What happens when a Fall Out Boy song gets stuck in your head and never leaves?
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
For nearly 14 years, it barely factored into my day-to-day life.
Then, without warning, it became central to my day-to-day life.
I spent years being driven to near derangement by a track I never really liked in the first place.
It was not unusual that I would have a song stuck in my head.
Earworms were not uncommon for me, though theyd eventually get forced out by something else.
Its Hard to Say was different.
After our trip to Greece, Id hoped an unrelated move from London to Brighton would shake it free.
George naturally assumes Master could finally be the thing that does him in.
), stuck song syndrome happens far less frequently.
The brain itches back, resulting in a loop.
The more you attempt to suppress it, the worse it gets.
This tracked to my experience.
In the end, Laughton went on SSRIs to control the associated anxiety.
External stimuli can set it off but so can internal states like our mood and biological rhythms.
That made sense to me, but it didnt give me an idea of how to shake it.
I wasnt feeling extreme stress, so I could rule that out.
It didnt work and, fearing TMJ, I abandoned it.
For one, tempo.
Faster songs tend to be more sticky than slower songs, said Sloan.
The BPM is fast, too: 164, along the lines of High Hopes by Panic!
Sloan also invokedphonological loops, which can force a song to linger longer than expected.
In a phonological loop, you repeat something over and over again, which creates short-term memories.
However, when you get music stuck in your head, the phonological loop breaks.
Rather than being used temporarily and discarded, the loop calcifies.
Its a neurological failure, said Sloan.
The answer was no: If anything, I could do with learning them more.
But he was not immune to others music.
Its a different song every four months, he said.
But I was also out of options, so I reached out to hypnotherapistSara Loiperdinger.
That I couldnt tune out these noises ended up guiding my session.
So we created a scenario wherein someone steps in and allows me to find that same quiet.
Maybe then I could wake up to silence.
Loiperdinger also tapped into something that felt integral to the way I respond to aural stimuli.
In 2007,Infinity on Highs release date was circled in my diary.
Maybe, despite my insistence to the contrary, unresolved trauma was to blame.
I was having the time of my life, but I was constantly overwhelmed.
In Tokyo, that wasnt true.
I could see a giant figure of Godzilla from my window.
Every day I walked ten miles, seeking every sensation I could, soaking up the sensory overload.
It turns out that one way to clear songs from my mind is by bombarding myself with sensory inputs.
Does that mean Ill need to visit Tokyo every time this happens?
That depends on the songs that get stuck.
