Music Playing in Head | ADHD Information
Just a thought (works for some people):
Trying to supress or stop thoughts is usually pretty difficult to do. What may work is instead of trying to stop the thought (running a memory of a song, conversation, or anything else is a nothing more than a thought), is to let the thought occur and just do not attach to it. Let it run in the background. By trying to stop it you are concentrating on it. This concenmtration only makes it stronger.
Just try to "turn down the volume" to the level of all the other hundreds of thoughts that we all have going on all the time.
Don't try to control your thoughts, just let them naturaly rise and float away without latching on to them. Just like waves in the ocean, they swell and then go away. Just like smoke. It rises and floats away. Don't try to stop it, just let it go and don't attach to it.
A good meditation instructor can help a lot.
Hello- I've been put under the hands of my generic University's Counseling Center, who had diagnosed me with ADHD and put me on an entire string of medications- Ritalin, Ritalin LA, Concerta, Adderall, Wellbutrin, Trileptal, Risperdal....and nothing has done a thing. It has been like taking sugar pills, even when I take a 20 mg dose of the Ritalin. Or else, the meds work great for a day or so, but my brain finds a way to fight them off.
A problem that has arisen is that I have developed a "radio" in my head. I get songs- any song whatsoever- stuck in my head. The strange part is that the songs play out in their entirety even when I only listened to the song once in my entire life, or heard the song ten years ago. And I will hear the singer's voices, their pitch, their tones, the background effects, each beat, each chord, in perfect replication of the actual song.
The "Radio" inside my head really gets turned on when I am trying to concentrate or taking an exam- it really goes off during an exam- and the song either plays over and over again, or else moves onto another obscure songs.
What sort of songs? Everything from music that was sung to me as a child, to music from a television show that I watched fifteen years ago, or songs I heard on the radio once in my life, and complex classical concertos (Palestrina motets, Maurice Ravel, Debussy, Mozart....basically every great composer that I ever listened to makes an apperance just once.)
This drives me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. It makes me extremely depressed when I try to "shut it off" and find that this is an impossibility.
I talked of it to my university psychiatrist, who told me the Risperdal would help. So far, it has done ABSOLUTELY nothing.
I'm at the point of desperation, and I need to know what is causing this and how it can be fixed.
That must really drive you crazy! This may not be very helpful, but it sounds to me as though you have an amazing gift. I have never heard of anyone who can recall music the way you describe. I wonder if it is possible to learn to control it, rather than just shut it off, imagine the possibilities. If you visualize the "radio" in you head, are you able to turn the dials to control the volume and maybe even the station? I don't know what you are majoring in, but maybe you should switch to music?Boggled I would have said the same thing. When I get a song in my head it's only the pieces I remember,and that drives me crazy. May be you should be in the music industry or play an instrument. Keep after your Doctors till they find an answer for you. don't give up!i know this is the adult form but i ran into it on google, i have the same thing that you have, i can picture a radio in my head and i can hear everything in the song from start to finish i can even pick what song i want on but i cant seem to stop it, in fact i can remember where i was on the day i last heard that song, and even remember what i was looking at, and this only seems to happen when i am taking tests ive almost grown used to it, im on concerta 56mg... and its helped a lot but its never solved this problem. i listen to music every chance i get and my parents never see me without my headphones.. espically now that ive got my ipod,This is not ADD, its OCD. It's not uncommon for these to show up together.
http://www.brainplace.com/bp/brainsystem/cingulate.asp
OK! i think i may be able to answer this! have you been on any drugs that release seritonen(cant spell) in the brain? look into that. i was on zoloft and stopped taking it because i had effects of an almost acid drug affect. i wasnt exactly "tripping" but had a side affects we'll call it.
That's pretty much like me having constant thoughts running through my head, or when something gets too boring to read, I find myself floating off and daydreaming to those ever-present background movies in my head. I do try to keep it in the background (because it takes all my concentration to try to get rid of it... which leads my mind to become more focused on that rather than whatever project I'm working on). Lately I've been playing movies or music while I work, and that seems to help.
Now... these songs that you play in your head... they aren't any John Tesh or David Hasselhof songs, hey? If that's the case, then you may have some REAL trouble...
Read the man who mistook his wife for a hat. It is a great book- with short unrelated sections :).
One section deals with a man who heard a radio in his head, and what was done about it.
The guy who wrote it is some awesome brain doc- forgot his name but he is very interesting.
Really
I have the same sort of thing going on in my head. I never listen to the words so lyrics are hardly ever there but always listen to the music: guitar, drums, etc. I tend to whistle alot at work and someone commented once that we don't need a radio while I'm around. The scarry part was I whisted the entire song including the guitar solo note-for-note.
I do play the guitar and have been told I'm very good. I know I'm not as good as I could be if I would take the time to practice. I'm made it through years of guitar lessons without ever practicing.
I wish I had the motivation to stick with it. Maybe I'll start tomorrow.
Schwep
How does everyone get so much help? Nobody around here will help me. They say i'm too old for this. Since when is 35 too old for anything?! Now my poor little boy has to go through it. He's only 7 so he's getting help. So much, that I can't have time for my stuff. Even the paperwork is too hard for me & don't get me started on my first graders homework. We are now working on his next book report. Wow! First grade and book reports!? He loves doing them, but I don't. That means I have to try an understand something by reading. I can't even remember the last time I got any sleep without buying over the counter meds. One doctor did put me on Elevil for I guess depression. Started me at 10mg. Whoopy doo! Now they tell me to take vitamins. "Increase your health & you'll feel better. At least my son is getting the help he needs. I cry alot for no reason at all. In Aug. of this year, my brother got killed in what everyone calls a weird accident at work. It was really windy for about 5 mins.or so, the roof blew off the building making it blow inward. He was hit in the back of the head with a steal beam going about 40 miles an hour. At least the corner said he died before he hit the ground. I feel guilty. Almost like it was my fault in some way. I know it wasn't my fault, but when my sister & mom cry, I feel so bad. I can't cry so I just start telling jokes & everyone feels better for that time. Then I go home& cry. I am so messed up. Is there hope for me? [QUOTE=OpenYourEyes]This is not ADD, its OCD. It's not uncommon
for these to show up together.
http:/
/www.brainplace.com/bp/brainsystem/cingulate.asp
Wow- that is an interesting link.
That is the part of the brain that allows people to shift thoughts from one
thing to another.
Uh........ actually that's my whole problem. Maybe adhd is an
overdeveloped/active cingulate.
I have same thing, though without your apparent phenomenal memory.
For years I fought it - same song would repeat, sometimes all day.
Here's what worked for me. This took me years, but I didn't know what I
was doing. It might be done quickly, I think
1. I picked one song that I liked (City of New Orleans, Steve Goodman
singing at Tom Rush's Club 47, for those who know folk music).
2. When another song would start up I would wait for it to finish, as if
listening to a tape recorder (did this before cds!), then I would stop the
tape, put in Steve Goodman, and play City of New Orleans.
3. I might listen to it once or twice, then I would reach over and turn it
off.
Took some time, but this worked: first to derail the annoying song, later
on with practice, turning off all music.
Years and years later, I still get songs "stuck" but shifting to "New
Orleans" or a few others I've added works like a charm and requires no
thought. As I remember back - and some others posting her mention this
as well - it is necessary to relax and not fight the music. It's like trying to
stop a sneezing jag by effort of will - won't work.
Find some form of relaxing, letting the song go and then either shft to
something else, like I did, or, since you already have an imagine, just
naturally reach over as if the thought just occurred and... turn off the
music.
Like others here, though, I envy your ability to play whole songs through.
When I get one dredged up I'm always missing lots of lyrics and am
sometimes driven to my computer to find the remaining lines.i have norwegian by the beatles stuck in my head for about 4 days, i can't not prevent my brain from thinking about it. When i'm resting, i hear a loop from the song played until i talk, or replace it by another song...
This also happends when i leave home. The last song i listen before switching off the computer remains for hours until i'm too stoned/drunk. This is really annoying but the only workaround i've found is too listen to some classical music which doesn't loop.i have norwegian by the beatles stuck in my head for about 4 days, i can't prevent my brain from thinking about it. When i'm resting, i hear a loop from the song played until i talk, or replace it by another song...
This also happends when i leave home. The last song i listen before switching off the computer remains for hours until i'm too stoned/drunk. This is really annoying but the only workaround i've found is too listen to some classical music which doesn't loop.
omg i hear music in my head too!, sometimes i wake up and its there, the same song plays overs for ages then another would pop in, how weird is that?
i dont take drugs,smoke,drink
This is an amazing gift! If you knew music theory, imagine just what you could do.
sing's *rain drops keep falling on my head,can't remember what i said.......*
you didnt say if you smoked pot or took X or anything so I assume you dont. I heard music in my head like you describe but it was when I was smoking pot and droppiung acid on occassion. I was never the mental health poster child
...gee big shock someone here would say that... but that crap was like standing on the train tracks waiting to get hit for me. It went away after I stopped and truthfully I was able to concentrate better. Even with ADD I hd functioned in school well enought to get underperforming Bs mostly. When I went to college and experiemtned with drugs I was os agiatated with so little attention span I couldnt even sit in class or take tests