal dialogue, recapping of conversations etc. My mind is never quiet.

[AnnieHooo]

Oh yeah. This week it's Line of Duty theme tune.

[puddingisgood]

Annoyingly, I have nursery rhymes in my head a good deal of the time. I do work in early years, but it's there even in school holidays etc.

[DramaAlpaca]

Yes, I always have music playing a soundtrack in my head. It doesn't ever bother me.

[SilentBob]

Yep, constantly. There's always a background song going on- if I acknowledge it and then get engrossed in something for 60 seconds or so I will always catch back up with the song 60 seconds in when I de-engross. (It's a word, look it up)

I wake up with a song in my head every single morning and have done for as long as I can remember, too.

[Yesitsbess]

I have it constantly. Today has mainly been All-star by Smashmouth. I would pay money for a brain jet wash at this stage of the evening!

[BeautifulandWilfulandDead]

I once had a conversation with a friend about how she 'doesn't think about much, really' and I was stunned to think that some people don't have the constant noisy stream of consciousness all the bloody time! I'd never considered that it wasn't universal.

[WiddlinDiddlin]

Oh yeah... all the time.

Thanks to your thread title its now All The Things She Said by tatu.

[southernbelles]

Yes, it's infuriating sometimes! For me it will usually be one song at a time for lengthy periods of time; when I go to sleep it's almost like it pauses & then picks up each time I wake in the night. It's incessant! I didn't realise most people weren't like this though

[greeneyedlulu]

Off and on for me, I can get a song stuck in my head for days, weeks and it will literally just be there constantly, in the shower, laying in bed, when I wake up for pee in the middle of the night. Its kinda a relief when it stops, sounds weird, I know.

[APJ1]

It's not constant for me but I have been known to get a song in my head for two or three days. When it's triggered by high anxiety then strangely it's often a song I've not heard in a long time and I've had no reason to think of it! Some sort of brain decluttering?!