Does anyone else feel intense emotions when listening to music? I got out of a relationship last week which was depleting my energy hugely. I'm gaining my "me" levels back more each day. Music and singing feels ultra uplifting at the moment. Is this a typical ADHD thing? I've always felt this way, but only this last year have I been made aware I may be neuro-divergent. Have an awesome day everyone! Sharing the happy bug! 😎
Posts and comments here share personal experience — not medical advice. For treatment questions, talk to a clinician.
Music is great for neurodivergent people, due to the way it affects brain chemistry (Oxy, dopamine, and even endorphins). That’s why listening to ambient or instrumental music can put me to sleep. But neurodivergent people are especially stimulated, and de-stressed, through creativity, due to our heightened sensitivity/emotional nature that lends us to artistic pursuits.
YES, THIS!! I hyper-focus on my music and tie the lyrics with my emotions/mood constantly! What I listen to depends on the emotion I am feeling in that moment.. I feel as if I have attached particular albums or songs to the different chapters of my life 😅 It’s like a flashback memory that immediately hits me like dopamine when finishing a task 😅😜
Absolutely!!! EDM, some songs will just give me this crazy feeling of happiness. But I can listen to a slow song that I consider an old girlfriend break up song, and still get sad by it. Two decades later. I’m seeing how it works. I’m curious if anybody else is like me in the sense that they find a new song, love it, and listen to it nonstop until they’re essentially sick of it. I do that all the time.
I was diagnosed this year with adhd at 41 ! I’ve played guitar from the age of 10 and worked as a musician. I only recently realised I see sounds, different frequencies have a different colour. I thought that every one got that. It’s the most amazing light show when I close my eyes and listen too or play guitar. I aways have a crazy sound track to my day in my head , this weeks been the theme from Smokey and Bandit! That really show my age. Music keeps me going. My ex wife is a jazz singer and when we split up i couldn’t enjoy music for a long time. Now I collect vinyl agin thanks too my step daughter, play in a band with my partner. Playing guitar for me showed me how to focus/ hyper focus in other places
Definitely relate! Music is the hobby/hyperfocus that’s stuck the longest with me I even turned it into a halfway lucrative side gig. It kinda centers me, keeps me from getting too sidetracked when I’m trying to be productive and gives me a bit of a shield when I have to go out into the world and deal with crowded places lol
Yea absolutely! It’s normal & you’re not weird at all for being super into music. It’s actually one of the joys of ADHD: to go super deep super fast into art you enjoy and to be in the moment with it. Some use it as a tool to focus on something else (e.g., while working), some use it as a way to process stuff and just be and enjoy, some - something in between. I wouldn’t even call it an addiction (unless it prevents you from taking care of yourself at a basic level). It can just be *your* thing and you can fully enjoy it without shame.
Yes and Yessss!! 🎶😄 I must, MUST listen to my music 🎶 from video games every day. I even have 3 separate playlists for three moods: Happy, Calm, and Loud (action)!!!!!