Is it an autistic thing to have songs (not just words you hum to, but the tones and all of the singer, with all the pauses and intonations) going through your head nearly all the time?

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@tiamat271 Thanks for sharing how it appears in your life, Jenny. ️

[pockets@lgbtqia.space]

@AncTreat5358
I just call it my internal soundtrack.

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@AncTreat5358 It's a form of what's called "involuntary cognition," and I think I remember reading once that it's related to processing in echolalia (what you describe happens to me, and I also grew up echolalic).

[lisamaesie@nutmeg.social]

@AncTreat5358 I have constant music, although my experience is a bit different, tends to be music I’ve heard recently, most of the time. Currently the jingle from a podcast I was just listening to, which is probably going to sing me to sleep now.

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@handmade_ghost Thanks for this helpful term, and for connecting it with echolalia. I'm less familiar with that just now, as I didn't think I met criteria for it.

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@lisamaesie Thanks for sharing how it presents for you, Lisa.

[trine_dk@helvede.net]

@AncTreat5358 @autistics
I have this too. Not all the time, but very often. Sometimes, when I notice it consciously, I wonder what triggered that particular loop.

It might be fx. I said to myself “I feel happy today” and then the song “Oh happy day” will start looping.

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@Trine_DK @autistics I hear what you're saying. And sometimes I don't realize I've shifted songs in my head, and then have to look back to try and discover what the trigger was for picking that specific one, just like you do.

[shiri@foggyminds.com]

@AncTreat5358 @autistics I'm struggling to understand how this is any different from an earworm? An ear worm is just a song stuck in your head on repeat and people can be more or less prone to them. Often they relate to incomplete memory (the song doesn't complete and the brain basically just glitches and loops it)

[joshsusser@autistics.life]

@AncTreat5358 Yep. I'm hearing ABC's "Poison Arrow" right now. Any moment of any day there's a tune playing in my head, though usually it's just a few bars on a loop. Mostly it's annoying, but sometimes it's nice to have my own background music. Seems like an autistic thing - I'm not much of a musician.

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@shiri @autistics The distinction I was making is that earworms for me were prompted by something external, such as hearing a jingle or reading a memory post.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Shiri.

[n_to@social.tchncs.de]

@AncTreat5358 Yes! It's been like that for most of my life! Sometimes it is so intense that it feels almost like the music was playing for real. But not like a delusion, I'm always sure it is just in my head. (np: Rocky Horror Picture Show - Time Warp )

@autistics

[shiri@foggyminds.com]

@AncTreat5358 @autistics Honestly I don't see much difference, I think half the time it's triggered externally and you forgot the moment it was triggered. The rest of the time it's random memory associations that are set off (which you'll extremely rarely notice).

Hell, just reading this post about earworms gets them going in my head. And because thinking about earworms will make one go off it's unlikely you'll notice when you don't have one going because the mere fact of noticing cancels it out.

Regardless, definitely not something autism specific.

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@shiri @autistics Thanks for your thoughts. Yeah, what I said could be a nuance that isn't complete.

[raphink@hachyderm.io]

@AncTreat5358 @autistics I can relate.

I wonder to which degree it is the byproduct of hyper attention to our surroundings and a coping mechanism similar to special interests (I wrote about this recently in https://dev.to/raphink/the-constant-background-hum-hh7)

[anctreat5358@lgbtqia.space]

@raphink @autistics Interesting parallel!

Thanks for sharing your article link.