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Okay, we all know about dictionary.com and a thousand other sources to find the meaning of a word. But, what do you do if you know the meaning without remembering the word?
This came to mind on the "mondegreen" post when we were talking about the tendency to get songs stuck in one's head. I know there is a word for it, but I can't remember it. Anyone? (The most annoying thing is that I saw a commercial last night and now I can't stop singing, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" AAARRGGGHH, help me, it won't go away!!!! I'd give my right arm to anyone who has a cure for it. Then again, I'm left-handed. Heehee!)
This came to mind on the "mondegreen" post when we were talking about the tendency to get songs stuck in one's head. I know there is a word for it, but I can't remember it. Anyone? (The most annoying thing is that I saw a commercial last night and now I can't stop singing, "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" AAARRGGGHH, help me, it won't go away!!!! I'd give my right arm to anyone who has a cure for it. Then again, I'm left-handed. Heehee!)
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Re: what's the word...?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 8:57 PMHeather, i would do a Google search for online thesauruses. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 9:48 PMThanks for a good idea, but it won't work. A thesaurus will find a similar word, but you have to start with one word. In this case, I have a concept, an idea, a bunch of words trying to convey something. I did search for the idea of "songs stuck in the head," and all I found was "earworm." I'm qutie certain that there is another word, bui for he life of me I can't come up iwih itl -
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Re: what's the word...?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 9:55 PMI have seen it as Earworm several times. Wikied Earworm, got
"Some sufferers from earworm prefer the term "repetunitis", "stuck tune syndrome", "sound virus" or, if sufficiently acute, "melodymania."
Earworms may be songs or tunes that become stuck in the phonological loop, the part of the brain that rehearses verbal information in Baddeley's Model of Working Memory."
But no other obvious candidate. Sorry, I hate that. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 10:54 PMThe cure for this is to hum Led Zep's Kashmir - or just run it though your head.
it will magically erase ANY song that is stuck there! -
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Wed, March 14, 2007 - 11:01 PMThat's good to know!! Thanks for the tip:)
I don't think there is a word other than earworm for this condition.... you're just having a brainfart!
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 9:58 AMWhen I read about earworms, they actually said that really hot cinnamon candy or gum would get rid of them. Something about intense flavor distracting that part of your brain.
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 12:34 AMWell thanks for nothing, ex-friend Heather. Now I have that gawd-awful song stuck in MY head. Kashmir isn't working, either. Nothing will remove that insidious musical tapeworm except maybe the llama song, but then I'll have the llama song stuck in my head, and that's no good either.
www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php
I'm just in Aspergian hell. Only thing to do is listen to Jpop on You Tube till dawn. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 3:28 AMIt's called a few things but the main one I can think of is musical hallucination, which is a condition where the brain hears phantom music. Musical hallucination at it's lowest form is having a song stuck in your head, at it's highest form it's a living nightmare because the song appears to the sufferer to be real.
Psychopathology Journal believe, and I agree, that cases will rise and rise and will become far more common as people are inundated by music from radio, televisions, shopping centres, lifts and so on and so forth.
Interesting side-note, it's not actually your ears that cause this problem but your brain which generates random impulses that can be interpreted as sounds, which may explain how Beethoven composed music even after total lose of his hearing.
Having said that I just glanced back at why I was answering the question and now *I* have the song stuck in my head ... -
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 3:34 AMJust thought, the word you might have heard for this is repetunitis? -
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 4:34 AMEventually, if you look, you'll find the word t match the definition.
It's a small world after all, Oh Mandy. -
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 7:51 AMgreat thread!
you guys are hysterical!
thanks
Jon
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 8:02 AMshannon... it's official, i am peeved at you. for now i have manilow crooning in MY head. dash it all. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 9:40 AMin my circle, we call it "earwig"
and thank goodness i already had an existing one this morning, or i would've fallen prey to the barry manilow earCURSE.
;-)
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 7:00 AMllama llama llama llama llama llama DUCK!
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 10:02 PMThanks for all of your assistance, and the catty remarks. :-)
I tried Kashmir and wound up morphing into Dazed and Confused, but I'm okay with that.
Along the way of my meandering mind, however, I did think of dozens of other really annoying songs that have done this to me. Sure, maybe it's a little catty revenge of my own, but I am curious about what songs get everyone else. Here are a few of mine....
- Hanson - I'm not even going to type the words or I'll get sucked in again
- Inspector Gadget theme - I had a major problem with this for weeks. I had finally gotten over it when a dear "friend" called me at 3 am and hummed the tune again and hung up. I came very close to hopping in my car and driving to his house to go beat the crap out of him.
- Some Kind of Wonderful - I work at a hospital and whenever a nurse has to give a narcotic, they need another nurse to serve as witness. One particular nurse always calls out, "Can I get a witness?"
- Signed, Sealed, Delivered - Not sure if that is the title, but I have lots of signing, sealing and delivering in my duties at work. I had that going for several hours tonight.
So what are your favorite sources of repetunitis - or least favorite as the case may be?
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 15, 2007 - 11:09 PM< clears throat, steps forward, taps the mic>
Her name was LO-la,
She was a SHOW-girl... -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 4:18 AM<<Her name was LO-la,
She was a SHOW-girl...>>
::Screams::
I went bowling last night and when I got there "Don't Cha (wish your girlfriend was hot like me)" was playing and I laughed, outloud .. to myself ... I really need a life ..
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 9:17 AMHis name was Rico, he was a dancer...
Thanks :-?
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:09 AMSimpleton, again I say you are evile!
My sister and I used to use earworm infection as a twisted sibling torture. If one was pissed at or just wished to annoy the other it really worked well. I would call her or duck my head in her room and yell "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates...." or "I'm your ice cream man...." (Very old, even ancient references.)
The sad thing though is my pathetic flip-side version. I'm convinced I have musical dyslexia. I can know all the words to a song but forget the title or know the title but be unable to remember the group. Which may not seem that bad but last night I had to text my sister to ask if it was Heart that sang Magic Man. So sad. And I can't blame it on age because when I was 12 I put a month's concerted effort into retaining the fact that is was Led Zeppelin that sang Stairway to Heaven. Oh the shame. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:19 AMWhen I was in college the first time around, my roommate and I both had old cars with only AM radio. We would always get each other with old, annoying songs. One day, she actually got me singing "You Light Up My Life." I was in the kitchen making dinner and she stood right outside the doorway and hummed it. That's all it took. The next thing you know, I'm singing along with Karen Carpenter, oh my.
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 12:40 PMAhhh.... I knew you'd find me here. You could never resist an earworm. Pwa-haha!
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:20 AM...the hottest spot north of Havana...
Thanks again. I just spent a whole shower singing about Lola and the gang. I'm in for a wondeful night already. Argh!
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:10 AMHis name was Rico, he wore a showgirl -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:44 AM"he wore a showgirl"
Now that's a neat trick. I think that lyric might be bit off =:0) but still...
"They were young and they had each other....."
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 12:44 PMWait, wait... I've got another one...
<dance hands>
If you like pina coladas,
And getting caught in the rain...
If you're not into yoga,
If you have half a brain....
(scurries away giggling.)
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 12:10 PMI have found that the H-Bomb of earworms is "Greensleeves". It's guaranteed to drive any other earworm right out of my brain. Of course, then it's stuck in my brain for a few hours, but at least it's a pretty song.
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:38 AMin psych training they told us it was a sign of stress.
;o) -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:43 AMno no no.
must step in here and say Debbie Boone (and you) sang "You light Up My Life."
Karen Carpenter gave us earworms with "We've Only Just Begun," "Close to You," "Top of the World," and many more infectious tunes.
May they crawl in your heads all day! -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:51 AMNot Didi Conn? Oh, the infamy! The lies of Hollywood!! -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 12:46 PMNow I really hate to do this to you all but a few weeks ago I watched an epsiode of The X Files that had an "I Dream of Jeanie" reference in it and they sung the theme tune. Oddly enough there is a lady who lives near me also called Jeanie so I started singing the theme tune each time I went past her house, then it was each time I went past her road and now ... as the addiction spirals out of control .. it's all the time. I can't get it out of my head!
Come on .. you all know how it goes (if you don't, idreamofjeanie.com) -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 12:56 PMA friend and I used to leave the worst song we could think of on each other's answering machines, purposefully earworming the other. I'd come home, click the machine, "Youuuung giiiirl get out of my miiiiiind...." Dammit! -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 1:09 PMStrange, I used to do that to my enemy. Oh, and my sister - but she deserves it because she sings Celine Dion all the time. I don't mind Celine, but to sing a Celine song a strong voice is an absolute must. ::shakes head:: -
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 2:29 PMI just went on that I Dream Of Jeanie website and now I can't get it out of my head, I'll be singing that forever - thanks a lot! ;) -
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 2:31 PMWhat can I say, it's a service I offer ... not like the other services you may have heard I offer, that was a young and foolish mistake!!!
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:13 PMA little while ago, I had a patient named Cecilia, you're breakin' my heart, you're shakin' my confidence, baby!
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Re: what's the word...?
Sat, March 17, 2007 - 7:52 AMI wonder if there's still a lesbian bar in Allentown--or was it Bethlehem?--named Candida? They had the Tony Orlando atrocity on the jukebox and it was always playing. "Oh Candida, we can make it together"
I always thought of the yeast infect. No thanks.
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 10:05 PMOh, yes, you are right. And that reminds me of something I heard shortly after Jerry Garcia died. Jerry wakes up in a concert hall and finds himself at a table with Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrisson. He sees instruments on the stage and says, "Wow, so this is heaven?" Jim leans over and says, "Well, not really." Karen Carpenter steps up to the mike... "Just like me, they want to be, close to you...."
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Re: what's the word...?
Fri, March 16, 2007 - 3:57 PMin psych training they told us it was a sign of stress.
;o)
I think people with autism have it a lot, too. When I was a child, I heard beautiful, original orchestral music all the time. It was wonderful. My mother only allowed us to listen to classical music when we were small. Then, alas, the real world intruded, and earworms resulted.
I think that music was at it's cheesiest in the 70s. Not that it is any better or worse now, but just, for cheesiness, that was the worst decade. "The Streak", all the songs and "artists" already cited, Seth Swirsky jingles, "Disco Duck"-- it was just the worst decade for musical camembert.
By the way, this thread has become evil. It is the Word Freaks torture chamber. -
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Sat, March 17, 2007 - 9:06 PMif you guys think this place is dark, you should watch the plethora of flotsam that crosses my pale excuse for a brain...
you guys, Tribe Net, this thread are a pure relief from the cobwebs and gremlins in there! -
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 7:25 AMduke...duke...duke of earl...
apologies all. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 7:29 AMDid you know that if you sing Duke of Earl and watch the dotted lines while driving on the highway, you're going 55 if the lines pass with the duke, duke, duke parts. A stand-up comic mentioned that once, so, naturally, I had to try it. He had a funny bit about arguing with the cop - What's the matter, sir? I was only doing Duke of Earl. - No, no, son, you were doing La Bamba!
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 8:36 AMI'm going to one up you all with.....The Chicken Dance! Mouhahaha. Supposedly - according to researchers who are studying earworms which are apparently one aspect of aging we all have to look forward to as we grow increasingly deaf - it's songs that we're the most familiar with that become earworms. (Hence all the top 10 songs and "classics" people here have mentioned and my non-lyrical but just as deadly music-bomb....c'mmon...I bet most of you even visualized the chicken dance... ;) And, no doubt why older people tend to hear hymns and older songs. The worst I ever had was "White Christmas" as sung by Bing Crosby which for a good year or so was the default song in my head. How that got in there as one of the most familiar songs in my head I can only guess at! -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 8:48 AM>>>>The worst I ever had was "White Christmas" as sung by Bing Crosby which for a good year or so was the default song in my head. How that got in there as one of the most familiar songs in my head I can only guess at! <<<<<<<<<<<
I blame the insidious and incessant Christmas-song-playing of department stores which now seems to start just after Halloween. In a few more years, they'll be starting in the summer. Eventually, we'll just be hearing it all year long. Half the time, we don't even consciously recognize that we are hearing it. It just worms its way on into our brains.
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 9:02 AMHeather - you're probably right. Or the incessant commercials for "classic" movies on TV during the increasingly long xmas season. It's funny, it doesn't really happen much anymore. I suspect it's because I listen to so much abstract music that my mind no longer seems to need to make my tinnitus into a specific song! The other one I get is Beethoven's Ode To Joy but that's because it's what my mom tends to hum by default (so no doubt well established within my brain :) and I generally only get it when I am actually walking around happy (it also seems to be a walking thing *shrug*) -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 9:37 AMYes particularly annoying when you hear some beautiful classical music playing and then you realise it's advertising spot cream or something equally ridiculous! -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 9:52 AMAh well, now we're off the topic of words but, while I'm happy Devo are making themselves some money, I'm sorry that Whip It is now entirely associated with middle aged women with little style dancing around dusting off their ceiling fan blades (NOT wearing a flower pot on her head or a particularly 50s housewife clone outfit which might make it sort of bearable). I'm also rather sad that The Clash's "Will you stay or will you go" is now about cold medicine and frumpy office clerks with the flu. A bit more than a sneeze away from Sandinista..... -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 9:54 AMI really should just get rid of the TV set again :) -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 10:12 AMFifi, I have NO idea what you are talking about - the joys of not having American or even British TV. I do, however, find myself watching The X Files in very badly dubbed German. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 10:16 AMAh, well, you're lucky then Sarah :) I'm talking about how once kind of obscure - or at least not mainstream - music is being used in TV ads. Which is because most of the people involved with licensing are around my age group! Fortunately, I've yet to hear Orgasm Addict (by the Buzzcocks) being used to sell Viagra ;) -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 10:54 AMLast year, I caught a dreadful one when Target was using "Baby Got Back" to sell backpacks for school kids. I couldn't believe they would take a song that so many see as horribly offensive and use it to sell stuff for kids. ...We got backpacks and I cannot lie... ugh! -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 11:09 AMWow! Heather...that's just...wow... It's not so much any integral offensiveness in the song for me (I don't find a celebration of voluptuous bottoms that offensive personally) but that a song celebrating the sexiness of a woman's physical assets would be used to sell children's...backpacks? Their asses? Who knows? So, it's the context that's offensive for me not the song itself. -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 9:04 PMMy thoughts exactly. I'm not exactly deficient in the derriere department myself and I can appreciate that some men appreciate that. But, the video was a bit disturbing and if I remember correctly the lyrics did go a bit far. I typically don't worry much about lyrics and would never condone censorship, but I don't have to like the objectification of women (or men for that matter) and some of the themes. And, as you said, using that particular song to market items for school children, well, yes, that is perhaps a bit distasteful.
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Unsu...
Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 10:24 AM-however, find myself watching The X Files in very badly dubbed German-
So that's what you're up to! ;)
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 8:43 AMPope, pope, pope,
Pope of Rome, pope, pope,
Pope of Rome, pope, pope,
Pope of Rome, pope, pope,
When I walk around St Peter's dome
Everyone knows I'm the Pope of Rome
And when I wear my hat like a cone
No one can stop me, oh no.
Oh I, oh I'm gonna save you!
Cuz I'm the Pope of Roooome
-Michael O'Donoghue
National Lampoon -
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 8:37 PMToday, at the peace rally, there was a man dressed like the Pope. My marionette, Spot, lifted his leg against him. I scolded Spot but my heart wasn't in it.
Last rally, Spot lifted a leg against the giant puppet-headed George Bush. That was a real crowd-pleaser.
Now I've got "The Pope Smokes Dope" by David Peel in my head.
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Re: what's the word...?
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 10:19 AM<< what's the word...? >>
GREASE is the word... heh. **lalalalalalala**
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Y'all are not going to believe this!
Sun, March 18, 2007 - 9:12 PMNo, I am not making up stories for attention. I swear on everything I hold dear. This is real... and a bit scary. We had a new patient admitted on the psych unit today. Her chief complaint was hearing music in her head. The details are a little unclear. Originally, we were told it was Patsy Cline's "Crazy" - which, of course, we all started singing uncontrollably until we were seriously reprimanded by the charge nurse. (So, then we had to settle with humming it under our breath.) Later, another nurse told me it was orchestra music, but either way it is obviously the earworm phenomenon.
Is anyone else a tad disturbed by the idea of someone being committed over the very issue that we've been discussing for weeks now? Oh my! Maybe we all need to look into some mental health care. Didn't someone else mention that the topic also came up in psych/MH training?
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Re: Y'all are not going to believe this!
Mon, March 19, 2007 - 5:08 AMIt is a bit worrying, I had a patient a while ago who had another illness but also had a very serious case of earworm which she would whistle. It's very strange to be treating someone for a serious illness and have them whistle the theme tune to the Pink Panther at the same time ..
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Re: Y'all are not going to believe this!
Mon, March 19, 2007 - 9:16 PMI think earworms might be an OCD thing. I know autistic people can really suffer from them, and autists often have OCD symptoms. A shrink told me he could prescribe medication if it got too bad for a patient. The thing is, with some people the music is an auditory hallucination. They know it isn't real, but it sounds like it is coming from outside themselves. Very upsetting. -
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Re: Y'all are not going to believe this!
Tue, March 20, 2007 - 2:57 AMYa know, last month I had myself convinced that I had Asperger's Syndrome, which is related to autism. I'm sure that I have a touch of OCD - just ask anyone who's lived with me and my fanatic assignment of one sponge for doing dishes, another for countertops, etc. I had a Russian exchange student staying here for a month and I would do the dishes again after he had done them.
Luckily, I don't actually hear the music. I just can't stop singing or humming along. It comes out of me, not out of my head. That's a good thing, right??
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Re: Y'all are not going to believe this!
Tue, March 20, 2007 - 8:10 PM
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 22, 2007 - 9:17 PMOh no, I have another one. Somehow, we were talking about syphillis at work tonight. There is a comic named John Volby or Valby or something like that. He sings unique songs.
To the tune of the Yesterday, by the Beatles...
Leprosy, I'm not half the man I used to be, all my skin is falling off of me, oh how did I get leprosy?
Syphillis, it started with a simple kiss, now it hurts to even take a piss, oh how did I get syphillis? -
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Re: what's the word...?
Thu, March 22, 2007 - 10:13 PMSick, man. Just, sick. And I hope my son doesn't see this because he'll think it's the funniest thing he ever read. It will never end. It's funny, but not as funny as it will be to a 16 yr. old boy.
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