Repetitive sounds getting 'stuck' in head?

[ChocoOrange]

Hey, I'm not sure where to post this, could either fall in to Health Anxiety or general, or it's just normal. I'm not sure. Anyway, I've noticed that if I hear a very droning/repetitive sound, for example a phone vibrating on a desk, for a prolonged amount of time, it'll get 'stuck' in my head. Like, I'll still hear the vibrating sound long after the phones stopped vibrating, just in my head, I know it's in my head, I know the sounds stopped, but it stays in my head for a while sometimes. Is this a normal thing, anxiety/OCD, or something else? It's always happened to me and I've always wondered about it. It's just now starting to worry me (anxiety flare right now).

Wondering if anyone had any insight. Thanks.

[ChocolateButton]

You know when you hear a song and then it gets stuck in your head (and it's almost always a song you don't even like!), well I think what you're describing is maybe something like that. Like your brain trying to 'make sense' of the noise, or it latches onto the 'rhythm' of the noise, you know?

I don't know about you but I don't think I ever don't have something sounding in my head, be it a song, or a line of dialogue from a television programme, or something someone said - it's like my brain always has to be "chatty" :D I often find myself repeating, in my head, a sentence someone has said. No idea why, it doesn't have to be a particularly interesting sentence. Happens with 'real life' people or with people off the telly.

I'm pretty sure this is nothing for you to worry about. Maybe it is an anxiety thing or an OCD thing, but if it is, then that's fine :)

Edited to add - you said you've always had this. That kinda proves it's nothing worrying doesn't it, if it's gone on for several years! :)

[ChocoOrange]

True on the duration, I feel like it's become a lot more noticeable recently, but again I'm in an anxiety flare-up right now so maybe I'm just fixated on it more. It's generally something with a rhythm it latches to, yeah, like a ringing noise, vibrating noise, something rotating in a rhythm etc.

I never just hear like a one off noise, like I don't hear a car beep and then it repeats in my head. It has to be a rhythm. It just seems quite strange and I finally wanna have an answer on why it happens haha

[ChocolateButton]

I know from experience that if the anxiety is flaring up it tends to exaggerate everything else! So it probably will be making it more noticeable, or making you focus on it more.

Ah that does fit with what I said then, if it's rhythmical things that do this for you as opposed to 'singular' sounds.

Maybe you just have a 'musical' brain :D

[ChocoOrange]

Maybe haha. It's pretty annoying now I'm so focused on it, a friend of mine said they get it and it's normal but I can't find much on the ol' tinterwebs about it, just about songs going around your head. Not sounds

[Zomboy]

Hi ChocoOrange

The same thing happens to me sometimes, like I would hear an ambulance passing by and the sound of the siren would still repeat in my head.

I don't know about you but for me it sometimes felt like I could actually hear it :scared15: ,I also noticed it the first time during a anxiety spiral last summer.

[ChocoOrange]

Yeah I think I just know it's not happening, the sounds very real for some reason. It's so strange! I really wish I knew more about it/how to stop it, it certainly doesn't promote clear thinking

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi ChocoOrange

The same thing happens to me sometimes, like I would hear an ambulance passing by and the sound of the siren would still repeat in my head.

I don't know about you but for me it sometimes felt like I could actually hear it :scared15: ,I also noticed it the first time during a anxiety spiral last summer.

Another member, BrokenAge, had the same with ambulance noises.