For as long as I can remember Ive always had music in my head. Until i was in my early 20s I couldn't change the song though. I would get horribly depressed by my inability to get a particular song out of my head. And when I say 'in my head' I mean playing non-stop for as long as Im awake. From the moment I start until the moment I finish its never ending.(I will never ever be able to hear "space oddity" by Bowie again without cringing. 3 days on a camping trip. Shoot-me-now.). The only trick I've found is that certain songs are more 'sticky' than others. If I get a bad one playing I can usually change to a more sticky one that I can tolerate.

For years I wondered if it was some form of mental illness. Now Im starting to think that its an ADD thing. My brain found something to focus on and uses it to the max. I was reading somewhere (here?) that many ADD types will become compulsive worriers as worry gives them something strong to concentrate on. I think I have something else.

When I was a kid I couldn't tolerate music at all. I would have to cover my ears and run from the room. Something about it was just overpowering. Adolescence helped with that I guess.

Has anyone else's brain found a something to 'keep it together'?

Very similar experiences to me here. Post later when able to.

I have the same thing...I wake up every morning with music in my head, depending on the song, it drives my crazy! I don't even know where it comes from (don't have a clock radio or anything). The more annoying the more it sticks...

I absolutely hate commercials (tv, radio, etc)! If I overhear one of those annoying commercials with a silly jangle it gets stuck in my head for hours. Sometimes the radio is ok when I'm driving, but I'd rather just have a good CD in...so my brain doesn't get infected by any non-choice music :)

Good question...I wonder if this is common for ADDers?

ETHR: I definitely have trouble with with controlling what my brain does and doesn't latch on to. I am a compulsive worrier, but anxiety is common in many add adults (on Celexa now, this has helped immensely). I personally don't believe that ADD, and anxiety are mental illnesses (I could be wrong tho): my intelligence and personality are pretty stable and intact, these issues are inconvenient for me, but not unmanageable. Anyway, don't be too hard on yourself...if you had a serious mental illness, chances are you wouldn't have the insight to even question that as a possibility. Again, I'm no doctor, but my mom has Borderline Personality Disorder, and has no clue...she is convinced that everyone else is crazy and that she is normal!

I hear music, but I can usually change it. With out it I have a hard time concentrating, I think it helps keep my brain busy while I do other stuff. I also listen to conversations ive had and try to gather meaning, and at other times wish I hadent said things. Im very responsive to catchy sounds, so some stuff does get stuck in my head and i wish it wouldnt.

I have that too and i use to fantacize that the music was just in the background and there was a movie being made about me.

i have it too, but thank goodness the song changes or id go nuts. lol

It used to be songs or commercials all the time. one would get stuck and play over, and over, and...yeah. Even when i was trying to go to sleep.

Since the XR it has gotten pretty quiet, which is nice.

I guess one could say 95 % of the time I am awake, there is a song in my head. I cannot listen to ANYONE talk without it awakening a song inside. (Even during church...and they aren't hymns that start playing)

If I were in conversation and someone said the word...satisfaction. I would then, in my head sing...I can't get no (da-na-na) satisfaction (da-na-na).
Or the word, bad: I could go with Michael Jackson "Bad" or "Had a bad day..." etc....

My brother, 12 years my senior and a talented musician, taught me to appreciate good music as a child. In Kindergarten, I loved Queen and American Bandstand was my favorite show. My friends listened to...Elmo sing, Sesame street, or something kiddie. Not me, the eclectic one!!! Maybe it's all the exposure and knowledge of lyrics. That's what I have always thought, but maybe it is the hyperfocusing of ADD.

When in high school, I had the need to know EVERY word of EVERY song on a CD. I got over that...praise GOD!

Learning to play music does help a bit.. though I had to learn not to be overly frustrated when I couldn't play what I was making up in my head.

Question: do you hear all the parts of a song or just specific components? (IE bass line, drums, winds, etc) Do you loop through a section or riff or is your recall more 'eidetic' (or the auditory equivalent)?

<quote>I also listen to conversations ive had and try to gather meaning, and at other times wish I hadent said things.</quote> Oh man. That's a huge topic in and of itself. My wife and I joke that we can't go to a gathering without a 2:1 amount of time post-processing every discussion, nuance, glance, etc. Its crazy. I tell myself that it will be ok and try to repeat the Seuss adage about '.. say what you think..do what you feel.. ' (I don't want to misquote it). Never seems to work well though.

Same way here. If I hear a song or a jingle to a commercial it's stuck with me for an indeterminate amount of time and drives me nutty. I didn't realize it was an ADD thing though.

I also talk over conversations in my mind.

premeds there was always some kind of noise going on in my head.... music, conversations, arguements ( pre and post), any and every noise you can imagine....

I would drive myself into sensory overload just from the noise in my head.....


luckily for me things have been much quieter since starting vyvanse....

At the school where I teach we have passing time music that is played for the last minute of all five passing times (so the kids know to get moving). They change the song every couple of months but it is often a really catchy well-known song. I'd be singing that part of the song over and over and over all day at school and at home. The worst one was the theme song from Saved by the Bell. Mission Impossible wasn't great either.

Right now I LOVE the music because it is an obscure song that I can't even remember when I get home. (However I still sing it in my head during school but I'll take what I can get.)

I tend to get songs stuck in my head too, but I think a lot of people do that. There is nothing wrong with it, I find it entertaining. Yea it might a be little more intense having ad.d. and so many thoughts, but o weel.

Do you guys tend to stick to a certain kind of music that you listen to as well? Something that really stimulates you? I also don't even listen to lyrics in songs like a lot of people do.. I rarely analyze them because I'm so distraccted by the sound of the music. I have to look up the lyrics in print to actually get the point of a song. Oh yea can't remember the lyrics either if I try to sing them unless I listen to the song repetively enough, usually I can only remember the chorus.

yes i always need to have some sort of music playing over and over in my head.

if i dont... the silence worries me. I'm not sure why.



For as long as I can remember Ive always had music in my head. Until i was in my early 20s I couldn't change the song though. I would get horribly depressed by my inability to get a particular song out of my head. And when I say 'in my head' I mean playing non-stop for as long as Im awake. From the moment I start until the moment I finish its never ending.(I will never ever be able to hear "space oddity" by Bowie again without cringing. 3 days on a camping trip. Shoot-me-now.). The only trick I've found is that certain songs are more 'sticky' than others. If I get a bad one playing I can usually change to a more sticky one that I can tolerate.

For years I wondered if it was some form of mental illness. Now Im starting to think that its an ADD thing. My brain found something to focus on and uses it to the max. I was reading somewhere (here?) that many ADD types will become compulsive worriers as worry gives them something strong to concentrate on. I think I have something else.

When I was a kid I couldn't tolerate music at all. I would have to cover my ears and run from the room. Something about it was just overpowering. Adolescence helped with that I guess.

Has anyone else's brain found a something to 'keep it together'?

Ethr's account - especially the section on not being able to change the tune - reminds me of the first section of Oliver Sacks' recent volume on music and the brain, Musicophilia (http://www.amazon.com/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Oliver-Sacks/dp/1400040817/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207913165&sr=8-1). Might be worth a closer look.

OMG! I'm ******* going crazy with this same thing! I've always had music in my head. I'm always singing or whistling ALL DAY LONG, mostly ay work. Although it seems to have gotten much worse since my Doc increased my Adderral XR. I was taking 20 mg a day, she increased it to 30 a day. I love the song "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" but I'm not so crazy about it after a couple of hours of looping in my head! I think the only time the music shuts off is when I'm asleep. The very minute I awake, the soundtrack starts all over again. YIPPPEEE! Do you think the increase in meds might be responsible? I would dearly love to hear silence once more... Thanks for listening. Peace-

Don

5



5 dollar





5 dollar foot long

OMG, another thread of similarities..

I posted about this actually in another thread.

Immediately I wake up with a song in my head. Sometimes this goes on for hours, and turns on when I go to sleep. ughh..

How do I stop this?

I tried focalin, but made me feel crappy.

Oooooh. I think I always have something "musical" ruminating through my mind. It's not usually a song though most of the time, it's a rhythm or a rif of a song. All day, and all night long. My toes tap, my jaw grinds, my fingers; I play the flute and I work the fingerings of the rhythm by tapping my fingers on the steering wheel, the keyboard, or my other fingers. I had to stop reading the thread to take note of all that was involved. Gads my whole body gets involved, doesn't it? TMI???!!! I have OCD anxiety tendencies, and I am pretty sure it's all part of that in my chemistry. Is there a med for this?

I USE it, I can't live without it.
.......it's the only constant organized thought pattern I got.

I love it. I need it.

I have the same thing...I wake up every morning with music in my head, depending on the song, it drives my crazy! I don't even know where it comes from (don't have a clock radio or anything). The more annoying the more it sticks...

I absolutely hate commercials (tv, radio, etc)! If I overhear one of those annoying commercials with a silly jangle it gets stuck in my head for hours. Sometimes the radio is ok when I'm driving, but I'd rather just have a good CD in...so my brain doesn't get infected by any non-choice music :)

I feel your pain! This is me, too. Always music in my head, most often something I don't like and it drives me batty! The worst is when I don't know many of the lyrics or don't remember all of the melody - it will loop through what I do know over and over and over. Sometimes, for days! LOL

I drive my BF nuts muting the TV every time a commercial with an annoying jingle comes on - and I find most of them annoying. That creditreport.com guy is lucky I don't know where he lives! :p

WOWWWWW! It is AMAZING to read this -- I know I'm not alone but the things y'all describe are so TRUE! I'm an un-formally-diagnosed ADHD person (I believe I have it) and am talking with a doc tomorrow, but -- my family has always been into music in some way,

and we sing a lot, and my brother and I, who work together, are always singing a song relating to something someone said, or changing the lyrics of a song to something not-so-nice or something funny...one guy I knew had written a song called "Don't P*** Me Off," and I started singing the Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down," with the words of his song title. Everyone there died laughing. But I do have songs that go 'round in loops; when I feel really bad they drive me nuts, otherwise I don't mind.

But I would suspect there's one going, like a radio or, indeed, a soundtrack to life, in my head almost all the time.

Mary Jo (my pic is partial -- it's the best I can find right now!)

I had never given this really any thought, other than noticing it all the time.

Is this stuff NOT normal???

......I'm singing or humming all the time.. and I hate when my kids tell me to be quiet.

I change lyrics to songs.. lol

I also write..... and have actually recorded 2 of my own songs.

Although I've never once had anyone say to me that they thought I was ADHD.

i have over 500 cds....and am always looking for chances to listen to them...it helps to change the songs i get stuck in my head

This morning's song is a delightful little ditty that I'm fairly certain hasn't crossed my mind in years! What struck me as noteworthy about it is I am hearing it half in French and half in English.

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
Bing bang boom. Bing bang boom.

The really weird thing is that even though I'm hearing "bing bang boom" I'm seeing the French "din dan don." I remember being annoyed in high school French class to find everyone else learned the song as "ding dang dong" - no clue where "bing bang boom" came from. Maybe some Hoosier thang. :p

"Low Spark of High Heeled Boys"

Long version or "radio edited" version - the longer one is about 20 minutes it ain't to too bad but the short version is a *****!



absolutely hate commercials (tv, radio, etc)! If I overhear one of those annoying commercials with a silly jangle it gets stuck in my head for hours.


The Vontage commercial AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!




I definitely have trouble with with controlling what my brain does and doesn't latch on to.

I nominate the above for understatement of the year - I have always felt like my brain had a mind of it's own.

The Vontage commercial AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

OMG yes!! I HATE that!!! Also, the Garnier Fructise - I'll never use their products because of the annoying commercials. :mad: :p

OMG yes!! I HATE that!!! Also, the Garnier Fructise - I'll never use their products because of the annoying commercials. :mad: :p

whoever invented the mute button... had ADD'ers and those with SID in mind.. lmbo

I can't stand the vonage commercials. ....