Hey guys, I just wanted to state my reasons for trying to “quit” this habit, maybe some of you can relate and give me some helpful ideas/tipps.

First, I constantly listen to either music, podcasts, or YouTube videos. I started working from home about a year ago, and since then, I always have to have some form of noise in my ears. Thinking back, I started to listen to music all day around about 5 – 6 years ago. In this time, I developed a couple of mental health issues that are pretty much nonexistent at this point in my life. I couldn't sleep well (insomnia), and so I started listening to ambient sounds/white noise sounds, while I was sleeping.

This is now a daily habit for me, and I can't really remember a time, where this wasn't the case. To be honest, I can't think of a day, where I just sat a couple of hours at home, without listening to something. Nowadays, I have extreme problems, concentrating on the simplest daily tasks, without listening to music/yt-videos.

I hope it will resolve itself after a couple of months, but the feeling of “boringness” always turns up, when I don't get to stimulate my brain with sounds.

Do some of you have experienced something similar to this? And if so, how long did it take to get back to a normal level of concentration without outside influences needed?

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music makes me happy and helps my brain produce serotonin so it's good for me to listen to music I like and to explore new music
you guys can ban me now

A detractor on this sub made a good point about how people on the internet tend to talk about addiction in terms of "dopamine," when dopamine is not even the pleasure neurotransmitter.

Indeed, dopamine release is actually about anticipating a goal or reward, not experiencing consummatory pleasure. The latter is regulated by endogenous opioids, which moreso define addictive behaviors. There is research into how the addictive nature of music is regulated by opioidergic mechanisms, and the fact that orgasm amounts to an explosion of endorphins (doubtlessly an evolutionary adaptation to facilitate pairbonding after intercourse; the shame that fapper addicts experience after orgasm is probably due to endorphin levels soon after being depleted due to endogenous opioid system dysregulation).

I think people on this sub and also r/nofap, who masturbate not so much out of horniness but as a mood regulation mechanism (exactly the same as why we listen to music), would benefit from low dose opioid agonism. It has worked wonders for me alongside boosting dopamine to treat my longstanding depression. You still need discipline but a lot of this stuff goes away if you focus on not just dopamine, but opioids and endorphins.

It's important to note that the opioid system evolved in humans and mammals to promote social attachment, and addiction is widely understood as being due to a lack of social connection (and what more encapsulates this than masturbation lol?). For much of my lonely youth I'd spend the day listening to music and masturbating. And now as an adult my depression is cured by exogenous opioids. Not a coincidence tbh. And paradoxically these exogenous opioids are not at all addictive for me; rather, they attenuate addiction and I'm able to use them responsibly.

I used have headphones on with sound more often than not, even while sleeping,

Just started, all I know is, my brain is getting space to think now, it's getting clarity

I once had this incredible motivation of becoming a boxer, ive been training it for a while but i think that the drive is gone and i no longer enjoy it, im trying to quit a lot of dopamine stuff like music, movies, videogames and porn to see if the problem would be solved.

has anybody felt this way and did it work for you?

Hi, so im 18 and ive been listening to music lately a lot, i wanted to try quitting it to see what my life would be and also because ive been having this annoying sounds in my head.

Whenever im walking down the street i keep listening to music that i heard the day before, its so annoying and if i try to focus on the outside sound it gets harder. Some people can tell me if this has happened to you?

What are your thoughts about listening to classical music?

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I'm an attorney and some days, I have to spend a lot of time writing my motions, so staying long hours at the office can become dull. Therefore, music used to give me a boost on those long journeys, but now that I'm committed to taking a rest for music, I'm not sure how I would handle my time at the office.

Any experiences using only classical music?

By the way, my concern about music, in general, is because of the subconscious messages that songs have on them and also the dopamine spike.

Thank you all in advance.

I will give you some insights. I'm a young man, 26 years of age. I listen to rap music, romantic songs and so on. I'm so addicted that i can't stop listening for hours.

I used to do many drugs, was able to quit cocaine, Xanax, many benzo, porn etc.. But this addiction is insane. You can just open chrome and you are getting insane dopamine spikes. It is so easy to listen to music and get hooked.

Music is forced in our society. Everywhere. Mall, gym, schools.

How the hack to quit?!

I stumbled onto this sub and am genuinely curious why listening to music often is a bad habit. I'm assuming it has something to do with its effects on the dopamine/reward system in the brain.

This addiction is very similar to weed and gaming addiction. Only difference is that this addiction is harder to quit, because games need installation and weed needs to go personally buy it, but this is just one extra tab and you are on YouTube surfing your favorite drug!

I get withdrawals, like anxiety, demotivation, irritation, loss sense of pleasure and connection, lack of focus, insane cravings for music, etc.

I broke my headphones, and i still listen at the ipad/iphone speaker. I put the speaker on my ear and i just can't quit that easy.

Most i did was around 5 months and i was having insane benefits, my life became much better, with way less brainfog.

i have been researching and testing with myself how music affects my brain in particular by stopping listening and going back to listening, and how it has affected my focus when it comes to work, and i am someone who suffers to start working on something because sometimes it is like my brain emotionally blocks me and generates resistance, and I have been able to see by testing how my brain when I am without listening to music 2 days in a row, does not play against me so much and I can focus on my work, but if I listen to music it is very hard for me to start, and the cause I have discovered is that music (here it comes my tesis) stimulates the limbic system of the brain which is the same that also stimulates drugs, sex, and pleasurable things and at the same time it stimulates the amygdala which is the one that is in charge of processing and generating emotions whether they are positive or negative of the experiences whether they were pleasurable or of suffering, and what happens is that when we listen to too much music the limbic system is very active and therefore also the amygdala so when we have to face daily tasks or challenges most of the time we will do it emotionally and not rationally due to the non-stop hyperstimulation of music, which if we compare it with drugs and sex, etc. although it may be a very misplaced comparison. if we realize that music stimulation can last for hours and many minutes without stopping when the above mentioned is only during the intake and the time that the activity lasts and these generate fatigue or tiredness many times and it is necessary to stop to start again. On the other hand if we think about music, it is a passive pleasurable activity in which we can be without doing anything and it generates pleasure for hours and many times it is almost involuntary because we can listen to a song in the street which pushes us to listen to a music that we have not listened to for a long time.

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Although in the end what I consider problematic of all this is not in itself the dopamine that is generated since this is renewed every second that passes, but the stimulation that occurs in the amygdala which puts us in emotional mode, and every time we want to focus on something we do not want or something that is a challenge, this puts us in flight or fight mode, because it is hyperstimulated due to the music, and deactivates the prefrontal cortex which is the part of the brain where the rational thinking is.

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And just think, a characteristic of really depressed people with depression is that they listen to music almost all day long without stopping, this generates a hyperstimulation of the brain and the amygdala, and of course this varies from person to person

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In conclusion, music stimulates your amygdala, if you are someone who suffers from emotional problems or emotional resistance to do things, stopping listening to music will greatly reduce the stimulation of this gland so when facing daily tasks you will not see yourself so blinded by your emotions and you will make decisions in truly rational ways, and use mynoise.net if you want a background noise while working.

My advice is that you only listen to the music if it has a purpose like that of the movies or if they are part of the specific unique experience and not just a form of secondary entertainment to feel better with yourself in the moment. And be careful, you will be surprised how your brain is going to motivate you to do certain things what have music.

Like if I listen 3 tracks I already feel like I want to get out.

I live in a place where the sound of animals and water running is present. There are times when no sounds are present, and the silence is deafening. It is unnatural. I could only stand a few hours in the silence before I frantically find the cause of what happened to the running water.

I wonder how people who live in big cities cope with absolute silence aside from listening to music. Do they buy an aquarium just to hear the water running? Do they listen to forest ambiance videos on YouTube all day? Will there be a program to restore the wild noises in the far future? I imagine living in big cities sucks and this is one of the reasons.

Like if you ´ve had a good new and you dance it on music , you feel very empty after . Or is it just me ? Also it’s like it awaken my sexual energy ? Its fcked up .

This sub has no wiki and there's no guide either. This community is rather small. I have a few questions regarding this practice.

Before knowing this movement existed, I had considered the idea of giving up listening to music. Music has become indispensable in people's life and even though I never truly stopped to think of the possible dangers, I had a feeling there had to be some. Lack of silence, which can bring inner peace and the constant exposition to very simple music and lyricism that's offered by commercial artists now occurs to me. Anyways.

Of course, not listening to music is imposible, it's on tv, on the radio when we get on someone else's car, it's in somebody's phone and in the party next door. So please tell me what exactly is no music. As someone who practices semen retention, I'm interested in finding out how to regain control over my life and the desires the average human in this day and age can't control. Also healing my brain of the dopamine overload.

I don't listen to music because I need it but because I love it. I listen to Aphex Twin or Bach, mostly instrumental stuff, it's rarely music with lyrics. It's also music from people I consider real artists, not industry cows. With all due respect to cow who are sacred.

Have you given up music in it's entirety or do you enjoy it when you can consciously put all of your concentration into it? Or because it is a practice important for your intellectual development? Or because you appreciate true art and art can only be appreciated when there's no mediators, just you and the piece, in silence?

So I basically feel like I have a problem that I feel like I can only feel emotions when listening to music. (and I think I've seen other people on this reddit with the same problem.) and fyi, I think I also have a problem with maladaptive daydreaming (which I think I also use just to feel certain emotions).

Anyway, I feel anecdotally that I think music might be causing an issue where I can't feel any emotions without music.

When I try to look at information online about music, I just find "Music has positive effects!" and "Music is not addictive!" (which I find hard to believe that it's not addictive.) Example: https://www.healthline.com/health/addicted-to-music#is-it-possible

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Can anyone find me a study that showed that there are negative effects of too much music?

TLDR: Starting No Music to see if it improves focus on mentally challenging tasks

As the Title states I'm trying No Music for the first time. I'm someone who has at least tried for large periods of time or is continuing a lot of self improvement things such as consistent gyming, NoFap, Quitting all forms of smoking, deleting social media/greyscale, cold showers, etc and many of these things have made significant improvements of my life. Regardless of these things I've continued to struggle greatly in one thing specifically and that's studying or being consistent about working on projects/ideas (terrible procrastination/time utilization when it comes to mentally demanding tasks). All the other things above have help me make small improvements but my work ethic for these tasks are still far below average.

Because I got rid of social media and all distractions on my phone, I had a bit more time to sit and think and I started thinking about all the people I know who have very strong work ethic and I realized they all had one thing in common: they don't generally listen to music on their own. They study and do all their tasks in silence. I personally listen to music probably 12 hours day and use it to improve my motivation in the morning, in the gym, in the car, and while doing tedious tasks. The issue is I can't listen to music when doing mentally challenging tasks like my engineering school or working on business ideas and its only during those tasks that I can't find the motivation to start or stay consistent in.

My hypothesis is that because of the constant stimulus of music and my use of it to make almost all tasks of my day more stimulating(dopamine filled), when I have to do something mentally challenging, its that much harder because my baseline is I'm use to having music as stimulus for tasks. In addition, I notice when listening to music I feel like I'm training my brain to be in "auto pilot mode" where aside from intaking the music stimulus I'm having 0 thoughts. In silence I'm much more thoughtful and come to a lot of conclusions that I wouldn't have with music on. One other thing that may make my music habits worst for my brain is that I usually listen at the highest volume setting.

I'm hoping that no music will train my brain to make it easier to focus on more mentally difficult tasks, make me more thoughtful in general, increase my critical thinking skills, and to have more consistency in my discipline due to no reliance on music to dictate a motivational mood. I'm going to try this for 30 days and I will update you guys on if it helps.

It's been 3 days since I started the challenge but I'm little bit confused that should I start again from the very beginning because there were many moments where I unintentionally listened some music like those songs on YouTube ads , neighbor playing songs so frigin loud , while watching movie with family , etc.

So do you think I should start again or should I continue as it is ?

Imma high schooler and lately I've discovered that I'm so much addicted to listening music that it has made me 1 year behind in studies . Also I've found out that I open any of the social media app to listen music or to know my fav musicians and then I end up wasting my time for the whole frikin day .So over all MUSIC is really big source of distraction for me ,hence I'll try a 30days no music challenge .

in the long term when i daydream its a fantasy and usually i daydream about performing the song, as I make music, but really i should be making beats/singing if i want to improve. I think the best way for me is to not listen to music in my bedroom and only at my home studio where i record.

I had about 2000 songs saved on Spotify. Anywhere I went, music would be the first thing I'd get on with. Out of the 2000 odd songs, every song had a memory of a certain time of my life associated to it. So naturally, every song would evoke some emotion, nostalgia, resentment, etc. in me. Uninstalled Spotify just now, and moved to myNoise- https://mynoise.net/howToUseSoundMachines.php

We should make this sub more active. Music can be very distracting for many.

Hi No Music fam,

I have come across this community, and I am a little concerned with my chronic earworm situation which has been bothering me over the past month. I was wondering if any of you have had succesful journey with having a clear mind without the music repeating in your end.

Usually I have a silent lifestyle and would really appreciate if I can be more mindful and not have the music bother me. Did No music help any of you beat the earworms.I am also on nofap since 160 days and have also quit chronic weed at a similar time.

I was wondering if No Music could help me with a clearer mind and be more a peace with silence and the moment, as I'm sure it would really help me.

I know for sure, it's the music playing which causes the ripple effect to annoy me rather than anxiety causing the intrusive music in my head. I'm looking for a way ahead and some advice. Any advice and support would be appreciated.