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??

[Sgtmajormummy]

Having an earworm is like having a soundtrack to your own life! I’ve wasted so many brain cells to memorizing song lyrics that now I only listen to Oldies Radio and recycle the songs I know...
It can happen with instrumental music, too. I spent months trying to name a Mozart Divertimento in the days before YouTube and I can (annoyingly for my family) regularly name scraps of music used in films.

It’d definitely an enhancement of reality.

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

I have this, really annoying sometimes, interestingly i only became aware of it after my mum died and always thought it was some mental health thing triggered by sitting watching her die over two weeks.

[Heleavesreviews]

The poster with “Total Eclipse” needs the shittyflute version!

On a more serious note, This is interesting:


‘I think brains are very little understood and the supposed standard ways they work are likely to be way too narrow.

EG they used to think synatheasthia was an aberration. Now they think all babies have all senses available and linked and learn to disconnect them.

I have aphantasia which I only learned about on here! I think it's 20% of people have it. Also on here I learnt that people are very swift to react to difference/ things they don't understand. On an aphantasia thread there were loads of posters saying. People with this must be autistic, have no imagination, be less intelligent, they are missing something massive in their lives...”

[Sarahlou252]

Always.
For as long as I can remember.
There was a thread a couple of days ago asking who has an internal monologue and I responded to that to say mine is always a song.
I find these threads fascinating as I thought everyone must be the same!
Currently have Christina Perri Jar of hearts going round, its been there constantly for the last 3 hours!!

[Vicliz24]

Kylie here at the moment. Always have a tune in my head I always have had . I often break into song

[cigarettesanddisappointment]

I always have music in my head, but it's never a full song - always a choice few lines or a particular refrain. I don't think I'd mind so much if I got to listen to the whole thing! Today, my entertainment is being brought to me by Sonia - You'll Never Stop Me Loving You. It could be a long day...

[safiya7]

I’m not ASD or ADHD but I thought everyone has songs / music in their head all the time.

After watching the movie “Rocketman” it’s been Elton John for a few days now, but with interludes of Berber. It’s normal isn’t it?

[suckingonchillidogs]

@cigarettesanddisappointment

I always have music in my head, but it's never a full song - always a choice few lines or a particular refrain. I don't think I'd mind so much if I got to listen to the whole thing! Today, my entertainment is being brought to me by Sonia - You'll Never Stop Me Loving You. It could be a long day...

Thanks cigarettes - transferred from your head to mine for the last hour and counting . Even when you're HOME you won't pick up the PHONE. Noooo!!

[Faircastle]

For the past 36 hours I have had "Love one another" by Samuel Wesley.

The last time I heard this or sang it aloud was in the 1980s, so I have no idea why it has surfaced this week.

[AnUnoriginalUsername]

Often. I find the trick is to listen to the song all the way through but mines because things get stuck in a loop in my head. Autism for me. I get it with words too, just one word over and over in my head, I visualise writing it out and it like completes the loop.

[OldEvilOwl]

Yes! me and DS go walking and somewhere along the route I usually ask 'what song have you got today?' (In your head) and we compare

[Hadjab]

My head is either constant inner monologue, constant inner DJ, or constant random words repeating themselves. I literally wake up in the middle of the night because a song has impinged on my consciousness, as though someone has turned on a radio, then I’ll lie there thinking about the lyrics or the artist, then my brain wants to know what they’re doing now if it’s some obscure singer or group, then I have to physically stop my self from reaching for my phone to google...

[elp30]

Thanks for this thread OP, I really thought it was not normal to always have a tune in my head or words and phrases in a loop. I have told people, like my sister and husband and they thought I was strange.

I remember driving around town with the radio on and I told my daughter, "That song just played on the radio about ten minutes ago!" She looked at me, puzzled, and said that it hadn't. I realized that the song was playing in my head ten minutes before. She always laughs about it.

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

@suckingonchillidogs

Apparently if you chew gum it will stop you thinking of the song as the brain can't do both things at once!

Just catching up and this surprised me. Not sure my brain got that memo... I tend to chew in time to the beat!

[Yesitsbess]

@Heleavesreviews I have just LOST IT laughing at the shittyflute version. It sounds like Sooty and Sweep!

[Branleuse]

Yes nearly always. Usually just bits of songs, rather than the whole thing.
At the moment its the intro to Rasputin. Its been on loop all day

[Teatreat]

I do unless I'm listening to music. I also have tinnitus so my head is quite a noisy place.
I try to do grounding exercises when I become aware of it, so concentrate on actual sounds,sights, taste, touch, smell. It helps in the short term.

[KnottyKnitting]

Yes I get this- it's often a piece of music that I am currently learning- I have a passage from a Bach recorder sonata currently playing in a loop- driving me nuts!

[JustAmotherOne]

Omg yes. All the time, every day of my life. And while I’m asleep too.

Worst is when I’m actively involved in music-making. Any repeated playing or singing leads to tortuous ear worms that can be stuck for weeks.

Words, phrases, smells, standing in a particular spot, all have songs that get triggered.

I used to hate it, now I’ve made peace with it.

Part of the solution was to subscribe to Apple Music and listen to a wider range of music, especially stuff I’ve never heard before.

And I avoid reading title of songs (had to scroll past a lot of the posts in this thread with eyes shut) and try not to listen to things that have previous turned into torture tracks.

[WaveAndShout]

I have this. Interesting to read other people's experiences.

Songs are triggered in my head by words or phrases I hear. Sometimes it takes me a while to realise what the connection is.

[Heleavesreviews]

@Yesitsbess I consider it a civic responsibility to spread the shittyflute joy :)

[Yesitsbess]

@Heleavesreviews I have long admired their work and was grateful for your reminder of it. This is almost certainly their second best effort after 'Toxic. That reduces me to tears every time I watch.

[Scratchpostkitty]

My friend had this when going through the menopause, I am really surprised people have it constantly. That sounds awul. I like silence.

[EBearhug]

I have Erasure's Sometimes at the moment. I have no idea what triggered it.

[BillMasheen]

Me too

I have this at the moment. But it’s so epic i,don’t mind. Rock gods. The lot of em.