Extreme earworms music stuck in head

JJ, I'd like to find the solution to this problem, too. I don't know if it's OCD related or not, but it's certainly very distracting, and worse. My degree was in music, and I will have earworms that I can't chase away. Sometimes I try moving to a different tune - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - or if I'm having a 2 measure endless loop, instead of fighting it I think of a song that fits it. Knitting would be more relaxing without the "voices" in my head, voices being musical.

As not-fun as it is, by this time of my life I've just had to accept that it's probably not going away. It sounds as though it's more of a problem for you, one that's affecting your daily life, and I'm hoping that others will contribute to the dilemma.

Oh, for sweet silence!

Jim

@divinewisdom28 and @jimhd I would be skeptical about trying to treat this with medication. (All medications have side effects and I’m not sure any potential benefits would be worth the risks). As a former psychologist/ therapist one thing I know is that the things we focus on tend to manifest. It is kind of like a “self fulfilling prophecy “. It is possible that while focusing on trying to get rid of this annoying problem it ends up inadvertently being reinforced. A better approach might be to work hard at replacing it with something positive. @jimhd alluded to this when talking about choosing a different tune or finding a song that fits. If you can flood yourself with something that is incompatible to the ear worm that may help. I am a Christian believer and I have found that it helps me to pray, meditate on and memorize scripture such as portions of Psalms and also to have uplifting & / or calming music going in the background. There are so many genres to choose from depending on your personal taste. Can you start finding preferable media to drive out this unwanted thing? Consider a head set, air pods or ear pods?

Why not just use a pair of earphones and listen to other music?

Unsure how to be helpful but I know where you're comming from!
I am 72 female and on a lot of meds including gabpenten , lithium ,buppropreum,invega,which was my switch from resperidone.lorazapam when needed, and I am also every night around 7
Smoking Marijuana medically licensed to do so.
I smoke at other times also. The point I am trying to get to is I hear music in my head also. Another person like me.
Wow! I checked in at chronic pain and found
apost from a Mother about how her son hears music in his ears and how He can say a song like a request and it will play.
This is very much my experience. WHEN hope

YOU SAID EARWORM its having a good reaction in my brain as that is an appt term I had not thought about. I understand and empa thize sorry my spelling is poor. I also hear talking
Like they are speaking of doing nasty stuff to me.
Sortof like schizophrenic s are depicted in movies.
Do you also hear, voices?I hope you are not.
When my voices started
I wondered if it was a possibility my weed was affecting my brain as I've
Become aware of studies
Saying seniors are susceptible to Marijuana and can have psychosis.
Musical Ear is the term this Mother used and she
said her son was scitsephrenic. I wish you
have success in your indevers.
Dahlia Deb.

I just joined the group and reading messages related to hearing music. I just realized it is me and not someone in my building or outside my building. I had no idea there was a condition called "Music illusions" and then I read it is part of having tinnitus. I finally today have had it with my playlist which my brain seems to choose on its own with lots of patriotic songs (I am NOT a fan of them), an old r&b/early rock song that played on the radio when I was very young, Simon & Garfunkel and when it started I heard the Beatles and Elton. So today I decided to override it with Beatles and Bruce. Trying to get a doc appt to see why this is happening.

Hi all, have been having this for almost 4 years, 24/7.

Basically, the last song which I heard, a snippet of it will constantly play inside my head. It started after having been stressed for 4 months during a period where I lost a lot of money, plus covid, plus work issues etc. The stress triggered the condition at age 29. Insomnia followed, not because of the song but because of the stress which the intrusive, repetitive song caused. The foundation of this phenomena according to my research is : repetitive intrusive thoughts or if we gonna use the medical jargon: Involuntary musical imagery (INMI)

I've always had some anxiety as a little kid, intrusive thoughts etc. But never thought much of it, it was my normal. I'm also highly neurotic by nature, perfectionist, workaholic etc.

The song gets loud during stressful periods, it's always there but the volume adjusts according to stress levels.
A lot of forums says this is OCD. A subset known as schiz ocd. This has nothing to do with psychotic disorders though. Dopamine inhibitors in the majority of cases should not be prescribed. At least not as a first line of treatment. For some it's related to their ADHD, others autism. There are many conditions which can exhibit this symptom.

There are few articles on pubmed which analyse this condition. Again, based on those articles, everything comes down to OCD.

Reference:
-https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30401794/
-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5461857/
-https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33750381/
-https://journals.lww.com/aips/fulltext/2019/03020/musical_obsessions__successful_treatment_with_low.19.aspx

Also, there a lot of posts on Reddit discussing this phenomena under: OCD, Anxiety, Adhd, DR/DP, Bipolar and similar mental illness subs.

The mission is to decrease stress, not directly treat the symptom. Drugs plus therapy is advised in severe occasions. I myself have not started medication but am considering it in the near future.

Medication which have resolved some peoples case were: fluoxetine, sertraline, escitalopram, aripiprazole. Again, the reason why different people respond to different medication is probably because of the underlying condition. Therapy is also advised.

doublej777, I had absolutely no clue what earworm was before this. You mentioned that it was an old thread but you still hoped for something. I have it or them, I don't know the correct verbiage. Started rather suddenly, about two years ago. Also a weird vibration issue started in my feet about the same time. I have no idea if this is related. The vibrations are so strong that I feel it through the couch, then I have to get up and make sure something is not going wrong. My earworm is similar to, if I go to sleep listening to music with words, that is what I will hear for several hours after I get up. So, no singing music. I swear the music is real and I am hearing it from outside. I asked my husband if he could hear it for the first six months or so, same with the vibrations. He was very kind and always responded with, no he hears and feels nothing. I seem to have a group of songs and voices I hear most often. I have determined that the songs are not related to anything I have recently heard. The voices are always male. This is probably because I live with just my husband. But it's not his voice, it's more like the news on TV. I have extremely loud, buzzing tinnitus that randomly makes this super high pitched frequency. I don't know how I can hear. The noise is so loud but most times I can hear through it, if that makes any sense. I seen so many drs. about it, with no true diagnosis or treatment at all. The last Dr. I saw, said kindly, honestly, that there is no cure, period. She suggested using music instrumental in earbuds, since I have hyperinsomnia my sleep is awful. I chose the app, Aura, $60+-/yr. Loads of variety in music, songs, meditation, hypnosis, sleep stories etc. It has helped me a lot.
For me, I don't want another medication. I have been on every anti depressant and lots of anti anxiety meds over many years. Finally I found a psychiatrist that told me very clearly: medication is not the answer for me. After I had a nasty response to a new migraine medication, that dr. said, everyone needs an antidepressant with this migraine medication, so I took it, in less than 48 hours I was in serious suicidal trouble. I have had suicidal thoughts before, but never did I actually feel so bad so fast. I spoke with my psychiatrist and he said NO. He talked with my husband and we strategized a plan to bring me down off the migraine medication without adding antidepressant. The reason I brought this up is because medication is often prescribed for things that can not ever be helped by medication and then they blame us , the medication and say that it is not a perfect science, it is trial and error. Well, I definitely got all the errors!!!
I know that using the app and earbuds is not an easy option for daytime use; you need to form thoughts and talk with people. I have noticed that some of the music and voices have become very diminished during the day. I think that calming everything down at night has helped me better able to ignore at least some of the symptoms during the day. I think Aura might offer a free trial. Best wishes for calming down the noise. Shelley

It seems that you are experiencing a musical ear syndrome where you actually hear the noise outside of your head. As if you put a radio on play.

I believe OP has music inside his head, which is a totally different phenomena although seems to be related at first.

Cure in general does not exist for mental/neurological disorders. However, you could find a medication which should reduce the symptoms significantly.

have earworms since 1983. (am deaf since then)

lost my hearing in 1973 in one ear to Neuro-Fibroma /Schwannoma (NF II) at the age of 23.
Same thing with the other ear 10 years later, that's when the earworms started.
So the music and songs are from 1983 and up to that time.
My observation is that after some time on one song the brain gets bored with it and changes the lyrics or the voice or pitch or the tempo or just cuts it to 3 tones. And yes I can change it to another song in my memory anytime. So I don't find it entertaining. Had to leave my job at 50.