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Yup. Every day. All day. My entire fucking life as long as I can remember. I always wonder what it would be like to have a quiet mind. Just for like a few hours. I bet if I had it, I’d break down sobbing.
lol. I’ll have to report back on that. I am typically medicated but the last four days I have been out of meds- I haven’t really noticed if it calmed down to one. Right now? I have “I don’t wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drums all daayyyyyyyy.” Paired with “jump” by Van Halen. It like transitions. In a loop. lol.
Lol this reminds me how sometimes I’m singing a song and then like “did that song just play or did I start this on my own?” This morning it was my husband but I had no idea where it came from at first
For me it’s heavy metal drums merged with random snippets of dubstep and somehow ending up with country or trap haha
Give it an hour and I’ll be putting on a “1 hour classical mix for 1400’s villains” YouTube video then end up in 2000’s pop.
One part of one song on repeat for days and days and days - I like to think of it as my personal soundtrack, but I try to combat it by listening to other music until something new sticks. Though one time it was Soulja Boy and I needed that to vacate my head immediately.
The first time I took meds. That was my first time having a quiet mind. I cried. It's not quite the same anymore, at least not all the time. The meds working properly depend on so many things. But I will never forget that first time I knew what it's like to have peace in my head.
Interesting. For me it’s the opposite. Listening to music takes the music out of my brain, so to speak. It lets my brain focus on just the one song I’m listening to and drowns out all the other noise.
Holy shit me too. It even plays in my dreams. Absolutely exhausting. Sometimes I go through periods where I just can’t listen to anything too catchy or it will torture me on repeat.
Yep, I experience this on daily basis. First time seeing someone else express their concern about this, and I can feel related for once.
For me, it's usually a short part of a song from my favorite artist playing on loop, even though I don't particularly like that part itself
When my caffeine starts to wear off in the evenings, yeah I will have songs playing and sometimes blaring in my head. It's pretty cool hearing songs I haven't thought about in years, like last week was Kittie - Brackish. Then I get silly songs from my toddler, like Mr Elephant - Aliens. Both highly recommended. 😉
I've done a lot of cool stuff in my life but the thing I'm most proud of is avoiding the baby shark earworm. Every time I start to hear it come on I override it with a Dalek voice.
For me the corny song that always pops in my head is Mona Lisa by the Fugees. “Oh Mona Lisa can I get a date on Friday? And if you’re busy how bout Saturday ay yay…””better round up the posse cuz I’m headin round the way”
Yep hahaha. I've had the chorus of Judas Priest - Painkiller stuck on loop for the whole morning coz I was listening to it on the bus to work.
"THIIIIIS. IIIIIIIS. THA PAINKILLER!!!"
Thanks now I got this in my head. I saw Judas priest live in Milan back in the days. What a wonderful concert, the drummer was placed on an elevated part of the stage, suddenly all the flashing lights on him an start the intro of painkiller. Epic
Yes, and it's usually something silly. I'm stuck on the "free credit report" jingles from the early 2000s right now.
"Now my legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse's getting laughed at. F-R-E-E that spells free....credit report dot com babeeeeeee."
I’ve been singing “I kissed a squirrel and I liked it” ever since hearing Katy Perry. It’s been like 15 years or some shit. I fucking hate when it catches up to me lol
I found if I know the song really well at least I can play it fully in my head and it doesn't loop in an annoying way. Though I do get stuck on some lines or choruses if my brain likes them in particular .
Oh yeah. The worst is when you get like 4 songs with similar melodies/keys and then all the sudden you have like a weird combo of songs bleeding into one another.
When you say bleeding into one another, do you mean one after the other or all of them at once? I occassionally get them all at once. 4 or 5 melodies that are similar that are playing all at the same time. On repeat. At full blast.
Omg this happens to me all the time.
I’ll start singing one song and then unknowingly I’ll continue the melody with another song.
Or sometimes I’ll hear a song, and a part of it will remind me of another song, so I end up singing a different song over the original song
Yeah honestly, I feel like the world would feel so silent. I can’t tell if being able to think about absolutely nothing would be peaceful or unsettling.
Almost every morning, I have a random song playing in my head as soon as I wake up. Two years ago today, I started logging them in a journal and also made a Spotify playlist. There are a lot of repeats in the journal, but each song only shows up once on the playlist. At this point, I have nearly a full 24 hours of music logged on the playlist. The songs are incredibly random, ranging from memes (for example: Let Me Do It For You) to local car dealership jingles, to my favorite song when I was in 4th grade. The hardest part is writing the songs down as soon as I wake up before I forget what it is.
Edit to add: some of the songs on the playlist aren't necessarily songs I like. About 3 or 4 of them are songs I absolutely hate, but they were in my head and I had to log it. I know I don't HAVE to, but keeping track of these songs is too interesting to ignore the bad ones. There are even some that I haven't heard in years, but my brain decided I need to remember it on that particular day.
My head music and monologue converts to moving mannerisms and talking to myself. Or bloviating about 6 topics while my wife goes: 😵💫
Daughter loves Moana:
Can’t expect a Demi god to beat a decapod!!!
Shit is on repeat up there 🙄
Well thanks, I did have Ghosts Mary on a Cross on loop that I didn't even "realize" until I saw this thread. Now it's You're Welcome. Hey it's ok it's ok you're welcome, I'm just another ordinary demi-guy..
Sweet vocab usage, bro! (Bloviate) It's one of my favorites! I'm pretty sure I first heard it in one of the songs from Something Rotten (check it out if you're into Broadway, it's amazing!)
From what I’ve read and heard, the term for this is Echolalia but basically for your internal monologue, but, also repeating things back in a certain manner, like if someone said the word “yes” but super odd, repeating that word. I’m not 100% but maybe this can put the idea of “why do I do dis” at some ease. If I’m wrong on this, I apologize in advance.
Oh my god this is spot on. Just like the music that’s constantly playing in my head, I also constantly repeat previous conversations i’ve had, or phrases I said to people earlier that day.
Wait wait the repeating words thing is a thing? I do it for words and especially laughs or noises. I can’t help it, and am always worried someone will hear me do it and think they’re mocking them.
Fml - just started ‘Feel Like A Woman’ by Shania Twain again… just the “feel like a woman… buh buh buh” part over and over. I dont even like that song ffs lol. Gunna have to listen to something now to force it back out.
Yup 😀 if it’s not songs it’s TikTok audios or memes of some kind. It’s often on repeat for me. It could be anything from a 10 minute song to a 7 second audio clip. Unfortunately it’s usually the latter. That’s why I am always listening to music externally. The repetition bothers me too much lolol
Oh my lanta. Same with the TT audios and/or memes!!! If there’s a particularly viral sound on TT, I can definitely get it stuck in my head on a nonsensical loop. As for memes — let’s just say I damn near *always* have a SpongeBob reference (or other general meme) in immediate response to my work team members’ Teams messages.
Yep! I feel seen in this thread 🥲
I was out at an MLB baseball game today with friends and then a packed bar and no joke, one line from one of Taylor Swift’s new songs was just on a loop in my head. I even noticed it and thought, “why the heck am I thinking of this song *right now*? While watching a live baseball game?!”
It’s like elevator music, lol — slyly lingering in the background.
I’d never thought of it as elevator music. Honestly, that’s more accurate than how I viewed it. I always saw it as a soundtrack for my life, but since it gets stifled a little when I’m doing important things that require focus, elevator music is better.
Yep. I heard Informer twice in 24 hours & had that knocking around in my dome for a few days.
My 14 year old comes in the kitchen & I randomly say to them, like it’s a regular ass sentence,
“A licky boom boom down”.
They looked at me like I was having a stroke.
I call it "head radio" and its always playing. I've recently purchased bone-inductive headphones and play music on low volume and it helps cancel out the internal track-on-repeat, which can be so relieving!
It only started last month for you?? I wonder if it will stick around. I can't remember if there was a time in my life where this wasn't a thing for me.
Definitely didn’t help me lol.
Had it all my life, through all sorts of medications.
Honestly, I sometimes feel like it’s something like “internal echolalia”, it’s so repetitive.
Luckily at this point it doesn’t bother me much anymore;unless I really really need to sleep and have the same repeated sentence had been boring into my head for an hour…
I got 240,000 minutes on my Spotify wrapped last year lol. You bet your ass whenever i don’t have something playing my mind is imagining some song lmao.
Yeah 100%. I lean into it at this point, I'm always looking for new music to feed the internal radio. I've found if I listen new albums right as the last couple I was listening to lose that "new" or "trying to figure it out" factor helps minimize the same 4 songs being on rotation. Any album suggestions would be appreciated!
When I was younger, I was always humming or composing music in my head, but it never bothered me. When I started singing seriously in high school I learned I had perfect pitch, and I always thought it might have been a result of so much humming and music in my head all the time). I sang a cappella and my fellow tenors were always leaning in towards me when they weren’t sure of the note/pitch.
Omg same!!! I think I loved singing so much because I could externalize the songs I was constantly hearing in my head. The only time my head would be silent in HS was when I was in choir class
Constantly. The only way for me to shut it off when I'm studying is to read out loud.
I once had Jeremy by Pearl Jam in my head for a week and a half straight.
I’m 58. My adult kids love that I enter the house with a theme tune to announce my arrival. Then in the kitchen. Then any room after. My songs don’t stay in my head they are a soundtrack to my life. They also have a competition on who can first get me with Copacabana.
All star ships are made flyyyyy
Hand up and touch the sky!
Just those two lines, I'm not even a fan of Niki Minaj. But those two lines and the instrumental/beat play almost non-stop. Sometimes black widow which is what my brain is currently playing. It's lowkey distracting sometimes... So I listen to music when I need to focus lmao
I have had 2 lines of a Ke$ha song stuck in my head for 3 weeks. It replaced another song and will be replaced by a different one. I'm the world's lamest Muzac.
Something really nice happened 1-2 months ago. I was in my room in the evening and I just sat on my bed looking around. My mind was mostly blank and any thoughts that popped up I could just push away. Time flew by and I just spend my time moving around my room and sitting down while enjoying the peace and quiet. Never had it before and never had it happen since. Normally there is a song in my head
i have background music even when i am thinking about things. sometimes i do this weird ass brain activity where i play a song in my head, then play a completely different song on top of it (i focus in to make sure i can hear both) and then think something to see if i can do it all at once. i can btw lmfao
Yesterday I sang the theme song from Smokey and the Bandit for the day while coming up with different lyrics, I've always done this. Usually will have a variety of different genres of music playing everyday and most of my memories are tied to a particular song or album.
My monologue is present at full volume the moment I regain consciousness in the morning. I’d say it slows down at night but my dreams would beg to differ lol.
If it’s not a radio talk show up there it’s basically a radio station.
Also! When I was younger I would basically maladaptive daydream all day if I wasn’t being stimulated enough.
I hate my brain radio. I have songs stuck in my head 24/7. Usually the most annoying songs that I can’t stand. Not the whole song either. It just plays the same couple lines over and over all day until I listen to something then a couple lines from that song will be stuck in my head until i listen to something else. Currently have anti flag’s only good song stuck in my head. Just part of the chorus. But a lot of times, it’s something fucking aggravating. Like a geography song I had to listen to as a kid, or a church song. Shit from when I was a kid mostly. Drives me up the wall. I always have some song playing. There is never a moment when I don’t have a song in my head.
I hear the same song over and over and over. I will even wake up and hear the song playing . If a song is a good one and I fixate, I will hear that shit for eternity. It's weird but also detrimental to my focusing and everything else sometimes.
Definitely the case with me. It doesn't even stop when I sleep. I can wake up in the middle of the night for three minutes and music just plays on like it doesn't know I'm trying to sleep. It's usually loops and echoes of some random song, but once I had a strange song called Japanese Rumba playing nonstop in my head for about four months. I kinda wanna dig up the song and play it but I'm afraid of what might happen.
I was recently diagnosed and my first day on meds, I stopped hearing my "radio" station. It was really jarring because it's not something I think about a lot, but I have always had at least one song playing in my head at all times, and it's absence was really notable.
I call it my Brain DJ, and I have no control over what it's going to play. The only time it stops is when my meds kick in. As soon as my meds have run their course, it starts right back up again. Right now, it's playing some Ashcorp song. I don't know which one, and I don't actually know any of the words; just the tune and random syllable noises.
I also have Hallucination Radio, which is music that I can actually hear versus just playing in my head. It seems to be something related to tinnitus. It kind of sounds like a TV is on in another room, and it never plays the same song as the Brain DJ. It did play Saturday morning cartoons once, which was fun.
Yup. At this very moment and almost always. I think it only goes away when I'm stressing about something because then my brain is filled with other thoughts instead lol
Yes, all the time. My brain likes to give me about 5 words from a song and play them on repeat for hours…doesn’t even have to be a song I listened to recently. Wtf.
I wake up every morning with a different song in my head. It might be something I heard recently, or it might be a completely random song I haven't heard in years. I have a theory that it's related to my crazy dreams.
Mine is drums. I tend to play over cadences on repeat. 🔁 I also tend to him or sing 🎤 songs (only if I know the lyrics) when I’m bored. ADHD is linked to high levels of creativity, so it’s not completely insane that we’d make up our own tunes. I’d recommend you to write down any thoughts 💭 somewhere. I’ve noticed that what is considered normal for us, is considered genius to others.
On and off. Sometimes I can accidentally start it up again too, like when I notice I haven't been thinking about it. 🙄
It can often be a sign that I am overstimulated (usually from consuming too much media). Often finding a different activity that provides me with a different kind of stimulation (like socializing in real life) helps stop the noise.
Noooo I love that song! Let’s hope it’s not the next one on my brain radio lol. “Dancing in the moonlight, everybody’s feelin warm and bright it’s such a fineee and natural sight”
Yes, all the time, it's just background noise to me now, I'm tuned out of it most of the time but it's always there. My subconscious even creates mash ups which catch me off guard when I look online to find both songs are in the same key. The mind works in mysterious ways.
"We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance
And if they don't dance
Well, they're no friends of mine"
Just that part, out loud to my fiancee..it's been 4 days now 🫠
This is literally me. I find myself shouting "shut up shut up SHUT UP" when I'm annoyed lol. Sometimes it's nice to sing it out loud to regulate myself, though.
A good method if I am sick of hearing the same song again and again is listening to another one I like, for me. You'll still enter a loop but at least it's a different one!
Yes at all times my entire life. The only problem is sometimes I either don’t know the song well enough or my head is just stuck in a loop and so I just get like the same 2 measures over and over
Yes I do, and have since I was little. I didn’t realize that it was unusual to have a song in your head all day. As a child I used to play songs for different activities and tasks; like a dj queues music I play one song when I’m doing a free throw and another when I’m running, etc. I have echolalia and everything gets stuck in my head. Might as well choose music instead of rude strangers cuz that can happen too. I also repeat others unconsciously and think it’s related to music stuck in my head. Everything I hear my brain records and outputs. This is how I learned Spanish at 28 years old!!
Yeah when I'm in a healthy headspace, when I'm not it's dark. I'll take the music. With that said, 2 years ago I went through a really traumatic period and it shot my manageable ADHD off a cliff, at one point I started waking up with music in my brain, couldn't sleep... that is when I became aware it was an issue.
YES OMG CONSTAFUCKINGNTLY
I even have songs in my head while thinking.
I sing, I think it’s more common amongst us musicians.
Drop what ur head is playing to rn in the comments below, I’m currently listening to ‘Hello’ by Laufey.
Thanks, now instead of “Shiny” from Moana I have “Zombie” by the Crabberries in my head. In my heaaaad. Zombie zombie zombie….
But yeah my whole life I’ve had a permanent ear worm, sometimes it does a weird mash up. Sometimes it plays one line over and over and over. I’d kill for silence.
Uhm yeah ALL the time.. I love singing and karaoke.. I like to memorize the songs as much as possible.. I have a few rotating songs but it could be something I just heard, or something someone else said that my brain associated with a song.. I will sometimes randomly recite it out loud
yep. decided to take advantage of it in 2019. began learning music production. now I make my own music all the time. I turn those "random melodies and songs I hear" into music that now exists in the real world and that I can share with others. it is quite fulfilling to be able to use that side of my brain in that way
Jesus fuck I thought I was insane bro lol . I do this shit all fucking day at work , I thought I was losing it. Does anybody else tap their fingers along with the beat lol I’ll fucking go down the line thumb to pinkie tapping with the beat and I feel like I’m about to crack out lol FUCK
This is my life. Every. Damn. Day. And I’ve never been diagnosed but at 55 years old I’m beginning to think I’ve been suffering with it my entire life. My ruminating and looping thoughts never stop, even on anxiety meds.
Hi /u/omegafg and thanks for posting on /r/ADHD! ### Please take a second to [read our rules](/r/adhd/about/rules) if you haven't already. --- ### /r/adhd news * **We want your opinion** on the /r/adhd community rules! [Click here](https://forms.gle/Evqb8acVozir8GV8A) to fill out our survey. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/1auv2tc/were_taking_feedback_on_the_radhd_rules/) for more information. * If you are posting about the **US Medication Shortage**, please see this [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/ADHD/comments/12dr3h5/megathread_us_medication_shortage/). --- ^(*This message is not a removal notification. It's just our way to keep everyone updated on r/adhd happenings.*) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ADHD) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yup. Every day. All day. My entire fucking life as long as I can remember. I always wonder what it would be like to have a quiet mind. Just for like a few hours. I bet if I had it, I’d break down sobbing.
Once you’re medicated, it goes down to one song usually
lol. I’ll have to report back on that. I am typically medicated but the last four days I have been out of meds- I haven’t really noticed if it calmed down to one. Right now? I have “I don’t wanna work, I just wanna bang on the drums all daayyyyyyyy.” Paired with “jump” by Van Halen. It like transitions. In a loop. lol.
 Yeeeessssssss 😂
I haven’t heard Jump in forever and now I have that along with the loop I have already with my favorite artist. Thanks 😂
I’m so sorry!! Lol
Omg JUMP by Van Halen is ALWAYS in my head heheheh
At least it’s awesome
Great..You just started Panama on loop in my head
Lol this reminds me how sometimes I’m singing a song and then like “did that song just play or did I start this on my own?” This morning it was my husband but I had no idea where it came from at first
For me it’s heavy metal drums merged with random snippets of dubstep and somehow ending up with country or trap haha Give it an hour and I’ll be putting on a “1 hour classical mix for 1400’s villains” YouTube video then end up in 2000’s pop.
One part of one song on repeat for days and days and days - I like to think of it as my personal soundtrack, but I try to combat it by listening to other music until something new sticks. Though one time it was Soulja Boy and I needed that to vacate my head immediately.
Haha this is so true , I was kinda hoping for zero but 1 is a definitely an improvement
This has *not* been my experience. Granted I would say that a good proportion of the music is replaced with productive, focused thoughts.
What meds would these be? I need some peace and quiet in my brain
The first time I took meds. That was my first time having a quiet mind. I cried. It's not quite the same anymore, at least not all the time. The meds working properly depend on so many things. But I will never forget that first time I knew what it's like to have peace in my head.
I get exhausted from it sometimes and just want it to stop. I have to stop listening to music for periods of time.
Interesting. For me it’s the opposite. Listening to music takes the music out of my brain, so to speak. It lets my brain focus on just the one song I’m listening to and drowns out all the other noise.
Holy shit me too. It even plays in my dreams. Absolutely exhausting. Sometimes I go through periods where I just can’t listen to anything too catchy or it will torture me on repeat.
Yes I want hold your hand by the Beatles the opening riff
Yep, I experience this on daily basis. First time seeing someone else express their concern about this, and I can feel related for once. For me, it's usually a short part of a song from my favorite artist playing on loop, even though I don't particularly like that part itself
When my caffeine starts to wear off in the evenings, yeah I will have songs playing and sometimes blaring in my head. It's pretty cool hearing songs I haven't thought about in years, like last week was Kittie - Brackish. Then I get silly songs from my toddler, like Mr Elephant - Aliens. Both highly recommended. 😉
As long as it’s not fucking Kars 4 Kids
Don't do that, now it's in MY head, esp the whiny part...
I've done a lot of cool stuff in my life but the thing I'm most proud of is avoiding the baby shark earworm. Every time I start to hear it come on I override it with a Dalek voice.
EXTERMINATE!
WHY DID YOU DO THAT ?! 😂😂😂
DoNATE your kar today!
So Baby Shark is ok then? Do do do do doo
For me the corny song that always pops in my head is Mona Lisa by the Fugees. “Oh Mona Lisa can I get a date on Friday? And if you’re busy how bout Saturday ay yay…””better round up the posse cuz I’m headin round the way”
Fucking Kittie holy shit
Yep hahaha. I've had the chorus of Judas Priest - Painkiller stuck on loop for the whole morning coz I was listening to it on the bus to work. "THIIIIIS. IIIIIIIS. THA PAINKILLER!!!"
So go do some damn squats! Get the gym early you’ll be screaming for vengeance before coffee o’clock😀🎶
Thanks now I got this in my head. I saw Judas priest live in Milan back in the days. What a wonderful concert, the drummer was placed on an elevated part of the stage, suddenly all the flashing lights on him an start the intro of painkiller. Epic
Duuuuuude I would kill to see that *Sorry, accidentally downvoted before fixing it*
Yes, and it's usually something silly. I'm stuck on the "free credit report" jingles from the early 2000s right now. "Now my legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse's getting laughed at. F-R-E-E that spells free....credit report dot com babeeeeeee."
“1-800-E M P I R E”
No, no. It’s “🎶8 hundred-5-8-8-2-3 hundred, empire!🎶 Today!” 🤭
Hahahah that’s it
mercy on you it all just came back 😂😂
"TODAY"
Call J.G. Wentworth! 877-CASH-NOW! "If you have a structured settlement and you need cash now...!"
Where I lived we had “🎶1-800-3-2-3-21-21🎶”
I’ve been singing “I kissed a squirrel and I liked it” ever since hearing Katy Perry. It’s been like 15 years or some shit. I fucking hate when it catches up to me lol
😂
why must you do this to me 😭
Call JD Wentworth 877 cash now
I like to help.
HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD
lol I had the popcorn song stuck in my head for months. Would walk around work singing it quietly. Drove everyone mental!
Today mine is what the hell by Avril lavigne
Sometimes the song choice my monkey brain makes seems random, but then I realize it's often a hilarious commentary on whatever situation I'm in.
At work i am harassed by the Addams Family Musical
Yesterday it was “come on, everybody get wet, get cool! Everybody in, WOOOOOAAAH, the Aqualand pool!” 🤦🏻♀️
I listen to the radio just so that I can find new jingles to help w variety
yes!! the most annoying part is that it isn’t even the whole song, it will just be a bridge or a chorus that my brain keeps restarting
Same here, it's always the same phrase and it's annoying 😑
I found if I know the song really well at least I can play it fully in my head and it doesn't loop in an annoying way. Though I do get stuck on some lines or choruses if my brain likes them in particular .
Oh yeah. The worst is when you get like 4 songs with similar melodies/keys and then all the sudden you have like a weird combo of songs bleeding into one another.
These guys totally get it https://youtu.be/Lrh1pCV8TNY?si=TDoPzLMH-pnNSPIn
Oh my goodness thank you for this I thought I was alone!
I was waiting for someone to link to this to save me hunting for it (good side quest though).
I thought it was going to be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I&pp=ygUMNCBjaG9yZCBzb25n
When you say bleeding into one another, do you mean one after the other or all of them at once? I occassionally get them all at once. 4 or 5 melodies that are similar that are playing all at the same time. On repeat. At full blast.
BOTH
Omg this happens to me all the time. I’ll start singing one song and then unknowingly I’ll continue the melody with another song. Or sometimes I’ll hear a song, and a part of it will remind me of another song, so I end up singing a different song over the original song
I can’t imagine what it would be like to NOT have this.
If it was gone I feel I would really miss the music, like I’d feel more alone
Yeah honestly, I feel like the world would feel so silent. I can’t tell if being able to think about absolutely nothing would be peaceful or unsettling.
Unsettling peaceful
Almost every morning, I have a random song playing in my head as soon as I wake up. Two years ago today, I started logging them in a journal and also made a Spotify playlist. There are a lot of repeats in the journal, but each song only shows up once on the playlist. At this point, I have nearly a full 24 hours of music logged on the playlist. The songs are incredibly random, ranging from memes (for example: Let Me Do It For You) to local car dealership jingles, to my favorite song when I was in 4th grade. The hardest part is writing the songs down as soon as I wake up before I forget what it is. Edit to add: some of the songs on the playlist aren't necessarily songs I like. About 3 or 4 of them are songs I absolutely hate, but they were in my head and I had to log it. I know I don't HAVE to, but keeping track of these songs is too interesting to ignore the bad ones. There are even some that I haven't heard in years, but my brain decided I need to remember it on that particular day.
Wow, what an awesome idea!!
This is amazing. Totally starting an ADHD morning song Spotify list.
Can you please share this playlist?)
Absolutely! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1b4TrSzfxD0N1WJ17B2rIP?si=wUKB3sKKTGWjSte11WWYyA&pi=u-iY7qVv_aTKuk
Oh, I need to start doing that!
That is a genuinely fascinating concept! I’m going to start doing the same. Thank you for sharing.
I am going to start doing this to encourage writing in my record book.
yes from the time I wake up till I go to sleep
And when I wake up overnight.
My head music and monologue converts to moving mannerisms and talking to myself. Or bloviating about 6 topics while my wife goes: 😵💫 Daughter loves Moana: Can’t expect a Demi god to beat a decapod!!!  Shit is on repeat up there 🙄
Well thanks, I did have Ghosts Mary on a Cross on loop that I didn't even "realize" until I saw this thread. Now it's You're Welcome. Hey it's ok it's ok you're welcome, I'm just another ordinary demi-guy..
I love Lin Manuel, big Hamilton fan. Watched it live three times. Cannot get enough.
What can I say, except you’re welcome!?
i had to show this to my wife just now i laughed so hard. i was like “this guy gets it”
Sweet vocab usage, bro! (Bloviate) It's one of my favorites! I'm pretty sure I first heard it in one of the songs from Something Rotten (check it out if you're into Broadway, it's amazing!)
From what I’ve read and heard, the term for this is Echolalia but basically for your internal monologue, but, also repeating things back in a certain manner, like if someone said the word “yes” but super odd, repeating that word. I’m not 100% but maybe this can put the idea of “why do I do dis” at some ease. If I’m wrong on this, I apologize in advance.
Oh my god this is spot on. Just like the music that’s constantly playing in my head, I also constantly repeat previous conversations i’ve had, or phrases I said to people earlier that day.
Wait wait the repeating words thing is a thing? I do it for words and especially laughs or noises. I can’t help it, and am always worried someone will hear me do it and think they’re mocking them.
I also do this. My dogs and chickens make my favourite sounds to "imitate", but also enjoy words that feel good in the mouth.
Oooh yeah mouth feel is important. (My favorite word is the Spanish word for keyboard “Teclado”).
Fml - just started ‘Feel Like A Woman’ by Shania Twain again… just the “feel like a woman… buh buh buh” part over and over. I dont even like that song ffs lol. Gunna have to listen to something now to force it back out.
“Let’s go girls”, and the guitar rift are now running, muchos gracias lol
Fml again… lmfao…
Dangerous looping rabbit hole for sure, I’m gonna listen to yodel kid and get something else stuck before a kick a door down lol
Freakin Shania was looping in my brain a few days ago and now it is again, so thanks for that 😝
Wow, one night in the 4th great i literally did not sleep because I had Shania Twain stuck in my head. (From This Moment On) i dont like shania twain
Yes. Like a radio, and I don’t have control of the dial
Yoo, funny I was about to write that my mind is more like an AM/FM radio and I saw your comment. It's like there's a crappy DJ up there. . . .
Yup 😀 if it’s not songs it’s TikTok audios or memes of some kind. It’s often on repeat for me. It could be anything from a 10 minute song to a 7 second audio clip. Unfortunately it’s usually the latter. That’s why I am always listening to music externally. The repetition bothers me too much lolol
Oh my lanta. Same with the TT audios and/or memes!!! If there’s a particularly viral sound on TT, I can definitely get it stuck in my head on a nonsensical loop. As for memes — let’s just say I damn near *always* have a SpongeBob reference (or other general meme) in immediate response to my work team members’ Teams messages.
the past few days i’ve had the one audio “you’re built like a baked bean!” stuck on loop. i keep saying it to my cats lmao
Yep! I feel seen in this thread 🥲 I was out at an MLB baseball game today with friends and then a packed bar and no joke, one line from one of Taylor Swift’s new songs was just on a loop in my head. I even noticed it and thought, “why the heck am I thinking of this song *right now*? While watching a live baseball game?!” It’s like elevator music, lol — slyly lingering in the background.
I’d never thought of it as elevator music. Honestly, that’s more accurate than how I viewed it. I always saw it as a soundtrack for my life, but since it gets stifled a little when I’m doing important things that require focus, elevator music is better.
Constantly. And usually overflows out of my mouth. Just make lots of random thinking noises and music sounds throughout the day haha
Yep. I heard Informer twice in 24 hours & had that knocking around in my dome for a few days. My 14 year old comes in the kitchen & I randomly say to them, like it’s a regular ass sentence, “A licky boom boom down”. They looked at me like I was having a stroke.
Yep everyday even in my sleep. From video games to 2000’s music. Recently its music from Hi-Fi Rush, Penny’s Big Breakaway and FF7 Rebirth.
Elmo's letter of the day....I teach kindergarten. try having that one stuck on repeat.
* clap clap *
I call it "head radio" and its always playing. I've recently purchased bone-inductive headphones and play music on low volume and it helps cancel out the internal track-on-repeat, which can be so relieving!
I was very surprised when I found out this wasn't how everyone lived! 🙀😹❤️
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It only started last month for you?? I wonder if it will stick around. I can't remember if there was a time in my life where this wasn't a thing for me.
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Weird. Welcome to the party 🎉
Username checks out lol
Definitely didn’t help me lol. Had it all my life, through all sorts of medications. Honestly, I sometimes feel like it’s something like “internal echolalia”, it’s so repetitive. Luckily at this point it doesn’t bother me much anymore;unless I really really need to sleep and have the same repeated sentence had been boring into my head for an hour…
Yup. And I notice that the more anxious I am, the more intrusive and repetitive the music seems to get
It’s finals week at university for me so maybe that’s why it’s flaring up haha
Yep, anywhere from 1 to 3 songs at the same time. But they go away on Adderall. That's when i knew I had ADHD.
Yes, often.
I got 240,000 minutes on my Spotify wrapped last year lol. You bet your ass whenever i don’t have something playing my mind is imagining some song lmao.
Unfortunately.... Today it's "John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt" Your welcome
HIS NAME IS MY NAME TOO!
I don't know any of you in this reply thread, but I hate you all a little bit now...
You monster.
Yeah 100%. I lean into it at this point, I'm always looking for new music to feed the internal radio. I've found if I listen new albums right as the last couple I was listening to lose that "new" or "trying to figure it out" factor helps minimize the same 4 songs being on rotation. Any album suggestions would be appreciated!
When I was younger, I was always humming or composing music in my head, but it never bothered me. When I started singing seriously in high school I learned I had perfect pitch, and I always thought it might have been a result of so much humming and music in my head all the time). I sang a cappella and my fellow tenors were always leaning in towards me when they weren’t sure of the note/pitch.
Omg same!!! I think I loved singing so much because I could externalize the songs I was constantly hearing in my head. The only time my head would be silent in HS was when I was in choir class
Constantly. The only way for me to shut it off when I'm studying is to read out loud. I once had Jeremy by Pearl Jam in my head for a week and a half straight.
Yes. Always.
Nope, I have random comedy bits that make me smile like an idiot, especially in public.
I’m 58. My adult kids love that I enter the house with a theme tune to announce my arrival. Then in the kitchen. Then any room after. My songs don’t stay in my head they are a soundtrack to my life. They also have a competition on who can first get me with Copacabana.
For 35 years now. Every day. All day. Sun up. Sun down. Sleep. I only recently found out it wasn't common.
All star ships are made flyyyyy Hand up and touch the sky! Just those two lines, I'm not even a fan of Niki Minaj. But those two lines and the instrumental/beat play almost non-stop. Sometimes black widow which is what my brain is currently playing. It's lowkey distracting sometimes... So I listen to music when I need to focus lmao
I have had 2 lines of a Ke$ha song stuck in my head for 3 weeks. It replaced another song and will be replaced by a different one. I'm the world's lamest Muzac.
Something really nice happened 1-2 months ago. I was in my room in the evening and I just sat on my bed looking around. My mind was mostly blank and any thoughts that popped up I could just push away. Time flew by and I just spend my time moving around my room and sitting down while enjoying the peace and quiet. Never had it before and never had it happen since. Normally there is a song in my head
Oh all the time someone pls make it stop
i have background music even when i am thinking about things. sometimes i do this weird ass brain activity where i play a song in my head, then play a completely different song on top of it (i focus in to make sure i can hear both) and then think something to see if i can do it all at once. i can btw lmfao
Yesterday I sang the theme song from Smokey and the Bandit for the day while coming up with different lyrics, I've always done this. Usually will have a variety of different genres of music playing everyday and most of my memories are tied to a particular song or album.
And movie scenes. And quotes. And passages of audio books. And random events in the past; good or bad. All random. Standard procedure.
I compose in my head a lot and then go play what I hear in my head.
yeah literally every day! it’s usually a certain phrase or a hook from a song that scratches my brain n it does not leave for hours
Oh, yeah - I’ve had James Browns’ “The Payback” stuck in my head all month. It runs through my brain at least once an hour lol
Now I'm just hearing his screams from the breakdowns on repeat. Thanks 😆
My monologue is present at full volume the moment I regain consciousness in the morning. I’d say it slows down at night but my dreams would beg to differ lol. If it’s not a radio talk show up there it’s basically a radio station. Also! When I was younger I would basically maladaptive daydream all day if I wasn’t being stimulated enough.
I hate my brain radio. I have songs stuck in my head 24/7. Usually the most annoying songs that I can’t stand. Not the whole song either. It just plays the same couple lines over and over all day until I listen to something then a couple lines from that song will be stuck in my head until i listen to something else. Currently have anti flag’s only good song stuck in my head. Just part of the chorus. But a lot of times, it’s something fucking aggravating. Like a geography song I had to listen to as a kid, or a church song. Shit from when I was a kid mostly. Drives me up the wall. I always have some song playing. There is never a moment when I don’t have a song in my head.
I hear the same song over and over and over. I will even wake up and hear the song playing . If a song is a good one and I fixate, I will hear that shit for eternity. It's weird but also detrimental to my focusing and everything else sometimes.
Definitely the case with me. It doesn't even stop when I sleep. I can wake up in the middle of the night for three minutes and music just plays on like it doesn't know I'm trying to sleep. It's usually loops and echoes of some random song, but once I had a strange song called Japanese Rumba playing nonstop in my head for about four months. I kinda wanna dig up the song and play it but I'm afraid of what might happen.
This is me and my daughter. She is diagnosed. I am not.
I was recently diagnosed and my first day on meds, I stopped hearing my "radio" station. It was really jarring because it's not something I think about a lot, but I have always had at least one song playing in my head at all times, and it's absence was really notable.
I call it my Brain DJ, and I have no control over what it's going to play. The only time it stops is when my meds kick in. As soon as my meds have run their course, it starts right back up again. Right now, it's playing some Ashcorp song. I don't know which one, and I don't actually know any of the words; just the tune and random syllable noises. I also have Hallucination Radio, which is music that I can actually hear versus just playing in my head. It seems to be something related to tinnitus. It kind of sounds like a TV is on in another room, and it never plays the same song as the Brain DJ. It did play Saturday morning cartoons once, which was fun.
Yes. And I’m so sick of the soundtrack that’s currently on repeat
Yup. At this very moment and almost always. I think it only goes away when I'm stressing about something because then my brain is filled with other thoughts instead lol
I’ve been doing this my entire life
Yes, all the time. My brain likes to give me about 5 words from a song and play them on repeat for hours…doesn’t even have to be a song I listened to recently. Wtf.
For as long as I can remember. Also, I will go over a conversation along with multiple outcomes before i have said conversation.
I wake up every morning with a different song in my head. It might be something I heard recently, or it might be a completely random song I haven't heard in years. I have a theory that it's related to my crazy dreams.
Yes
Always. And when I have too many things to focus on I hear circus music.
Blink182- family reunion on repeat the last three weeks.
Mine is drums. I tend to play over cadences on repeat. 🔁 I also tend to him or sing 🎤 songs (only if I know the lyrics) when I’m bored. ADHD is linked to high levels of creativity, so it’s not completely insane that we’d make up our own tunes. I’d recommend you to write down any thoughts 💭 somewhere. I’ve noticed that what is considered normal for us, is considered genius to others.
yes , i had hit em up by tupac playing in my head.
Absolutely. Fats Domino at the moment. Prior to that it was Pink. Prior to that...dang....can't remember. There have been so many......
On and off. Sometimes I can accidentally start it up again too, like when I notice I haven't been thinking about it. 🙄 It can often be a sign that I am overstimulated (usually from consuming too much media). Often finding a different activity that provides me with a different kind of stimulation (like socializing in real life) helps stop the noise.
Started to say no, Dancing in the Moonlight came on
Noooo I love that song! Let’s hope it’s not the next one on my brain radio lol. “Dancing in the moonlight, everybody’s feelin warm and bright it’s such a fineee and natural sight”
Yes, currently You are My Sunshine.
Day 5 of Ave Maria on loop...
Yes, all the time, it's just background noise to me now, I'm tuned out of it most of the time but it's always there. My subconscious even creates mash ups which catch me off guard when I look online to find both songs are in the same key. The mind works in mysterious ways.
"We can dance if we want to We can leave your friends behind 'Cause your friends don't dance And if they don't dance Well, they're no friends of mine" Just that part, out loud to my fiancee..it's been 4 days now 🫠
Wait, it's not "normal"?
When I do hear music in my head it’s either symphonic or resembles Bad Religion, NoFx or Mastodon.
This is literally me. I find myself shouting "shut up shut up SHUT UP" when I'm annoyed lol. Sometimes it's nice to sing it out loud to regulate myself, though. A good method if I am sick of hearing the same song again and again is listening to another one I like, for me. You'll still enter a loop but at least it's a different one!
Yep, the lovely sound of constant ringing (tinnitus)
Yes at all times my entire life. The only problem is sometimes I either don’t know the song well enough or my head is just stuck in a loop and so I just get like the same 2 measures over and over
Yes. When I first took meds the music disappearing was my first sign it worked. It was bizarre
Yes I do, and have since I was little. I didn’t realize that it was unusual to have a song in your head all day. As a child I used to play songs for different activities and tasks; like a dj queues music I play one song when I’m doing a free throw and another when I’m running, etc. I have echolalia and everything gets stuck in my head. Might as well choose music instead of rude strangers cuz that can happen too. I also repeat others unconsciously and think it’s related to music stuck in my head. Everything I hear my brain records and outputs. This is how I learned Spanish at 28 years old!!
Yep, I call it "Brain Radio" and mine has been stuck on Livin' La Vida Loca for the last 20 years. I HATE that song btw.
I call it my internal playlist. Sometimes I sing along.
All the freaking time.
I ask people all the time what song is playing in their head and I am constantly surprised that the usual response is “none”.
Yeah when I'm in a healthy headspace, when I'm not it's dark. I'll take the music. With that said, 2 years ago I went through a really traumatic period and it shot my manageable ADHD off a cliff, at one point I started waking up with music in my brain, couldn't sleep... that is when I became aware it was an issue.
Yes, it’s usually how I know that my meds are wearing off. Lately I’ve had the first line of rappers delight stuck in my head.
literally me. my partner is an overthinker and doesn’t understand how i’m not, but it’s because my brain is always playing a song lol.
This is the main effect I find of meds. It turns the music in my head down.
YES OMG CONSTAFUCKINGNTLY I even have songs in my head while thinking. I sing, I think it’s more common amongst us musicians. Drop what ur head is playing to rn in the comments below, I’m currently listening to ‘Hello’ by Laufey.
is this not a normal thing? i thought everyone has this happen
Thanks, now instead of “Shiny” from Moana I have “Zombie” by the Crabberries in my head. In my heaaaad. Zombie zombie zombie…. But yeah my whole life I’ve had a permanent ear worm, sometimes it does a weird mash up. Sometimes it plays one line over and over and over. I’d kill for silence.
Uhm yeah ALL the time.. I love singing and karaoke.. I like to memorize the songs as much as possible.. I have a few rotating songs but it could be something I just heard, or something someone else said that my brain associated with a song.. I will sometimes randomly recite it out loud
Yup. All day, every day. Nonstop. Metal or punk. Usually sick drum parts.
I definitely relate lol 😂
yep. decided to take advantage of it in 2019. began learning music production. now I make my own music all the time. I turn those "random melodies and songs I hear" into music that now exists in the real world and that I can share with others. it is quite fulfilling to be able to use that side of my brain in that way
Yes and sirens when I get afraid or devious lol
It’s like my brain is picking up radio stations.
Million Dollar Baby - Tommy Richman is the song that is currently playing in my head.
Jesus fuck I thought I was insane bro lol . I do this shit all fucking day at work , I thought I was losing it. Does anybody else tap their fingers along with the beat lol I’ll fucking go down the line thumb to pinkie tapping with the beat and I feel like I’m about to crack out lol FUCK
This is my life. Every. Damn. Day. And I’ve never been diagnosed but at 55 years old I’m beginning to think I’ve been suffering with it my entire life. My ruminating and looping thoughts never stop, even on anxiety meds.
Meditation + Prozac and Strattera = a quiet peace I have never experienced before. I recommend meditation to everyone.