Words stuck in your head- perservation/echolalia?

Post Reply New Topic

I know many people get songs stuck in their heads, but does anyone here get words stuck in their heads?

It happens quite often that words will just randomly surface in my mind, with no relation to whatever I am doing or thinking about at the time, and will continue to repeat and surface over and over again. The word of the day is "variegated." I think I read it in my psychology book, because I can picture the area of the page I read it on, but I know it's part of a larger phrase which I can't remember, and did not know the definition of the word until I looked it up in the dictionary.

I mentioned this before in another thread, and someone said this may be a form of echolalia or perservation. Similar things happen to me with conversations, for example, after I speak to someone, sometimes the last things that were said will loop over and over in my head. So if someone said "Oh, that's a good idea, well, I'll see you later, bye" that phrase will keep replaying in my mind, without my concious awareness. When I do become aware of it, I can usually stop it by thinking about other things.

So does this happen to others here? And is it a form of echolalia or perservation?

Yes! This happens all the time to me. One word or phrase stuck in some kind of a loop, until I think I'll go mad. It's like I'm short circuiting or something. Maybe that's why I'd rather have a song playing through my mind over and over.
I once had a job type-setting for a newspaper and I spent hours and hours in front of a keyboard typing. My problem was, as I typed, I read. I would get a word or phrase "stuck" in my head and it was almost impossible to type because of the distraction of the words playing over and over. I would try to completely blank out all thoughts but it was so difficult to do that. When this happens at home, I try to speak the word or phrase out loud a few times and then sometimes it will go away. I get funny looks when I use this technique out in public though (hehehe, oh well, I don't care, let them look).

That doesn't happen to me with words, but music, I'll often get one line of song stuck in my head, and I have a heck of time trying to get rid of it once it happens.

sometimes it use to drive me to a breakdown. I remember a breakdown I had on the afternoon of Wedensday October 9, 1991. I was on a class trip, and I heard the song "where does my heart beat now" on the way up to the campsite from a radio in the bus. The song got stuck into my head, and the part after the final chorus got stuck repeating over and over again. Imagine hearing all day.....

"Naaa-naaa-na-na-naa-Naaa-naaa-na-naaa"

While in the foreground, celine dion was screaming

"I feel it getting stronger-stronger-stronger-yeaaaaaaaa!! !"

It drove me to tears, I could not get it out of my head, my brain, which normaly held a large array of songs in que for me to play, was empty. I endured...

"I feel it getting stronger-stronger-stronger-yeaaaaaaaa!! !"

for about 24 hours straight. With much effort, I finally forced it out, with Brenda Lee's "Christmas tree rock" becasue it was in the movie Home Alone.

Civet,

I also exhibit the behavior you are describing from time to time. The behavior typically manifests itself whenever I am exposed to an unfamiliar word or phrase that I find to be qualitatively appealing. When this happens, I am apt to frequently refer to the word or phrase subconsciously, apply it often to situations around me, and quickly grant it a disproportionately active role in my vocabulary. As time passes, the word or phrase will remain an active part of my vocabulary, but its usage will revert to an ordinary level.

I just looked up echolalia and perseveration. Here are the definitions.

Echolalia: The immediate and involuntary repetition of words or phrases just spoken by others, often a symptom of autism or some types of schizophrenia.

Perseveration: Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder.


I would state that based on the definitions above, echolalia is the most accurate description of the behavior you are identifying.

I also repeat words, either aloud or silently, inside my head.
It also happens when I am reading something. It's as if I couldn't control my brain anymore.
When I repeat words too much, they loose their meaning and I feel dazed.


Do you know what is this behavior:
I often have difficulties recording what I am being told. I catch some words, I know someone is speaking to me, but my mind is blank. Sometimes I listen to the sounds in my head afterwards and I can make it out. Otherwise, I ask the person who's talking to me to repeat...once..twice... or several times again...

Something similar happened to me, Scoots. A friend played "7 Nation Army" by "The White Stripes" and I had it in my head ALL night. I couldn't sleep, because the repetitive rhythm of the drumbeat would not stop pounding itself through my head.



Does echolalia have to be spoken, though? It only happens inside my head. And it also happens when I read text. It will also happen with words that I have said or written myself, as well.



I don't know what that is called, but I also have trouble processing dialogue sometimes. It often happens that someone will be speaking to me, and I will not understand what they've said until a few seconds later, usually after I've asked them to repeat it, and they've started to say it again. It's an odd feeling, because I hear the spoken words, but the meaning does not process immediately. It's like a delayed translation or something.

Civet,

Upon reading the definition of echolalia again, I concur with your suggestion that it implies verbal repetition. Perhaps there isn't a technical term for the behavior you have described. My behavior mimics your description better than it does the definition of echolalia.

I often find myself imitating other peoples actions, accents or persona's (including characters in books I'm deeply immersed in) - I've been told that's called echopraxia, maybe repeating words in the head is echomentia? I do it all the time. It is almost a comfort thing. I'll repeat a word or a thought, or a number over and over in my head - I think it blocks out other possible thoughts, or fills in blank bits. I also 'type' words that are difficult. The appropriate fingers twitch, as I type out entire sentences that run through my head.

Absolutely
I recently had the name Barack Obama stuck in my head, but I think that is because it is so much fun to say. Believe it or not I actually remember having the word variegated stuck in my head recently in reference to watercolor. It is typically a very unique word or one I am not very familiar with that gets lodged in my thoughts. Sometimes I remember where I saw them, but on a couple occasions the word seemed to come out of nowhere.
I also have this problem with understanding spoken words. And like you said I hear them in my head and then figure it out, usually while the other person is repeating themselves for me. My grandfather used to get quite annoyed at my asking for him to repeat, so eventually I just started replying, " i don't know." He found this equally annoying though.
This happens a lot when their are accents involved or the person is elderly.

Once I had a job where I misunderstood someone to say"throw away this steak" I found later when I returned with the empty plate he had actually said, " go weigh this steak." No one had ever mentioned weighing steaks before so it did not occur to me. I just went with what I thought was the most logical "translation."

based on what jawshaw wrote, I'd have to say yes. I catch myself doing this too quite often. It usually happens to me when I'm zoned out and in my own world. A while back I was waiting for my food at a culvers drive thru. One of the workers there brought my food out and as she handed it to me, she blurts out "here you go". I was off in my own world, and as I was coming out of it, I found myself repeated exactly what she had just said, but I caught myself in the middle of the word "you" and turned it into a "thank you".

I was singing the Oscar Meyer Wiener song for about two weeks - which is funny since I'm a vegan . . .

So, yeah, that does happen to me, too . . .

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Wiener, that is what I'd truly love to beeeee . . .

[quote="Fiddler"]I also repeat words, either aloud or silently, inside my head. It also happens when I am reading something. It's as if I couldn't control my brain anymore. When I repeat words too much, they loose their meaning and I feel dazed.[quote]

The same thing happens to me! Sometimes a perfectly common word - "can't," for instance - will get stuck in my head. My brain keeps repeating it over and over and after a while, I'm not sure it's even a word anymore. It sounds wrong, it looks wrong, it becomes completely meaningless. Very annoying!

Yeah, this does happen to me a lot. Especially before I sleep. Usually it tends to be accompanied by an image of me sitting in a comfy blue chair and repeating the phrase to some unknown listener. It has helped me a lot though. I remember what I read an I use it to spice up my essays in school.

And songs do get stuck in my head. When they do they tend to be exactly the way they were played to me, so I can listen to it over and over again The only band whose music I can't do this with is Radiohead...which happens to be my favourite band Their music is so complex

Yes, it happens to me quite often that a word or a phrase -less commonly a gesture- gets stuck indide my head and I repeat it again and again -sometimes in my mind, sometimes but not as often out loud. As it was written, it is like I do not control my brain anymore.

I also have somethings which seems to be perseveration, but more rarely. It is only when I am anxious or subject to a certain "emotion" that I can not control or manage.

I also have difficulties recording what I am being told, like Fiddler. I often have to ask people to repeat what they said, though I know I heard their words.

Loy

Do you have any statistics on how much people do echo-something?
I've explained the "blank meaning phenomenum" to one of my friend, and asked her if she did the same. She doesn't. I am going to ask my relatives and other friends too.

I find that kind of funny. Do you think part of the reason you Radiohead so much is because you DON'T get their songs stuck in your head?

It's also funny because Radiohead's music has such a repetitive quality sometimes. I'm mainly familiar with their more recent CD, "Hail to the Theif." All I can think of right now is "The raindrops, the raindrops the raindrops, the raindrops, the raindrops, the raindrops...." I can hear segments of the song in my mind very clearly, as I can with most music. I like Radiohead a lot, but they have this odd way of putting me in a particular "funk," I think their repetition and drawn out instrumental bits do odd things to my head, sometimes I even feel disconnected from my body, more often I get lethargic.



I think I only do that with regards to laughter. It's rather annoying and embarrassing, because someone will say something funny, and I'll laugh along with everyone else. But then, I might keep laughing and not be able to stop. Or, I will stop laughing for a minute, or even a few minutes, and randomly start laughing again. Sometimes I am thinking of the funny thing, other times, I'm not, and the laughter just begins again on its own. This is made even worse because my eyes always tear when I laugh, so it can look like I'm crying. I got particularly picked on for this in Jr. High.



Can you please explain what you mean by the "blank meaning phenonmenon?" I'm not sure what behavior you're referring to.