Autistic Ear Worms

I wish I had the musical technique to be able to do something with it!

My earliest memory on TV was Captain Sensible doing Happy Talk. 

I don't think I've ever not had music in my head. When young I would have competing melodies and rhythms, about 3 songs playing at once. I managed to focus it down to one over time. I recently chatted with a neurologist who understood all humans to have an inner 'dialogue' and I'm just like, mate, it's too loud in here, there's no way to have a conversation with the music always ON. He was stunned I couldn't just turn it off. And I can't believe that's a thing!

....plus all the repetitive thoughts, plus all the processing of interacting with others. It's never ending

That sounds amazing. I wish I had ear worms like that.

I’m always getting ear worms and frequently from the moment I wake up. More often it’s music rather than lyrics. I’m very musically minded and I find if I’ve been listening to music and I switch off, I can go on improvising in my head. I can hear whole orchestras or a band playing and pick out every instrument. I don’t know it this is something unique to me or if other people experience it or if it’s an autistic trait..if it is…I like it.

I had never heard the term before reading this discussion. I genuinely had no idea what to expect from the title and was expecting something very unpleasant!

Oh my god, I get this exact thing. And it's always the stupidest thing imaginable. If you've seen that video of the guy in his car going 'you take some chocolate and some lobster and some eggs and some pie', that was mine recently. From dawn to dusk, chocolate and lobster and eggs and pie were echoing in my head. That was a fun day!

I get them sometimes but not that often.

Random autistic moment though, I had not heard the term until adulthood, when someone said "You've just given me an earworm" and I thought "wtf kind of infestation is that? And how? Our heads were nowhere near each other!"

Two which really got stuck in my head was  Tom Hark by The Piranhas and Captain Sensible ( member of The Damned) with a song from South Pacific, Happy Talk. 

I liked that tune as well (still do) which always helps. But you can still get to a saturation point where the needle has to come off one's inner record player before one becomes mentally ill. 

I get earworms for days at a time too. I've said it on here before I think, but I can remember my very first one - and the strange realisation that this was a phenomenon. It was a warmish day on my way into play school, aged 3 or 4, so summer of 1981, and I realised that a track I now know as Heartsong (but in those days I'd only have vaguely known as the theme to the BBC's Holiday: '81) had been going round in my head since I got up that day and was likely to continue doing so. I wasn't freaked out or anything, just privately fascinated by the fact that a tune I last heard the night before was still going round like a record in my brainium. I didn't comment verbally on it to my mother, just observed it internally. One of those gently revelatory things that maybe autistic minds more persistently hold onto and store away as significant, if undramatic, milestones.

The Muzik from the Spotify Ads; simply because I decline a subscription.

I get them too. Not just first thing in the morning, they can stuck there all the time for weeks on end. It's usually triggered by something I hear when watching TV. I no longer listen to the radio, so I block out hearing any potential new ones that way.

When Olivia Newton John sadly passed away earlier this year I had the song 'Hopelessly Devoted to You' stuck on endless loop in my head for weeks. Now that I've just thought about it I've probably put it back there for the next few weeks as well 

I am pretty sure this is a normal thing and not specifically associated with  autistic people, but I could be wrong!

Mine is currently Queen - I want to break free.

A few ago I had an old theme tune from a kid's cartoon playing in my head on loop, which I haven't heard for many years. That was really annoying. I did not really like that cartoon as a child.

What you mentioned about holding your breath is something I find interesting. I'm aware that when I am lying down, there are times when it is almost as though I momentarily forget to breathe. It only happens when I'm lying down, and I know I do it in my sleep too because it can cause me to wake up.

hahah well I didn't know I did it until my bf told me I did, but then he also says I hold my breath as well, all of these things I would never have known before! I know I used to sit up and act out dreams as I get them very vividly, but I now have a medication that helps to reduce that a bit and helps me get a bit more rest (and kick my bf less too which is good for him!)

I hope to goodness that singing in my sleep is something I never end up doing, particularly as I cannot sing in tune to save my life. I'll now be having nightmares about that. Lol.

all. the. time. argh. apparently I also sing them in my sleep, which makes sense as they also happen in my dreams too...right now I have about 3 lines of a song from Bo Burnham's Inside in my head...

I can really relate to this, my current ear worm is Georgy  Girl by The  Seekers. Obviously on top of this I’ve had to now research the group relentlessly.