Intrusive music in my head making me ill

[NotDarkGothicMama]

I know we all get an ear worm from time to time, but this seems quite extreme. I've had music playing in my head for over a year and it's giving me headaches. It's the same song for days, then it will switch, rotating around the same few snippets of a track.

I've tried envisaging mentally turning off the jukebox, singing along, mentally squashing it. It went away for a couple of months but it came back this week and I could cry with frustration. I don't listen to the radio any more in case I encourage it. I get headaches and don't sleep well because I have this stupid music playing. It's all I hear as I fall asleep and as I wake up again.

Does anyone know what this could be and how I can make it stop?

You need to see your Dr. There may be medication that can help.

Do you have other conditions? Time to talk to your GP

I have this. It absolutely drives me insane. I wake up at night with the sings going round and round in my head. Like you, I avoid music as it makes it worse. Sometimes diazepam works but my psych won’t prescribe it anymore as I overdosed on it once. Solidarity, it’s horrendous.

Lamotrigine helped calm this down for me, but I had to come off it eventually because it wasn't really tackling the symptoms it was intended to treat and it was causing me to dissociate quite a bit.

The same song or different songs? Mine is different songs that play in my head on a loop for weeks. Trying to sleep, waking in the night, first thing when I wake up. The Sweeney Todd soundtrack was the worst for a long time. I absolutely love the movie but omg it was horrendous to have it replay over and over again in my head for months. I don’t dare watch it again. I have noticed that the more stressed out I am it gets worse - as in sounding louder and louder in my head until it’s like screeching. Just repetition on repetition. My latest is American Bad Ass by Kid Rock which I listened to way back in my teens. There was substantial trauma I was dealing with at the time so I think that might be why. I have PTSD and I think this is a big feature with it. It’s especially rotten as music is a big coping mechanism in my life and brings me relief… until it turns on me and I’m stuck again.

I'm sorry others are experiencing this too. It isn't loud, just constantly present.

I will submit an econsult to my GP when they open on Monday. Fingers crossed they can help. I've been on a low dose of Venlafaxine for years and don't really want to disturb the balance.

My utmost sympathy op, I’m experiencing this too so totally understand. I’m relieved I’m not the only person tbh!

I don’t even need to hear a piece of music for it to start, my brain has the soundtrack of my life to choose from. The choices seem really random too, although really often just a word triggers a song (does anyone get that?)

Im on so much medication already I’m loath to add anything else, but it’s steadily getting worse so I think it’s only a matter of time before I’ve no choice but to ask for help.

I used to love my musically memory, but I’m starting to fear it. Good luck everyone else dealing with this. I hope there is an answer 🤞🏻

I've always had this - they call it Jungian radio. It doesn't really bother me, it's just background music, and often the songs are good ones

Sometimes they're good ones but even the best song gets old really quickly when it's played on repeat for days. Crashed The Wedding, anyone?

I haven’t had this to that extreme but the times I’ve not been able to get a song out of my head, I sing the ending of the song in my mind, or hum it in my mind if I don’t know the words, and it ends the loop. Have you tried doing this before?

I hear music in my head constantly, i actually thought that was normal! Tunes change but sometimes an earworm sticks. I use spoken word eg podcasts to switch off to sleep. I’ve been like this since I can remember (used to put on bbc world service to sleep) and my grandmother was the same. I don’t see it as a mental health issue, it’s just how I’m made. I can even “listen” to whole albums I know well

I get this a lot, I've tried to explain it to DH and he just said oh everyone gets an earworm from time to time, but it's more than that. I'll wake up at say 3am for a wee, and it's like someone presses a button in my brain for it to start, could be a song I heard yesterday or one I've not heard for years but once it starts it's in my head for weeks and weeks, and just starts and stops when it feels like it. And it feels like I'm actually hearing it. Stops me from sleeping some nights. I occasionally get it with phrases or names as well, I'll see something written down and my brain will repeat it back to me for weeks on end.

I have no MH conditions that I'm aware of, hadn't occurred to me it might be something to do with that.

No advice but sympathy. I’ve had the same for a long time.

Sometimes hearing a song will trigger it for days, sometimes the song is completely random, sometimes it’s one small snippet over and over again because I clearly don’t know the whole song. It’s getting harder to drown out. Bloody miserable.

Right now it’s Thunder by Prince because someone mentioned the current weather.

Listen to it. Listen to the earworm, on repeat if necessary, it usually quashes it after a few singalongs.

I get this and it's such a relief to hear that it's not just me. It actually hurts when it's happening and I want to hold my head to make it stop. I've tried to describe it to people and never had anyone understand it.
There are certain songs that I cant even think about let alone listen to or they'll be in my head and waking me up.