Mental repetition of phrases/words ?

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y0
who does this?

i find myself repeating phrases over and over again in my mind, sometimes is hard to stop, can be any phrase , important or not, i dont know how my brain chooses them, maybe its random
i want to know if there is a name for this, i searched online and found something similar but it was verbal

how to stop it? is stressfull

Oh yes, I have wondered about this; never met somebody else who experienced this issue. This problem also plagues me fairly often, and the phrases are usually utterly irrelevant, idiotic, or somewhat nonsensical. It can be a phrase I heard somewhere, or seem to be randomly strung together with no particular inspiration (especially the nonsensical ones.)

I have not found how to solve it yet, unfortunately. All I know at the moment is that it seems to occur more frequently when I have just woken up, am half asleep, or otherwise not intensely focused. Perhaps immerse yourself in an interesting activity, movie, book, etc.? I believe it only goes until you are so distracted that you did not realize that it had stopped right away.

I don't know the name for this, but I wish my repetition of phrases were mental and stayed inside my skull instead of coming out of my mouth. When it comes out of your mouth, it's called palilalia.

My counselor talks to me about perseveration all the time and he's told me I am definitely not schizophrenic without me having asked. Although, he doesn't mention perseveration with me repeating things in my head. But I do that too and I don't really find that stressful exactly. When I am more relaxed it tends to come out of my mouth more. It doesn't last for an uncomfortable length of time without being unable for it to stop. It does happen frequently though.

I often repeat parts of past conversations ad nauseum, but not individual words. I ruminate, I guess. I also repeat variations of those phrases, as in "what if I said that?". It's annoying, useless and hard to stop. The only way I can stop it is to start talking out loud or engage in a conversation (a lesser evil).

ou.. schizophrenia is scary

I get that, in fact I am doing it right now.

I have had it my whole life. If i ever do decide to discard this life, that would probably be the main reason, it is hugely annoying. Its like a machine caught in an infinite loop.

I have it with music in my head, I can keep on "hearing" the same piece of music. There is a waltz from Chopin for example which "accompanies" me now for several years.
It happens especially when I have for example to go downtown, because I have to go and buy clothes or anything and to me it feels like a "protection" from all the stimuli in this big city with all that people and sounds and movements and colors, because I have severe sensory issues.

It's a vague theory, but could it possibly be a sort of "mental stimming"? To me it feels like that.

Eloa - I think you have a good point about mental stimming. It's as though having something already in your mind prevents the influx of sensory input as you walk around, perhaps shops or somewhere.

I get this too. Do you think it's to do with noticing the details rather than the bigger picture (an autistic trait)?

For example, I can suddenly realise that my mind is repeating the company name I saw on the side of a passing van and sometimes this irrelevant info moves into the forefront of my mind and I realise it's there and think, 'Oh, I can drop that bit now'.

Related to this, I am a cyclist and when I'm on the roads, where it's vital to concentrate on numerous things at once, I cannot afford to have needless info getting into my mind. So, frequently, I think of song to purposely get stuck in my head for the journey (not actually listening to it on the journey though) and then it keeps out that bombardment of info that otherwise crowds in.

I used to take advantage of this occurance too, when food shopping. As I was adding up the running total of my shopping in the basket, I would hold the running total in mind. Often though, on the way home, the total would still be repeating itself in my mind and I'd have to remember to forget it - if that makes sense!

Yeah - It's also on my route to work that this happens when I'm cycling, rather than a more relaxed ride just for fun. Maybe it's related to having to think about numerous things.

Sometimes my thoughts go into the tune I've got stuck in my mind and I subconsciously use it to my advantage. E.g. When I'm at traffic lights and they go green, my thoughts sometimes go into the tune that's stuck in my head - so it often goes, 'Green, Green, Green!' to the tune of a song that my church sings, that goes, 'Grace, Grace, Grace!' Hehe. But it works!

It is an annoying and stressful occurence but having thought about it here properly for the first time, I'm grateful and relieved that my mind is working with it, when under pressure, to cope rather than cave in. I think I'd struggle to get myself to work otherwise.

Interesting

I experiece this also. I will often repeat the same word over and over, sometimes for an extended period time. This can stretches over days albeit on a more intermittent basis. Others can be on an intense but transient basis.

Examples are the following words:

Fenugreek (I commonly repeat this word in my head for no reason whatsoever)
Duplicitous (This adjective is more of a recent product of the rotary engine of inconsequential inner-monologue)
Honiara (Capital of the Solomon Islands)
Reinventing The Wheel (Example of an idiom that I have been repeating to myself recently)

To me it feels a bit like the subjacent of having a song or poem on loop in your head.