Thanks for this…whenever I start getting anxious, I can identify it by the song that gets stuck in my head. AND now I have a term for it!

Your warning only intrigued me to read the blog, and now I have those songs stuck in my head. gaah!

Happens to us and probably most people from time to time. Sorry about that–but we warned you

You named the condition, but did not describe the reasons. It has to do with dopamine. Read Oliver Sacks’ book “Musicophilia” for some fascination stories on the relationship between dopamine, music, and memory.

Daniel,

Thanks for the book recommendation. I have a dx of schizoaffective disorder. I hear music in my head from the moment I wake up till I fall asleep. For me, antipsychotics regulate the frequency and volume. The more my antipsychotic is increased, the less I hear music, so I’m looking forward to reading the relationships between dopamine, music, and memory.

Thanks for explaining that.Now I can banish the thoughts of my ex by thinking of him as a worm, which he was.Now please explain why every so often out of the blue I hear someone call my name. There is no one else nearby and sometimes it will wake me from sleep.Always it startles me.I’m a well balanced person no real hang ups am I nuts as well ?This has been happening to me all my life.

in my part of the world, the layman’s term for this is LSS or LAST SONG SYNDROME.

What I do is think of a classic tune, usually the Blue Danube Waltz, and then gradually force myself to slow it down, slower and slower…… That often works, but not always. On high stress days nothing helps but the end of the day.

Bach works for me. Whenever I get an ear worm, I listen to “Sheep May Safely Graze” or “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

Of course, I then get *that* stuck in my mind, but it sure beats “One Toke Over the Line”! Bach doesn’t make me want to bang my head against the wall.

And all this time I thought this was a part of the TLE (Temporal Lobe Epilepsy)? Well, well, well…

Next Question: Will there be “Channel Availability”? As if we can switch channels like we can on a radio?

Years ago a friend of mine told me that to get rid of a repeating song, I should sing the old hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. It seems to work, and has a special humor for me, having grown up a minister’s daughter. These days, my husband and I sing songs to each other that have that special Music City ‘Hook.’ For example, “Achey-Brakey Heart” always does the trick for me. (Now I’m going to suffer all day.)

Thanks to everyone that made comments. Now for another worm…abcdefg, hijklmnop, qrstuv, wxy and z…..

How about THAT?!

I made up my “worm” tune myself. Really stupid little thing! But, it’s so simple and repetitive, I can’t seem to even substitute anything for it.

With the exception of this very moment as I’m writing this, I can’t think of how it goes!

LOL! Oh, brother!

ACK!!! “Small World” has taken its place!

Good griefffffff……

I actually have ocd and all of that time I thought this was related to ocd but the good news that I’m not american and I don’t know any of the songs you wrote above except macarina so……… that didn’t hurt me at all

In my case, frequency of “earworms” relates to how much music I am exposed to - I get “earworms” at least a couple of times a week, but back when I was a performing musician, I had some piece or other running through my head nearly all the time. A trick for dealing with it - if you don’t like what’s running through your head, just consciously think of another piece or song that you like. Then you’ll get what you like running through your head and as soon as you stop thinking about it, you won’t even notice it’s there.

This effect “earworms”, is part of the crazies that songwriters, musicians, writers, and artists get in the normal process of creativity.
I write songs and play guitar. Sometimes it’s a melody, a rythm, a vision, or a verbal “earworm” that gets me going on a new song. I can just lookup and think “Stormy Skies” which can be a good thing or thought. However, if I don’t write it down and get a melody to it in a timely manner, the stuff drives me crazy. I am also, sadly to say, a procrastinator and don’t do the simple steps that I have desribed above and therefore half crazy all of the time…
half crazy all the time…
half crazy all the time…
Bipolar II

Actually, earworms is not a scientist’s label – merely a translation from the German ‘Ohrwurm’, as it is called.

Nonetheless, I find it an apt description and I had always been a tiny bit annoyed that the English language offered no easy way to relay my irritation. I usually resorted to a rather long-winded explanation which promptly left me stuck with yet another round of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t get you out of my head.’

Thinking about it, I personally am also very fond of LSS – neat, short, and it doesn’t make me cringe the way the literal translation does. Thanks Jace.

Haven’t heard that when a 3 or 4 day(s) long earworm finally switchesa to something else I cannot remember the previous one for some time. Worst one lately is a Swiffer commercial as the old mop drives by the house and sings “Love Stinks” to the Peter Frampton chorus of “Love Hurts”. Crap! 1 hate that stupid mop! My shrink’s advice. More you try to turn it off, the worse it gets. If it is really bugging me I get going on some meaningful activities to re-focus my thinking.