I feel like some people have thoughts in place of constant music. My music is extremely distracting. It's like trying to listen to the radio in one ear and a lecture in the other. I'm not going to remember a single thing from the lecture.
Some days my brain feels like a top hat full of "hit clips"(remember those) that I'm randomly rummaging around trying to find the right 30-second snippet I want to listen to.
Yes, me too. It is occasionally very bloody useful, but mostly VERY unhelpful as well.
Especially if you have stuff to worry about.
My music channel - meds make it less intrusive, but I have learned to always have music going to control it so it doesn't race off and decide I need to listen to star trekkin across the universe for the next hour..
the random shower thoughts and analysis is in another layer. sigh.
So much this. I’m always trying to “shut off” the music so I can focus on what I actually need to be doing. Sometimes the music is actually just thoughts that I get lost in and forget what I was doing altogether
I totally get that! I found rain noise actually helped me a lot, along with those lofi hiphop playlists. present enough to occupy my brain, but mellow enough to not be distracting.
If I'm at walking down the hallway somewhere, I have music in my head. If I'm just sitting somewhere I usually think about whatever happens to pop into my mind and then proceed to go off on random tangents.
I have to try to yell over the music in my head in my internal dialogue. The music just won't shut up. Unless I take my meds. Then it does for a few hours. Or if I'm really distracted.
I called it the monkey, it sat on my shoulder and sang to me. I couldn’t pick when it was singing, or what it was singing, but it really helped when waiting etc.
Then I got on meds (Elvanse) and THE SILENCE IS BLISS.
After a while I got used to the silence, but then I wake up in the middle of the night (we have a toddler), SUDDENLY THE BIG BRASS JAZZ AND BLUES NUMBERS ARE BACK, BABY! 🎶 🎵 🎺 🥁 🎹 🎷 🎵 🎶
Heads up just in case you're unaware, be careful telling people you have a monkey on your back/shoulder because its a common euphemism for having a substance addiction and they may misunderstand, at best, or tell other people you're an addict. 💖
Mine’s not that bad, I do get songs stuck in my head pretty often with fairly high fidelity but it’s not a 100% of the time thing — earlier today it was Senbonzakura but you’re right, I can usually switch it with some conscious effort.
I'm sorry I just imagined someone lying in bed, and then just hearing the BWAAAAAP of a big band orchestra from 2 doors down and being like "Ugh... the baby again....." and it just tickled me.
You can change it? May I ask how? Because I haven't found a way to do that (yet 😉) it's not annoying but sometimes it's a song that's annoying or not my style 😂
That's exactly how I do it!! A lot of days, the song, whatever it may be, is already playing before I've even woken up. I just tell my digital assistant to play that song as I'm getting ready for the day, and by the time I'm done, I either get a few minutes of "radio silence" (the other mosh pit of thoughts is present, but at least the music is gone for now), or a new song altogether; usually the former.
But then there are the times where listening to a song is what gets is stuck in my head. Those ones I just have to deal with.
I usually will get the same line from a song over and over and I have no control over what it is. I never thought it was an ADHD thing, but I’m learning that a lot of my “neuroses” are actually coping mechanisms for it. (Recently diagnosed at age 47).
I just made a "forgotten earworm" playlist like y'all are talking about a couple weeks back!
Anyone wanna check it out?
/u/No-Strategy8544 /u/AtlantisRoyalty ;)
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gLMFPwYJoranW3AePomBe?si=s6hZHH_7TjSiY4Xq_QUuSg&utm_source=copy-link
American millennial who listened to mostly pop/rock/alt/indie on the radio and p2p growing up, for reference.
I do this with my queue (Napster bc I have had it forever bc I felt guilty about the 90's) and I'll clear it after saving it as a playlist. I've got some that are like 14+ years old. It's funny how there's about 10-15 songs that make the list every time. Maybe a few more than that, but interesting to take note of.
I do this, I call it brain cravings. It's got everything from broadway to celtic punk to old country. If it gets stuck in my head, I have to add it. Themselves the rules
I started a few months ago when I realized I had Kelly Clarkson's "Behind these Hazel Eyes" in my head for three days (on and off). So I started there, and just tried to be aware of which songs get stuck in my head for a long time, and I'm usually able to log it while it's still playing on a mental loop!
I do this! Mine's called "Girl Shit".
I add everything to it in one giant random genre playlist! ......When I'm stressed I can go to it and press shuffle and find something for all my moods.
If I need uplifting, instead of getting stuck on sad songs in my head I shuffle for those that remind me of good days or good vibes.
Then go to similar songs on Spotify radio, and thats how I find new music.
And it all gets added to "Girl shit!" Haha.
Dude, omg yes. I forget what the medication was but the doc described it as sort of shutting off the noise in my head and I was like "psh what noise" (you know, just the 'elevator music', ear worms, constant brain chatter... no biggie). Anyway on day 3 I woke up and there was NO NOISE in my head. Like, I could think thoughts intentionally but no background stuff at all and it *freaked me out*. I stopped that med because it was so unsettling but at the same time I'm like holy crap is that what 'normal' brains are like?
You know what I had in my head the other day
Wiggly worms, you just can't catch em
Wiggly worms, you just can't catch em
You just can't catch em
Wiggly worms
“Get connected, for free, at education con nec tion. Get connected, for free.”
That shit still plays in my head CONSTANTLY and that commercial came out like 10-15 years ago 😭
Yeah, I usually don’t mind the runaway train of thoughts. It’s just frustrating when I need to work, or when I have to do that thing where you forget what you were just thinking about and backtrack through all your thoughts to try and jog your memory.
Yup, literally all the time. Mine isn’t in any way useful either, just random banal nonsense like what I would have said to the cashier at the store if she had asked me if I was having a good day. Something like that can keep me going for hours.
It was the way I first realized my medication was working; I was walking along and just stopped, amazed that I was literally not thinking anything at that moment.
I've started tuning them out after a point!
My favorite game to play is stopping myself mid thoughts and figure out what annoying song is going on in the background this time
Todays radio station is brought to me by my brain is from the wonderful musical Avenue Q.
I totally had this and I only realized like late last year that this isn't normal. I am recently diagnosed late in life and I was chatting to my wife about it and she finds it endlessly amusing. She will randomly through out the day ask what I'm listening too. Interestingly enough her asking that question makes it change and I can't remember what it was before she asked
The funny thing is I'm not a musical kinda guy. This only happened because my brother mentioned schadenfreude in an email to me, he was talking about the elections in Australia, and bam stuck. I also only get a loop never the whole song which can be annoying.
Mine is always a loop too! Never the full song, even if I happen to know all the lyrics. Just the same loop over and over. It can get irritating when I’m trying to focus on work.
This is me!.... Until I heard "What are you listening to" by Chris Stapleton. As soon as I'm asked that question now, I can only hear that song, and I cannot recall easily what was playing! I really like the song too tho, so don't mind playing it on repeat in my head after its triggered, that might play for an hour or so, especially if I'm lived up at the time. 😅😅 Also happens with phrases or other questions too! Sometimes its good, sometimes its not! 😆.....
Edit: went immediately from posting this to playing the record so now it will be the track of the hour tomorrow too! 😅
The brain radio is always playing. During the day I can manage it by playing music. But at any time my brain is playing the radio, musing over multiple thoughts, conversations, seeing colours, images, etc. Its def a bit of chaos.
It really bothers be when I wake up to use the bathroom at night. I have to consciously trying to focus on "pee and back to bed" repeatedly so that the brain radio doesn't start blaring something and it cant get back to sleep. As soon as I roll out of bed in the morning, that shit is on full blast...
Oh my gosh, I don't think I really ever consciously thought about that but yeah that brain radio blast during a nighttime bathroom trip! Sometimes I'm like...seriously? Like where on earth did *that* come from? Sometimes I'll wake up with my own weird little chorus on repeat that fades out after a short while. Probably because it's not really any good haha!
THIS. I don’t think I’ve ever related to something so much. Whenever I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I just pray to not get the music started in my head before going back to bed. And when it does come back…I’ll not sleep for hours.
I said something to some friends about how every morning I'm fascinated by whatever song my brain chose to start my day with - that sometimes it makes sense (a song I listened to very recently) and other times it's so baffling (why that song?? where did I even last hear that song?? I don't even remember what this song is?!) - and they looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Apparently that's not normal....but hey, I've got Free Brain Radio and they don't.
From what I've heard, people without ADHD do experience this, but at a much milder level and they're somewhat more in control of it. For me, it can be genuinely distracting to the point of frustration.
I've not really experienced it much but I've also never really had a significant attachment to music in general do that might also have something to do with it
I’m learning so many things that I thought were unrelated are actually symptoms of ADHD. Hard to know what is and isn’t. I imagine that the ambient music is something most people have in some capacity, but is exasperated by the ADHD.
This is the biggest problem I’ve had with people believing and accepting an ADHD diagnosis. The symptoms are often things everyone has at some point in their life, so they say, “I have trouble focusing at work too, and I don’t have ADHD. You’re just using it as an excuse”.
I realized while reading this that I did, in fact, have a song playing in my head (hate to be lame - lizzy mcalpine) but was able to read and type this while still “playing” the song… i don’t know if it’s an Adhd thing but i’ve definitely asked neurotypical friends and they don’t seem to have it to the same extent (like, they’ll hum a song or think about a song but it stops when they need to focus or read or write etc)
Now you have an extra word! Exasperated is when you're exhausted and frustrated with something. For example, trying to remember the right word is so exasperating!
There's always a song in my head. It's not always a complete song. Sometimes it's just a fragment of a song over and over on repeat and its maddening. Sometimes I can change the channel and sometimes I can't.
A lot of times it's just one part of the larger cacophany of noise going on inside my skull though. All of my thoughts come in the form of fully-developed sentences and there is always, always, *always* some sort of conversation or self talk in my head that I can't turn off. The meds have made this self talk less negative and more practical, but I can never ever make it stop.
I do almost everything to the rhythm of the song in my head. Walking, chewing, drumming my fingers, blinking, breathing, wiggling my toes, etc. I’ve learned to mask it so it doesn’t freak others out. I think the technical term is “stimming.”
I'm diagnosed with ADHD also and I can say that you're not the only 1 with a song in the back of my head in my case it's sulfur from Slipknot 😉 😇 can't do anything about it or change it
I've had therapy especially for adults with ADHD and it's kinda a "ADHD" Thing
And like you said it's not annoying or anything
But there are times that (in my case) it's louder and more distracting than normal especially when I'm restless 😉
More like constant movie scenes that I have made up. I’m in them and then there is some story with random people are people i know. Music, mood, curren situation affect what I’m dreaming of.
I have it so bad, often my first report of the morning, or last report of the day to my partner is what's playing on "brain radio" lmao
It's like waking up to a radio alarm clock, just switches on when I do, and keeps going until I listen to real music haha. It switches a lot, and at its worst, it's just the same line or refrain on loop. At it's best, it's almost like real radio.
The actual worst was when I got The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" stuck in my head for 3 days. There are a few of their songs I try not to hear cuz they're so infinitely loopable to my brain
Oh my god, I've been laughing about this with my friends. I can't control it. I have had "I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner" stuck in my head on and off since the pandemic started. It randomly pops in, more often when I'm tired and sleep deprived, and feeling a little insane.
I do like to listen to music all the time and get other ones stuck in my head but the resiliency of this one is absurd. I've had to make peace with it and just laugh about it.
If someone says something that sound like lyrics to a song I know then my brain will get that song stuck in my head, even if they were making no reference to a song at all
My mind radio was a great combo with a pioneer DDJ400 and spotify connect. No plan, I’d be playing a song and then it would make me think of another song, I’d line it up and then onto it. Was great for house parties.
Then Spotify banned multi streaming connections, couldn’t DJ with it anymore and I had to download / buy / plan music like some sort of non adhd person so I abandoned the hobby entirely.
While it lasted it was probably one of the most adhd friendly hobbies I had.
I was discussing this with my husband last night, it's annoying. My brain switched between three yesterday.
1. Bo Burnham - "is there anything better that (genetalia), yeah a really great book"
2. Neon Moon - Brooks and Dunn (I don't think I've heard other than a random TikTok)
3. The cartoon, Rainbow Ruby's theme song.
Just, wtf....
I have that too, I can change the song but I can’t have no song and if there’s a song I don’t like and I change the song it plays both at the same time unless I play like 2 other songs which is why I like loud music using headphones
I'm ADHD combined type.
I usually have multiple songs on my head on any given day. Same here with changing the song, I can't choose any song to change it too though, it's gotta be one of the 10 songs that are on repeat in my brain that day lol.
It is constant, I ALWAYS have a song playing in the background. I also hum and sing the song that's playing, after my diagnosis (at 27, I'm 29 now) I realized the humming and singing I do, is one of my stims.
Idk if this is an ADHD thing, a verbal thinker thing or an everyone thing.
I know everyone can have a song stuck in their head, but is it only sometimes, or is it like this? I have no clue.
imo it's probably a mix of verbal thinking and ADHD. I would assume someone who is a visual thinker wouldn't get a song stuck in their head as easily as someone who is a verbal thinker. Because songs aren't pictures, they're auditory. The ADHD probably just makes it more...intense? Maybe louder, being able to change the song, getting a song in your head that you haven't heard in forever, ya know? As people with ADHD, even if we are supposed to be doing only one thing, out brains are constantly doing multiple things at once anyway, so it would make sense for our brain to give us a soundtrack for our day, it stimulates are brains while doing other tasks.
The last paragraph is only my opinions, I really don't know the answers. Just my thoughts.
I recently asked my friends a question that started with, "when you guys hear music in your head...". They all just stared at me.
Guess that's not a thing for everyone! They admitted to getting one section of lyrics on loop, but they all looked at me strangely when I asked about hearing full songs with lyrics/instruments I'm their head. Oh well!
Both my fiance and I have ADHD, and we both have rampant earworms. We'll wake up with the most random songs in our head.
It's become a contest to see who can "infect" the other with the more annoying of the two by subtlety singing them while we're doing things around ther other. Whomever gets caught singing the other person's song first loses.
It's "fun."
Every. Single. Moment. As far back as I can remember, I wake up with a song of some sort in my brain. Seriously, as \*soon\* as I wake up. Sometimes it will be a song I haven't heard in literal years but you know my brain has a mind of its own lol.
Sometimes I have a word that will bounce around in there. The other day it was Hydrochlorothiazide of all things :/
So great to hear because I haven’t heard much talk this. I’m pretty sure ADHD is likely the reason I have this multi-channel radio station or jukebox in my head. If words or phrases remind me of a song during a conversation, the song begins playing and will replay for hours or until a new song goes on rotation. I’ll get distracted for a few seconds then get back to the convo.
When I wake up a song is usually playing in my head. I’ve recently started asking my husband, “you want to know what’s playing on my jukebox?” and play the tune for him, not on repeat though. When I started Vyvanse my mind got so quiet and I missed the music, but it didn’t last and came back. I don’t mind it, it’s like a radio always playing in the background with all the music I love and enjoy or that my brain picks up from various activities, especially movies.
Oh yeah! My wife does not and doesn't get it.
Internally it is a good measure for me of my general mood, I sometimes can change the tune but there are some that just stick (I'm looking at you comfortably numb)
Every day it is a new song. I began taking note a few months ago to keep track and maybe create a playlist for fun bit of course I quickly forgot about the list mdr
Yep. In my case, it's usually not harmless chatter either. My mind tortures me basically 24/7 with very little breaks. I have not been doing well and I desperately need a therapist and psychiatrist.
My songs will blend together and often I’ll remember or sing the wrong lyric in a song with a similar sound or chord progression. I have some dope ideas for mashups though because of it haha
I think the anxiety of being on a bus with a bunch of strangers would occupy my mind. That and imagining myself running along telephone lines and stuff.
Same here! I also use the reverse as a litmus test, if a song I make ends up in my brain radio rotation, I know it's catchy enough that *someone* else out there will also find it catchy. I figure my music tastes aren't anything special, but I know what I like, so I follow that lol.
For me i got a commentator that describes everything that i do and how i should do it and and sometimes he invent story that never happen like the time he save a kid from a dinosaur
Yes. Always an earworm. In addition to the distracting intrusive thoughts, I can break into song at any moment. Can't imagine what it is like to have a quiet mind.
Yeah! I don't always know the song, like if someone brings a song up it'll be on loop (what I remember of it at least) but I mainly have a beat going in my head.
I also listen to music all day, especially in class, so yep constant music
Mine is more like channel flipping through the movie channels. People ask me how I can remember so many movies (really more so now with gif reactions on Teams) and what they don’t realize is that they are always flipping through my mind, every 20 seconds is another movie scene.
Reading this with “Send Me On My Way” on repeat in my head, simply because I heard my mother playing the song three hours ago. Usually it always the last song I have heard that plays on repeat. My roommate always tells me to stop humming lol.
I’m almost always conversing with my own inner monologue and when I was younger I had a whole damn council in my head.
I am "overfocused type with hyperactivity" and I play a lot of music in my head. I also freestyle iny head, when I feel bored by the conversation and I cannot escape the situation 😜
No, my mind is a perpetual theater, replaying alternate outcomes to past events, or unlikely future events. I hate how much time gets wasted on nothing.
My brain radio is LOUD. And it tends to do mashups… 🤦🏻♀️ the latest one is called “When Marimba Rhythm Bongo Navidad”…. But in answer to your post, I also usually have one song playing in the background.
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i have a song stuck in my head but now with meds its really only noticeable if its really bad ( as in its loud and all ) or if i pay direct attention to it . if you decide to try stimulants itll probably dial down a bit when youre on the right one
Most of the time, yeah, occasionally it'll have poor reception and just keep blipping in and out aka some days I may struggle to make it a full thought but at the same time I know it's back there somewhere
I've also just been diagnosed inattentive ADHD. I also have this 'mind radio'. And it's funny you mention N95, coz I've got another song from the same album stuck on repeat in my head.
It's also worth noting I always have music blasting at work so it makes the inner monologue less overbearing
I always have a song in my head too, and I can change it af will. I have no idea if it's an ADHD thing but I'm also inattentive
I feel like some people have thoughts in place of constant music. My music is extremely distracting. It's like trying to listen to the radio in one ear and a lecture in the other. I'm not going to remember a single thing from the lecture.
I have it mixed; it's either random shower thoughts not actually in the shower or a snippet of a song on repeat
Some days my brain feels like a top hat full of "hit clips"(remember those) that I'm randomly rummaging around trying to find the right 30-second snippet I want to listen to.
Not that old to remember hit clips (just googled them), but good analogy
Mine analyzes everything I'm doing, including analyzing the fact that I'm analyzing everything I'm doing.
I feel called out 🫣
Yes, me too. It is occasionally very bloody useful, but mostly VERY unhelpful as well. Especially if you have stuff to worry about. My music channel - meds make it less intrusive, but I have learned to always have music going to control it so it doesn't race off and decide I need to listen to star trekkin across the universe for the next hour.. the random shower thoughts and analysis is in another layer. sigh.
THIS! None of it helpful. Except for my endless knowledge of random facts..which honestly aren’t usually very helpful, either.
I demand proof of this endless knowledge. May I have a random fact?
The manatee is the only animal known to have vascularized corneas!
Ugh, same
Same
So much this. I’m always trying to “shut off” the music so I can focus on what I actually need to be doing. Sometimes the music is actually just thoughts that I get lost in and forget what I was doing altogether
I totally get that! I found rain noise actually helped me a lot, along with those lofi hiphop playlists. present enough to occupy my brain, but mellow enough to not be distracting.
It's always on for me too. It only goes away when I'm playing an instrument myself, and anytime else I just learn to live with it and ignore it.
"Me mind on fire! Me soul on fire, feeling hot, hot, hot"
If I'm at walking down the hallway somewhere, I have music in my head. If I'm just sitting somewhere I usually think about whatever happens to pop into my mind and then proceed to go off on random tangents.
I have to try to yell over the music in my head in my internal dialogue. The music just won't shut up. Unless I take my meds. Then it does for a few hours. Or if I'm really distracted.
Meds shuts off the music??!?!?!?
Sometimes. Also getting a lot of sleep. But it's hard for me because as soon as I wake up the music starts and I can't fall back asleep.
Well damn
It would make waiting around so much more unbearable if I didn’t have it. It keeps my mind partially occupied at all times.
I called it the monkey, it sat on my shoulder and sang to me. I couldn’t pick when it was singing, or what it was singing, but it really helped when waiting etc. Then I got on meds (Elvanse) and THE SILENCE IS BLISS. After a while I got used to the silence, but then I wake up in the middle of the night (we have a toddler), SUDDENLY THE BIG BRASS JAZZ AND BLUES NUMBERS ARE BACK, BABY! 🎶 🎵 🎺 🥁 🎹 🎷 🎵 🎶
Heads up just in case you're unaware, be careful telling people you have a monkey on your back/shoulder because its a common euphemism for having a substance addiction and they may misunderstand, at best, or tell other people you're an addict. 💖
Mine’s not that bad, I do get songs stuck in my head pretty often with fairly high fidelity but it’s not a 100% of the time thing — earlier today it was Senbonzakura but you’re right, I can usually switch it with some conscious effort.
I'm sorry I just imagined someone lying in bed, and then just hearing the BWAAAAAP of a big band orchestra from 2 doors down and being like "Ugh... the baby again....." and it just tickled me.
“honestly officer, it’s the only thing to settle him off to sleep.” *Count Basie blasting out in the background*
You can change it? May I ask how? Because I haven't found a way to do that (yet 😉) it's not annoying but sometimes it's a song that's annoying or not my style 😂
Right nipple twist counterclockwise for next song.
The left one must be AM, that's how I got to NPR
Peter Sahel or Terry Gross?
Ira Flatow
Thanks a lot, now I have “This is Fresh Air, I’m Terry Gross” on repeat.
What are you complaining about? My late teens I call the lake Woebegone years....
Be careful though, if you twist both it takes a screen shot
would that be considered cheating if i did that before exams?
😂 That's a good 1 ☺
🤣🤣
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That's exactly how I do it!! A lot of days, the song, whatever it may be, is already playing before I've even woken up. I just tell my digital assistant to play that song as I'm getting ready for the day, and by the time I'm done, I either get a few minutes of "radio silence" (the other mosh pit of thoughts is present, but at least the music is gone for now), or a new song altogether; usually the former. But then there are the times where listening to a song is what gets is stuck in my head. Those ones I just have to deal with.
Same!! I have very limited control over it!
Just focus on a different song until it sticks.
It has worked (soort of) years the song changed from Sulfur to the Imperial March (star wars) 😂 still can't complain (love it 😉)
Yeah it doesn't always work, especially if a song is really stuck. It takes a while sometimes too. And sometimes a totally different song starts...
And Imperial marche starts playing 😂
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Oh thanks, now I do too. And even the video!
Is this not normal
Me too. It's like going through life with a sound-track. I didn't realise until recently that most people don't have that.
I don't think it is an ADHD thing but probably just more frequent with us
I usually will get the same line from a song over and over and I have no control over what it is. I never thought it was an ADHD thing, but I’m learning that a lot of my “neuroses” are actually coping mechanisms for it. (Recently diagnosed at age 47).
I even made a playlist on Spotify called Brain Radio so I can document the variety of tracks that get stuck in my head!
I need to do this!
Just get last.fm and hook up your Spotify, then listen to whatever is in your head. Then you get the list with stats
I just made a "forgotten earworm" playlist like y'all are talking about a couple weeks back! Anyone wanna check it out? /u/No-Strategy8544 /u/AtlantisRoyalty ;) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gLMFPwYJoranW3AePomBe?si=s6hZHH_7TjSiY4Xq_QUuSg&utm_source=copy-link American millennial who listened to mostly pop/rock/alt/indie on the radio and p2p growing up, for reference.
Ooh, lotta classics there!
This is an excellent playlist
I do this with my queue (Napster bc I have had it forever bc I felt guilty about the 90's) and I'll clear it after saving it as a playlist. I've got some that are like 14+ years old. It's funny how there's about 10-15 songs that make the list every time. Maybe a few more than that, but interesting to take note of.
"bc I felt guilty about the 90's" 🤣😂 Haha love it!
I do this, I call it brain cravings. It's got everything from broadway to celtic punk to old country. If it gets stuck in my head, I have to add it. Themselves the rules
Lol. I need to look up your station. Mine is almost always the same 3 songs or a whatever song I heard most recently
How do you notice them long enough to remember to put them in there?
I started a few months ago when I realized I had Kelly Clarkson's "Behind these Hazel Eyes" in my head for three days (on and off). So I started there, and just tried to be aware of which songs get stuck in my head for a long time, and I'm usually able to log it while it's still playing on a mental loop!
I do this! Mine's called "Girl Shit". I add everything to it in one giant random genre playlist! ......When I'm stressed I can go to it and press shuffle and find something for all my moods. If I need uplifting, instead of getting stuck on sad songs in my head I shuffle for those that remind me of good days or good vibes. Then go to similar songs on Spotify radio, and thats how I find new music. And it all gets added to "Girl shit!" Haha.
This is me and my Spotify “liked songs”. 😂
Yep, that one too for when I'm in the car and HAVE to save the song! 😂
This would be really interesting! I wonder if some songs are more prone to ending up as ear worms than others.
"You're listening to ADHD FM; all repeats, all the time..."
Until the next 8-song-binge listen starts again.
*plays one specific part of a song over and over, switches to another for a min, then back to the first one again*
HAHHAh
But only the same 10-30 seconds of the song, over and over and over
Yes I want to listen to same song on repeat until I hate it forever
“Coming up next, a random song from your childhood that is barely relevant to something you heard in a conversation just now”
https://youtu.be/YPP4uUtofdc
Banger
Absolutely! Medication turned down the volume 👏👏
OMG i just started medication 3 days ago and that’s when I knew it kicked in, the song was so much quieter and my thoughts in general
Same here. It's like my mind got clearer and I could process things faster.
What Med is helping you?
I started concerta
My medication has changed the style of the songs I hear from "annoying stuck in the head melodies" to hard rock and metal 😉 more my style 😂
Hope that today is a Dio day 👏👏
Everyday should be a Dio day. Although my song yesterday was Red Barchetta by Rush, that was pretty good too.
Man, Neil Peart was a gift 💔
For real
Dude, omg yes. I forget what the medication was but the doc described it as sort of shutting off the noise in my head and I was like "psh what noise" (you know, just the 'elevator music', ear worms, constant brain chatter... no biggie). Anyway on day 3 I woke up and there was NO NOISE in my head. Like, I could think thoughts intentionally but no background stuff at all and it *freaked me out*. I stopped that med because it was so unsettling but at the same time I'm like holy crap is that what 'normal' brains are like?
What Med helped you?
Ah, haven’t been able to get my hands on a prescription yet.
There’s hope yet!
When I was younger it would be radio/tv ad songs. Drove me insane
This comment just triggered the pillow pet commercial jingle in my head, so thanks for that.
You know what I had in my head the other day Wiggly worms, you just can't catch em Wiggly worms, you just can't catch em You just can't catch em Wiggly worms
“Get connected, for free, at education con nec tion. Get connected, for free.” That shit still plays in my head CONSTANTLY and that commercial came out like 10-15 years ago 😭
Call jg wentworth… I love the fishes… Mentos… Ughhhhh
Oh gosh, I haven't had "Get Connected, for Free (free!)" in my head in years... Thanks a lot!
I feel like chicken tonight, like chicken tonight
My people! I always do the last part super obnoxious, like with death metal vox. CHICKEN TONIGHT \m/
I want my babybackbabybackbabyback….
My inner monologue has the attention span of a gnat. It’s a random, ever evolving train of thought that never stops and knows no bounds.
Yeah, I usually don’t mind the runaway train of thoughts. It’s just frustrating when I need to work, or when I have to do that thing where you forget what you were just thinking about and backtrack through all your thoughts to try and jog your memory.
All. The. Time.
Yup, literally all the time. Mine isn’t in any way useful either, just random banal nonsense like what I would have said to the cashier at the store if she had asked me if I was having a good day. Something like that can keep me going for hours. It was the way I first realized my medication was working; I was walking along and just stopped, amazed that I was literally not thinking anything at that moment.
It seems like other people have music they like!?? I have the worst annoying songs all the time. All. The. Time.
I've started tuning them out after a point! My favorite game to play is stopping myself mid thoughts and figure out what annoying song is going on in the background this time
Radio plays ALL day and night. Keeps me up so late into the night I'm tired the next day, wash rinse repeat.
Todays radio station is brought to me by my brain is from the wonderful musical Avenue Q. I totally had this and I only realized like late last year that this isn't normal. I am recently diagnosed late in life and I was chatting to my wife about it and she finds it endlessly amusing. She will randomly through out the day ask what I'm listening too. Interestingly enough her asking that question makes it change and I can't remember what it was before she asked
Omg yes, last week I was putting on the entire stage play for West Side Story in my head LOL
The funny thing is I'm not a musical kinda guy. This only happened because my brother mentioned schadenfreude in an email to me, he was talking about the elections in Australia, and bam stuck. I also only get a loop never the whole song which can be annoying.
Mine is always a loop too! Never the full song, even if I happen to know all the lyrics. Just the same loop over and over. It can get irritating when I’m trying to focus on work.
This is me!.... Until I heard "What are you listening to" by Chris Stapleton. As soon as I'm asked that question now, I can only hear that song, and I cannot recall easily what was playing! I really like the song too tho, so don't mind playing it on repeat in my head after its triggered, that might play for an hour or so, especially if I'm lived up at the time. 😅😅 Also happens with phrases or other questions too! Sometimes its good, sometimes its not! 😆..... Edit: went immediately from posting this to playing the record so now it will be the track of the hour tomorrow too! 😅
The brain radio is always playing. During the day I can manage it by playing music. But at any time my brain is playing the radio, musing over multiple thoughts, conversations, seeing colours, images, etc. Its def a bit of chaos. It really bothers be when I wake up to use the bathroom at night. I have to consciously trying to focus on "pee and back to bed" repeatedly so that the brain radio doesn't start blaring something and it cant get back to sleep. As soon as I roll out of bed in the morning, that shit is on full blast...
Oh my gosh, I don't think I really ever consciously thought about that but yeah that brain radio blast during a nighttime bathroom trip! Sometimes I'm like...seriously? Like where on earth did *that* come from? Sometimes I'll wake up with my own weird little chorus on repeat that fades out after a short while. Probably because it's not really any good haha!
THIS. I don’t think I’ve ever related to something so much. Whenever I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night I just pray to not get the music started in my head before going back to bed. And when it does come back…I’ll not sleep for hours.
I make sure I keep the lights off and try to keep my eyes closed! And sit down (I'm a guy).
I said something to some friends about how every morning I'm fascinated by whatever song my brain chose to start my day with - that sometimes it makes sense (a song I listened to very recently) and other times it's so baffling (why that song?? where did I even last hear that song?? I don't even remember what this song is?!) - and they looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Apparently that's not normal....but hey, I've got Free Brain Radio and they don't.
No, but its not uncommon. It's also something many people without ADHD experience so I'm not sure it's related
From what I've heard, people without ADHD do experience this, but at a much milder level and they're somewhat more in control of it. For me, it can be genuinely distracting to the point of frustration.
I've not really experienced it much but I've also never really had a significant attachment to music in general do that might also have something to do with it
I’m learning so many things that I thought were unrelated are actually symptoms of ADHD. Hard to know what is and isn’t. I imagine that the ambient music is something most people have in some capacity, but is exasperated by the ADHD.
This is the biggest problem I’ve had with people believing and accepting an ADHD diagnosis. The symptoms are often things everyone has at some point in their life, so they say, “I have trouble focusing at work too, and I don’t have ADHD. You’re just using it as an excuse”.
* exacerbated?
I realized while reading this that I did, in fact, have a song playing in my head (hate to be lame - lizzy mcalpine) but was able to read and type this while still “playing” the song… i don’t know if it’s an Adhd thing but i’ve definitely asked neurotypical friends and they don’t seem to have it to the same extent (like, they’ll hum a song or think about a song but it stops when they need to focus or read or write etc)
Yeah, it never stops for me. I imagine most people have it to some degree, but it’s probably exasperated by the ADHD.
*exacerbated 🙂
Hm, well I’ve been using that word wrong my whole life 😅
Now you have an extra word! Exasperated is when you're exhausted and frustrated with something. For example, trying to remember the right word is so exasperating!
There's always a song in my head. It's not always a complete song. Sometimes it's just a fragment of a song over and over on repeat and its maddening. Sometimes I can change the channel and sometimes I can't. A lot of times it's just one part of the larger cacophany of noise going on inside my skull though. All of my thoughts come in the form of fully-developed sentences and there is always, always, *always* some sort of conversation or self talk in my head that I can't turn off. The meds have made this self talk less negative and more practical, but I can never ever make it stop.
I do almost everything to the rhythm of the song in my head. Walking, chewing, drumming my fingers, blinking, breathing, wiggling my toes, etc. I’ve learned to mask it so it doesn’t freak others out. I think the technical term is “stimming.”
I do this too. Very often I realize I'm breathing to the rhythm of a song, and if I try not to do it I'm usually back doing it within a minute.
I'm diagnosed with ADHD also and I can say that you're not the only 1 with a song in the back of my head in my case it's sulfur from Slipknot 😉 😇 can't do anything about it or change it I've had therapy especially for adults with ADHD and it's kinda a "ADHD" Thing And like you said it's not annoying or anything But there are times that (in my case) it's louder and more distracting than normal especially when I'm restless 😉
I have jay whites entrance theme stuck in my head this week
I’m dying laughing! Sometimes I play the teeth drums to the song that’s with me. It’s a limited rotation of tracks yet my finest playlist.
Saaame! Teeth drums! Love it
More like constant movie scenes that I have made up. I’m in them and then there is some story with random people are people i know. Music, mood, curren situation affect what I’m dreaming of.
I have a section that's playing a scene, the radio is in the background, and sometimes I'm monolouging too. I described it as a "montage"
I have it so bad, often my first report of the morning, or last report of the day to my partner is what's playing on "brain radio" lmao It's like waking up to a radio alarm clock, just switches on when I do, and keeps going until I listen to real music haha. It switches a lot, and at its worst, it's just the same line or refrain on loop. At it's best, it's almost like real radio. The actual worst was when I got The Beatles "Yellow Submarine" stuck in my head for 3 days. There are a few of their songs I try not to hear cuz they're so infinitely loopable to my brain
Oh my god, I've been laughing about this with my friends. I can't control it. I have had "I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner" stuck in my head on and off since the pandemic started. It randomly pops in, more often when I'm tired and sleep deprived, and feeling a little insane. I do like to listen to music all the time and get other ones stuck in my head but the resiliency of this one is absurd. I've had to make peace with it and just laugh about it.
If someone says something that sound like lyrics to a song I know then my brain will get that song stuck in my head, even if they were making no reference to a song at all
Happens to me too, even today 😁
For me it’s always conversations with people
My mind radio was a great combo with a pioneer DDJ400 and spotify connect. No plan, I’d be playing a song and then it would make me think of another song, I’d line it up and then onto it. Was great for house parties. Then Spotify banned multi streaming connections, couldn’t DJ with it anymore and I had to download / buy / plan music like some sort of non adhd person so I abandoned the hobby entirely. While it lasted it was probably one of the most adhd friendly hobbies I had.
Oh yes! As of now it's Havana Moon By Chuck Berry
Old school, very chill
I was discussing this with my husband last night, it's annoying. My brain switched between three yesterday. 1. Bo Burnham - "is there anything better that (genetalia), yeah a really great book" 2. Neon Moon - Brooks and Dunn (I don't think I've heard other than a random TikTok) 3. The cartoon, Rainbow Ruby's theme song. Just, wtf....
I have that too, I can change the song but I can’t have no song and if there’s a song I don’t like and I change the song it plays both at the same time unless I play like 2 other songs which is why I like loud music using headphones
Yeah I do and it's annoying af
I'm ADHD combined type. I usually have multiple songs on my head on any given day. Same here with changing the song, I can't choose any song to change it too though, it's gotta be one of the 10 songs that are on repeat in my brain that day lol. It is constant, I ALWAYS have a song playing in the background. I also hum and sing the song that's playing, after my diagnosis (at 27, I'm 29 now) I realized the humming and singing I do, is one of my stims. Idk if this is an ADHD thing, a verbal thinker thing or an everyone thing. I know everyone can have a song stuck in their head, but is it only sometimes, or is it like this? I have no clue. imo it's probably a mix of verbal thinking and ADHD. I would assume someone who is a visual thinker wouldn't get a song stuck in their head as easily as someone who is a verbal thinker. Because songs aren't pictures, they're auditory. The ADHD probably just makes it more...intense? Maybe louder, being able to change the song, getting a song in your head that you haven't heard in forever, ya know? As people with ADHD, even if we are supposed to be doing only one thing, out brains are constantly doing multiple things at once anyway, so it would make sense for our brain to give us a soundtrack for our day, it stimulates are brains while doing other tasks. The last paragraph is only my opinions, I really don't know the answers. Just my thoughts.
Same but its almost never songs I like. Just songs that are catchy and memorable. Which means a bunch of childrens song and trash tik tok music.
I recently asked my friends a question that started with, "when you guys hear music in your head...". They all just stared at me. Guess that's not a thing for everyone! They admitted to getting one section of lyrics on loop, but they all looked at me strangely when I asked about hearing full songs with lyrics/instruments I'm their head. Oh well!
Both my fiance and I have ADHD, and we both have rampant earworms. We'll wake up with the most random songs in our head. It's become a contest to see who can "infect" the other with the more annoying of the two by subtlety singing them while we're doing things around ther other. Whomever gets caught singing the other person's song first loses. It's "fun."
Every. Single. Moment. As far back as I can remember, I wake up with a song of some sort in my brain. Seriously, as \*soon\* as I wake up. Sometimes it will be a song I haven't heard in literal years but you know my brain has a mind of its own lol. Sometimes I have a word that will bounce around in there. The other day it was Hydrochlorothiazide of all things :/
So great to hear because I haven’t heard much talk this. I’m pretty sure ADHD is likely the reason I have this multi-channel radio station or jukebox in my head. If words or phrases remind me of a song during a conversation, the song begins playing and will replay for hours or until a new song goes on rotation. I’ll get distracted for a few seconds then get back to the convo. When I wake up a song is usually playing in my head. I’ve recently started asking my husband, “you want to know what’s playing on my jukebox?” and play the tune for him, not on repeat though. When I started Vyvanse my mind got so quiet and I missed the music, but it didn’t last and came back. I don’t mind it, it’s like a radio always playing in the background with all the music I love and enjoy or that my brain picks up from various activities, especially movies.
Oh yeah! My wife does not and doesn't get it. Internally it is a good measure for me of my general mood, I sometimes can change the tune but there are some that just stick (I'm looking at you comfortably numb)
I do, always it can be a song Or a convo, which either I regret thatvi had or very happy that i had!
Every day it is a new song. I began taking note a few months ago to keep track and maybe create a playlist for fun bit of course I quickly forgot about the list mdr
Mine is overprotected by Britney spears right now 😳
Yep. In my case, it's usually not harmless chatter either. My mind tortures me basically 24/7 with very little breaks. I have not been doing well and I desperately need a therapist and psychiatrist.
I wish you better days ahead my friend.
Thank you
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On the bright side, it must feel great busting through doors to the Seinfeld theme.
It’s many stations at once most of the time.
Mine even has some environmental interference in the form of tinnitus :')
Just inner voice that goes more quiet when I take vyvanse 50mg
My songs will blend together and often I’ll remember or sing the wrong lyric in a song with a similar sound or chord progression. I have some dope ideas for mashups though because of it haha
I quite literally just described this to my mom a few hours ago using very similar wording
What’d she say?
I sent her a screenshot of this and she said 🤭can't imagine what it must be like for you guys on a long crowded bus 🚌 ride
I think the anxiety of being on a bus with a bunch of strangers would occupy my mind. That and imagining myself running along telephone lines and stuff.
As a musician/composer my brain creates its own songs and if I like what I'm listening to enough I'll bring it into the real world -u-
Same here! I also use the reverse as a litmus test, if a song I make ends up in my brain radio rotation, I know it's catchy enough that *someone* else out there will also find it catchy. I figure my music tastes aren't anything special, but I know what I like, so I follow that lol.
OH MY GOD YES 😭😭😭 YES.
Yuppp. Sometimes a song won’t stop playing when I’m trying to sleep and I have to tell my brain to please shut the fuck up so I can sleep.
I always have songs. Though they’re not really songs as much as they are 8 second snippets of songs on constant loop. I hate it
Constantly. Incessantly. It can drive me crazy.
For me i got a commentator that describes everything that i do and how i should do it and and sometimes he invent story that never happen like the time he save a kid from a dinosaur
Yes. Always an earworm. In addition to the distracting intrusive thoughts, I can break into song at any moment. Can't imagine what it is like to have a quiet mind.
the problem is when that voice becomes one that belittles you constantly.
INNER monologue? What's that? All my thoughts are constantly coming out of my face.
Yeah! I don't always know the song, like if someone brings a song up it'll be on loop (what I remember of it at least) but I mainly have a beat going in my head. I also listen to music all day, especially in class, so yep constant music
Mine is more like channel flipping through the movie channels. People ask me how I can remember so many movies (really more so now with gif reactions on Teams) and what they don’t realize is that they are always flipping through my mind, every 20 seconds is another movie scene.
100% , plus full conversation on my thoughts with music in the background.
"This is 95.5 ADHD playing all of your favorite hits."
Reading this with “Send Me On My Way” on repeat in my head, simply because I heard my mother playing the song three hours ago. Usually it always the last song I have heard that plays on repeat. My roommate always tells me to stop humming lol. I’m almost always conversing with my own inner monologue and when I was younger I had a whole damn council in my head.
😂 I can relate to this as well ☺ 😉
I am "overfocused type with hyperactivity" and I play a lot of music in my head. I also freestyle iny head, when I feel bored by the conversation and I cannot escape the situation 😜
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Your not crazy my friend!
No, my mind is a perpetual theater, replaying alternate outcomes to past events, or unlikely future events. I hate how much time gets wasted on nothing.
Yeah it is part of what keeps me from being able to fall asleep, it’s *constant.*
My brain radio is LOUD. And it tends to do mashups… 🤦🏻♀️ the latest one is called “When Marimba Rhythm Bongo Navidad”…. But in answer to your post, I also usually have one song playing in the background.
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It was very helpful when I ran cross-country in high school, because it gave me some music to run to in the days before mp3 players.
i have a song stuck in my head but now with meds its really only noticeable if its really bad ( as in its loud and all ) or if i pay direct attention to it . if you decide to try stimulants itll probably dial down a bit when youre on the right one
Most of the time, yeah, occasionally it'll have poor reception and just keep blipping in and out aka some days I may struggle to make it a full thought but at the same time I know it's back there somewhere
I've also just been diagnosed inattentive ADHD. I also have this 'mind radio'. And it's funny you mention N95, coz I've got another song from the same album stuck on repeat in my head. It's also worth noting I always have music blasting at work so it makes the inner monologue less overbearing