Posted by Mistica on December 20, 1998, at 16:08:24
In reply to Re: EEG?, posted by Stuuvert on December 2, 1998, at 15:18:24
> The neurologist I consulted didn't see a need for an EEG. He was quick to attribute the symptoms to OCD. However, I have no other symptoms of OCD. I don't understand why doctor after doctor is diagnosing it. My major symptoms are unipolar depression and dysthymia. I have a few symptoms of ADD-scattered thoughts, poor memory, inability to concentrate. Could the music be related to ADD? Sometimes it gets so loud (or overpowering) that I can't squeeze another thought into my brain. Maybe a variation of the laser cure for Parkinson's, or electro-convulsive shock therapy would help? At this point I'll try anything.
I don't think you neccessariy need to have any other symptoms, you could have just this one obsession, or this could be the first of more.
I've been diagnosed with ADHD and OCD, both of which I have had problems with all of my life. The various symptoms of OCD I have had through my life have come and gone in spurts that usually last 2-4 years give or take. I can see why the neurologist would suspect OCD, seen I have had a similar difficulty with hearing songs that I could not get out of my head, although I have never experienced it as being "loud"or "overpowering." I understand the difficulty of not being able to get other thoughts into your head, or having to listen to your own thoughts through or around music. I have found that the intrusive thoughts that many complain of with OCD, relates to my own intrusive thoughts, but there is also another factor that plays a role in my scattered or irrelevant "side-thoughts," that is they happen more and are more scattered or free-flowing when I am bored or underaroused. Also I find that even though the SSRI's can eliminate OCD symptoms for me they cannot get rid of the scattered/irrelevant/side thoughts that are always there unless I take Ritalin. I believe that for me the intrusive/scattered thoughts are a product of symptoms interacting or playing upon symptoms.
The neuro. was probably onto something when suggesting OCD, at least in that, regardless of whether a person has ocd (however, it's easire for brain to get stuck or fixated when have ocd) when a person attends to the fact that they are hearing a song and subsequently try to ignore or get the song out of their head they are perpetuating the very thing they are trying to rid themselves of !! Have you ever heard the saying or ? What happens when you try not to think of pink elephants. This is what I am refering to above, I am not suggesting that there is anything you can do to not think of the pink elephants (or music), i.e., I am not saying it's mind over matter and you just "have to do it, because no one else can do it for you," however I am not saying you can't either! In a sense you are a prisoner of your own brain, you need someone to guide you out. Maybe a cognitive-behaviorial approach could help you to retrain your brain.
I also wonder if a stimulant (Ritalin) would help to shut-off this music. My experience with Ritalin has been that it "calms" my thoughts or my brain, so that I don't have so many thoughts running ramped thru my head, at a little to high of a dose it shuts my head/thoughts off completely as if there are neurons firing, no electrical activity, and I go to sleep.
I'm sorry I rambled so much, but I think I understand, I can empathize, I think there are a lot of similarities between your symptom and mine. Please consider what I have said!
p.s. did you by any chance mention to this neuro. that you were worried you may be schizophrenic, if so he may have been thinking that you have ocd and are experiencing a hypochria symptom (i.e., because you "feared" you had schizophrenia).
poster:Mistica
thread:1295
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990829/msgs/1663.html