Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? It’s probably happened to most of us from time to time.
Well, imagine having short (say, 15-20 seconds) snippets of songs, phrases and words stuck in your head, going around and around and around and around 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for months or years. Yikes!
That’s what I (and at least one other person on the planet) have. I call it the “broken record syndrome” (or BR), although the monster may be more properly referred to as an “auditory imagery loop.” In any case, it goes light years beyond the normal song-stuck-in-your-head experience.
My BR started when my hormones went south as I approached menopause. At its worst, I couldn’t sleep because some annoying tune or word would cycle over and over and over in my dreams until I’d wake up in a panic as if I’d been tortured. During waking hours, these noisy memories would sometimes get so “loud,” or intrusive, that I couldn’t concentrate on my own thoughts.
For over a year I never had one single moment of peaceful quiet, never free of that maddening racket of looping sound memories in my head, not even in my sleep. If it had continued much longer, I was sure I’d lose my mind.
Once I started hormone therapy, however, the BR quieted down, though it still comes and goes. I have found that stress (physical, mental or emotional) can bring the BR on or make it worse.
I have now met one other person who experiences this same phenomenon. Unlike, my BR though, his has been present for as long as he can remember. Fortunately, his has never gotten as bad as mine once was. We have learned that there are a number of conditions that seem related but may be very different in terms of causes and potential treatments.
Among the conditions are:
- Musical hallucinations – in which you believe you are hearing something coming from outside your body (as if music were actually playing somewhere nearby)
- Palinacousis – in which you first hear a real sound, then continue to hear that sound (like an echo) after the real sound has stopped
- Auditory imagery loop / broken record syndrome – in which a memory of a sound (musical or spoken) repeats in your head
Although BR may be effectively treated with antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs, I’m not eager to take on their side effects. I’d rather find the cause and treat it more directly and more naturally, if possible.
My current hypothesis is that this might be related to the stress hormone cortisol. I am now looking for other people who experience the same phenomenon. If you have this or know of anyone who does, please respond to this blog or contact me through my website, www.HormoneGuru.com.
BTW, since many sufferers seem to find this first post but not the newer ones, be sure to search trhough my blog at www.hormoneguru.wordpress.com for any other posts on this subject. There is a follow-up as of Nov 2008 here: http://hormoneguru.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/broken-record-songs-stuck-in-your-head-part-2/
Oh man. I definitely have this. I’ve been surfing the net all morning trying to find information on this. It mainly afflicts me in the form of insomnia– I do have song loops in my head during the day but it doesn’t bother me as much, and I can usually distract myself with a variety of real-life things. But I often wake up throughout the night with a song loop in my head and can’t go back to sleep. It’s gotten to the point where I’m afraid to listen to a song too many times, which is terrible because I’m a musician.
This has been happening for the last two years or so.
I am on the verge of seeing a doctor about this. The reason I haven’t yet is because I don’t know how to describe the severity of it. In other words, EVERYONE gets songs stuck in their head, so what’s the big deal? But what I have is absolutely torturous.
I really feel your pain and am trying to find solutions. Unfortunately, based on my experience and research, it seems that many doctors don’t really know what’s going on or what to do. Your best bet is a psychiatrist, who will be familiar with brain physiology and chemistry and can prescribe psychoactive drugs.
The most common solution is to take antidepressants or anticonvulsants, on the assumption that this is related to either obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or epilepsy. For some, these treatments seem to work. But I’m not eager to accept the dulling side-effects of these drugs. I’ve already lost most of my creativity and passions.
For me, it seems that stress–or rather the stress hormone cortisol–is a big factor. Using home hormone test kits (you can order them online), I have learned that my cortisol levels are chronically high. And when I take certain OTC supplements that suppress cortisol, the broken record thing quiets down.
I have created a survey for those who suffer from this phenomenon. If you would be willing to provide info about your experiences, please contact me via my website HormoneGuru.com.
I’m hoping that if we get enough of us suffers to complete the survey, we might find some commonalities among us that will tell us what causes this, or at the very least will help us collect a range of solutions that may work.
One researcher said this is fairly common; however in 8 years I’ve only found 7 others who experience it. Most of the research seems to focus on the phenomenon of “musical hallucinations” which is different from having the memory of a song stuck in your head: it’s actually “hearing” music that isn’t there.
I hope to hear from you soon!
Pattio, I am sorry to read of your diagnosis of breast cancer, and glad to learn that is Ductal carcinoma in situ.
Mine is invasive ductal carcinoma stage II, so as you are well aware, my treatment plan will likely be significantly different than yours. I have 16 cycles of chemo and I just did cycle 5 yesterday. My tumor is shrinking, as you can read about why on my blog.
I am blogging about your Vitamin D revelation on my blog today, so thanks so much for that info. My blog is http://www.wifiscanning.com.
I just wanted to write in response to your understandable reluctance to accept anti-depressant drugs as a remedy to all hosts of maladies nowadays.
IMHO, I have had a lot of success with SSRI anti-depressants, and I just want to let you know that I don’t really ever experience the well-known dulling that you speak of, as I think – not sure – the dulling is more related to the old-fashioned classes of anti-depressants before SSRIs were developed.
I am sure you could nevertheless be prescribed the wrong drugs at the wrong doses or in the wrong combinations, but that experimenting around now seems to used like a diagnostic tool in itself. So if a patient responds well to a certain cocktail, it gives the psychiatrist information about his or her diagnosis which was only a matter of complex guesswork on the psychiatrist’s part until then.
You can look at my blog and be aware that I don’t exist in a state of dullness at all. Instead, I am a highly anxious and sometimes depressive type of personality who really feels more calm when I take SSRIs. Currently I take zoloft, but I have taken similiar types such as celexa and lexapro and I have felt well-balanced, confident, and not slowed down.
I just thought you would want to hear this out of the mouth of a real woman, and not just a cold clinical textbook-type of psychiatrist.
My new psychiatrist, interestingly enough, is assigned to treat all of the breast cancer patients at my big famous hospital, Columbia Presbyterian in New York City. He is in fact an oncology psychiatrist, and he is treating us all under a grant he has for that purpose. I know I am lucky to have him. Depression is listed as a neurological side effect of chemo in my booklet “Chemotherapy and You” available on the web.
Well, I am really glad to have discovered your intelligent blog, and I will stay tuned to hear word of your treatment plan.
From my recent reading on the subject, it would seem to me that a mastectomy might be avoided in a case of Ductal carcinoma in situ. If your surgeon doesn’t say this, than do come to New York and see my surgeon, chief of breast surgery at Columbia Presbyterian. He is all about “breast conservation” and “body image” and he is kind and interesting and approachable. Here is a link to his department page: http://www.breastmd.org/
That’s his photo.
If you could come here, then you could go to my oncologist and my oncology psychiatrist, too.
Being 48 years old, I read with interest your discussion of hormonal supplements. I would hope you might write more about why you feel you would have to discontinue those depending on your cancer treatment plan, if they are of benefit to you. Why would you have to stop them?
Okay, nice to make your acquaintance,
Sincerely,
E
i have this. happens more after my 6mo baby was born. it causes my insomnia. same 15 secs of a song- over and over. driving me nutz. i don’t know what to do….
ugh.
[...] November 5, 2008 by pattio There has been a relative flurry of responses (3 within two months) to my previous post on the subject of music stuck in your head http://hormoneguru.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/songs-stuck-in-your-head-broken-record-syndrome-part-1/. [...]
OMG. You have described my EXACT “ailment”. I have begun to believe I am going mad. The other day an a bus, a man got on who, for the entire ride (an hour), repeated things over and over…out loud. I felt bad for him and then realised I was the same, I just hadn’t yet progressed to saying the song snippets out loud. Thank you for validating me and also for letting me know I am not alone. I appreciate the info on supplements and other possibilities for relief.
I am epileptic and have had this problem for many years. One medication helps me: carbamazepine (Tegretol, carbatrol, etc.) My son has the same problem and when we tried him on this medicine the music went away also.
It’s horrid. I hope you all find help soon. Ask your doctors about trying the carbamazepine.
Hi Beth,
Thanks so much for the info!
I have a niece who has epilepsy, and so far she has not suffered the broken record problem. But I had wondered if this phenomenon might be related to OCD and my niece’s dad (my brother) has OCD. The doctors think there is a kind of continuum that OCD, epilepsy and sleep-walking all fall into.
Your experiences offer me yet another path to research this crazy/maddening thing that might shed some light on its cause. There must be some common denominators here.
BTW, I have a new post on this subject.
http://hormoneguru.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/broken-record-songs-stuck-in-your-head-part-2/
I’m so glad you and your son were able to find relief from this. One young woman I’ve been taking to is close to losing her mind from it. I will pass along this info to her.
Take care,
Pat
Boy, this is all very concerning.
I have had this condition off and on for many years.
Worst when I have been over stressed and full of anxiety.
For several weeks now it’s been a non-stop.
It starts when I get up in the morning when my mind is at rest and doesn’t leave me until I start interacting with other people. The moment my mind is at rest, it starts over again.
It’s very hard to get rid of. I try to stop the music by ending the song but it just starts over and over again.
I feel it is a form of worrying about something you are living in your life. Perhaps even a defence mechanism for a fear of something or another.
I really don’t have any answers… but I am stuck with the problem.
Claude
I to suffer from this, it has been driving me insane, I truly think that at it’s worst I will some how snap, although I have no idea what that would entail !I have gone 6-8 weeks with a 3-10 second loop and I honestly cannot understand how anyone could endure a year or more.Right now I am in the midst of a week stretch, I wake up every morning and it’s the first cognitive thought I have. As long as I am distracted with conversation or other music ,activities,etc. I am good.If I do anything repetitious ,tedious not requiring much thought , the loop comes creeping in.I truly believe sometimes I am losing my sanity!Epilepsy runs in my family as well as other brain issues ,surely there must be something to it other than just getting a song “stuck in your head”!!!