The Bipolar Brain – A Radio Station You Can’t Turn Off

I have bipolar type 2 and I just Googled the terms song stuck in your head and the second thing that came up was your article. Before I had medication the loop of song was in the foreground of my mind every second but always competed with every thought that I had. It was the first thing in my mind when I would start to wake up in the morning. Even in the middle of the night when I was sleeping and I would wake slightly in order to turn over in bed the song would be blasting away. Now that I take medication ( lamotrigine and escitalopram) the songs have seemed to become quieter and more in the background of my mind but when I listen to music I always notice that the next day they are still pretty intrusive. I think I will talk to my psychiatrist about this and see if increasing the dose of Lamotrigine might help. Thank you so much for this article. It's good to know that I'm not alone!

I constantly have music playing in my head and not always the same song. It can switch from song to song in seconds. It is entirely frustrating. I have found that if I play the song slowly it may go away.

Thank you so much. Wow

I've been trying brown noise to counter this but sometimes my mind will overcome it and I have to turn the volume up, the music usually lasts for a while, especially when I take a shower or do something menial. Thanks for writing this, I'm thinking of getting help for my (undiagnosed) borderline personality disorder and this just gives me another reason to stop delaying.

I have the same problem but its always the last song I hear. I am careful to turn off certain commercials I hear or the stupid music will loop. It does turn off if I substitute something like watching something on Youtube.

With me it is always the last song I heard, but the way I am different is that I substitute lyrics about hatred or my ass or something obscene or vulgar. I sing constantly about hating Jesus because of my suffering and the suffering of others in the world. I cannot turn it off. It is worse when I am alone, because then I actually sing this crap out loud for hours (or however long I am alone). I don't know what is wrong with me, but clearly I need help.

I experience it every night. Its like a radio in my head. I can change the song but i cant turn it down or off. It causes me to have trouble sleeping at nighr because of it and im looking for answers. Please someone help.

This is torturing me. Bloody Barry White for 4 days straight now. I feel like I notice it more as I get older. I wonder if I'm going insane, feeling like I'm trapped in my own brain.

I'm in my 52nd year and, until recently, I thought everybody had this. I can tune out the 'record' quite a bit, or even sometimes make my own - I used to be a musician and, actually, I'd rather keep this 'malady' than be cured of it. I am most sorry that others find it distressing.

If you want to stop it then do a music cleanse. You have to listen to music for 2 - 4 weeks with no lyrics. Mostly classical music and then it will stop. Probably way before then. I've had the same problem and it got so bad I was waking up in the middle of the night with songs in my head as well. I also stopped watching TV and I read. I did this as a 30 day cleanse. I strongly suggest this. Music and TV heighten negative thoughts and puts all kinds of negative, submissive @ repetitive thoughts in ones head. All the luck to you guys. BLESS

I have that problem. Incessant loud music, all types. I have bipolar and ocd. I m on antiosychotics. They don t really help the music bit. Music and TV detox does work. No more charts or electronic music and NO commercials with jingles likely to stay in my head for days. This earworm phenomenon is massive. I ve been checking online for years now and there are more and more entries dealong with this. With the bipolar i have issues of self harm and wanting to commit suicidd but I can say honestly this ear worm problem is the worst of all the aspects of my condition and if there is one thing that will push me to harm myself it s incessant music that won t stop. I hit my head against the wall or furniture on and on but it s doesn t go

Good Lord yes! It's been something I've lived with since I was 14 (46 now). It only got worse during and after military service. It can get so bad that I even get a DJ in it. It's usually unintelligible compared to the songs but its there. Sometimes the DJ is breaks back to military radio comms. Then the "music" starts up again. It can get so bad that it triggers other things in PTSD and bi-polar. Sometimes I can counter it by a quick meditation but it can interrupt that. But if I go over Korean vocabulary said aloud over and over that tends to force it out. (Korean terms used in martial arts). I second the person that said classical/instrumental music can help.

I've had two songs that seem as if they constantly play in my head. Perhaps they are not constant and only play when I think about them. Maybe they are constant and I have somehow managed to push them to the background. They are "Evacuate the Dancefloor" by Cascada [I absolutely hate this song] and "Toes" by LIGHTS [which I love]. When I have a moment of silence around me, I start humming either of these songs. I do get other songs stuck in my head from time to time. I even dream about them. But they eventually disappear. These two however, never seem to go away.

I have ASD and lately I've had "There will be applause" stuck in my head. To counter it I play Daft Punk's Around The World on repeat. It's more repetitive but non-annoying to me.

The dang song won't shut off!! Over and over and over.. ridiculous

I have it all the time! My songs that play in my head are full songs and it will just repeat and i end up getting like 8-13 songs played in my head a day ive counted, like today at the dinner table i sat down and all of a sudden "beauty school dropout" started playing in my head and i havent seen grease in 2 and a half years! When it happens i have trouble hearing people like i cant concentrate on 1 person or if there is noise coming from something around me and i have that stuff playing in my head while someone is talking to me i only get parts of what they say.? and i get frustrated and end up breaking down and crying cause no one knows whats happening in my head and they judge me for it. Im going into 10th grade and i struggle in class because of it.??

Oh me too,over and over,driving me potty I don't want to say anything I just can't stop the music in my head music in my head and it's like different tunes and all the time repeat over and over and if I myself kind of breathing the tune out breathing it like in the music and if I'm wrong thinking about something I want to stop doing this and I'm doing it while I'm trying to think about stopping it I think it's sending me crazy

The constant tune in my head began 2 years ago when I found porn on my husband's devices. Hasn't let up and has been much worse lately. It's exhausting. It starts the second I wake up, even in the middle of the night. I don't have a history of bipolar, but I take Prozac and admit to a moderate amount of OCD and anxiety. I weaned myself off Xanax and Vyvanse earlier this year. I'm 63.

This is pretty much a continuous thing. Even in my dreams I have songs going and wake up with them stuck in my head for hours. Sometimes I don't even have to hear a song for it to get lodged in my brain. Sometimes just a word or two in normal conversation can pop a song and next thing you know, I'm moving about singing the lyrics. I keep telling my family that it's not a normal thing and there should be a name for this.

Beethoven was deaf and think of the music in his head. Count it as a blessing.

Ever since I could remember, I have had music constantly stuck in my head 24/7. I've been researching and trying to find a name for it everywhere. Every single day without fail, there's a song stuck in my head, and it changes every once in a while. I've actually been woken up from a certain song in my head in the middle of the night, or I would wake up and remember a song playing in my dream, the same song that would be stuck in my head when I woke up in the morning! I may have some form of OCD but I'm not diagnosed. Do you (or anyone reading this) have any idea what it could be?

I have music in my head all the time. It can be annoying but I sometimes use it as a way to stay focused. I do have severe depression and have quite a few OCD tendencies so that's probably where it's from. After a while of a song going through my head, and most of the time it's a few lines, I have finally worked out what the lyrics to the whole song are.

Everyday and night. I find I can sometimes change to radio station, so to speak. I found a CD called Gama Meditation II (or very similar name). I haven't tried it yet for earworms but it works effectively when my brain is in hamster mode, for lack of a scientific or layman's term. It's provided immense relief. At other times, the same CD is highly annoying; when I am not experiencing "hamster brain". It might work. I do not have the CD on my person now, or I would try it out.

I have this problem all the time. It has gotten so bad I can't sleep. Finally I had to stop listening to music completely because I was so exhausted all the time.

I have music and chatter 24-7. It will NOT stop!! Is there a supplement or medicine that would help?

I count my benign earworms as a blessing since I recently lost my son and thinking about him will keep me from sleeping any given night!!! Pat Metheny /fusion jazz lulls me back to sleep from those wakeful moments when I dangle between sleep and impending doom /no sleep. Im not OCD, bipolar, or ill!

Oh, how I can relate. My kids are amazed that I know all the words to every song from 70's to present. I've found some audio that I find soothing, so when I'm super manic (which has been the case for going on 5 months now) I play it to calm myself.

Nice to know I'm not the only one! Sometimes I like the fact that I can hear music in my head. It's amazing to me how I can remember all of the parts to the song, down to each instrument and change in vocals! I just wish there was a way to change the song on command. Hearing the same damn song on repeat drives me absolutely crazy. Especially when it's a song I don't like or don't know very well so that the only part that plays is the damn chorus.

I know what it's like.
I've been hearing music play constantly in my head for the past two weeks and I'm exhausted. I can't sleep for more than four of five hours every night. My heart is racing most of the day because of my anxiety. I'm in pain. It all started while I was away on a Vipassana ten day meditation retreat. I was supossed to have come back more alert and calm but now I'm a nervous wreck. ¿Does anybody know of any treatment? I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

I'm not exactly sure when the music started, but I noticed about 10.5 years ago that it was REALLY bothering me!!! My brain is a radio station!!! When I try to shut the music off, it just switches to another song!!! I can't ever just meditate...the music won't stop!!! Even when I try to pray in silence, it's there!!! Sometimes, if I'm preoccupied with something else, it's less noticeable... I've met one other person with this affliction, but she only hears one that gets louder!!! I do have depression and whenever I've mentioned this affliction to my doctors, they are just as puzzled as I am!!! Some days I feel like I'm going to go insane!!! As unfortunate this condition is, I find relief knowing that other people are dealing with this, and that I'm not from another planet!!!

Dee, and Natasha, maybe transcranial magnetic stimulation (or inhibition in your case) can help to stop the music. Also, you can marvel because you have a personal soundtrack :)

I have this as soon as I wake up there's a song playing, morning noon & night its driving me insane, I'm going to listen to some classical music I don't mind that so much, it's the music with words that drive me loopy most.

have it too.
question - how many hours per week do you peeps read a book?
Read a book, specifically a book, reading it. not blogs etc.
Book.
thnks

I have them all the time but I'm convinced the majority of my brain is occupied by lyrics. I can sing, word for word almost any song on the radio. It leaves my husband in awe.

I'm in the process of being diagnosed with possibly bipolar. I've been on antianxiety and antidepressants and both caused me harm. I constantly have songs playing in the back of my head. It's very overwhelming and hard to focus in school

I wish it would stop! I noticed it gets worse with anxiety or if I'm having an inflammatory flare up. Also seems the lyrics are related to how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking about. If I'm deeply engrossed and focused on something, it temporarily goes away.