Echolalia [Small info + yap sesh]

Echolalia is the repetition of words unnecessarily, when a person hears a word or phrase and repeats it. 

The educational part

Echolalia occurs in children when learning to talk, but it also can persist throughout life in case of neurodivergence.

I have echolalia. I’m not sure if it’s a diagnosable thing, but I most certainly have it. I have adhd and (according to my 30 page diagnostic) high symptoms of autism?? (But I wasn’t struggling enough for it to mean anything?? 😭) Anyhow. ADHD is one of the types of neurodivergence to include echolalia as a symptom. 

And actually, as I’ve researched this briefly, echolalia is a vocal stim. However, they’re not necessarily the same. While echolalia is the innate repetition of specific words and phrases heard, vocal stimming is a more broad term for any random noise made as a stim. 

My yap sesh about my own experience

So really… I most definitely have echolalia. But even more specifically, internal echolalia.

Whenever someone says anything, I repeat it in my head. The last thing I hear anyone say, including myself, repeats in my head for 5, sometimes 10 minutes. It’s exhausting. Don’t even get me started on songs… 

For most of my life until much recently, I genuinely believed everyone constantly had a song stuck in their head. 24/7. I only just realized that I am in the minority in that regard. I even have songs playing in my dreams when I have them. It’s honestly just tiring. It might sound nice to have my own little Spotify in my head, but trust me, it’s not. Because it’s typically just the chorus of the song, heck, sometimes even multiple songs, mashing together. Like right now I have the beginning and chorus of Static by Flavor Foley stuck in my head. Over and over. Just constantly, the same 10 seconds, looping. 

It really doesn’t help my attention either. It’s only increased in the quiet, so when I’m in school taking a test? I might as well just play Spotify because my head is already repeating D/N/A by Azari on loop. Trying to read? Sure, how about some Tokyo Teddy Bear by Neru to go with that. How about all of these songs, but the chorus randomly changing at any point in time? It isn’t really fun. I love all these songs with all my heart, but honestly, I already have ADHD, it would be really nice if my mind could quiet down just slightly! 

The luckiest moment is the rare occasion I have an instrumental or Lofi song stuck in my head. For just a moment, I can have the closest thing to silence, no matter how loud the piano or synth may be, it’s better than lyrics that make me have to rethink every thought I have to maybe get a cohesive sentence. 

Sometimes echolalia can be funny though. Nothing better than hearing a random noise and suddenly me and my entire friend group repeat it like a bunch of parrots. Or “anyone else hear those ominous bells rolling?” Whenever I don’t know what to say. I made a list of some vocal stims I have, hang on: 

We also have “Ra Ra ah ah ah” like bad romance but completely monotone, we got “Yippee!!!!” A classic, we got “I’m so winning,” and “I just keep winning,” “let’s go gambling,” & “Aw, dang it!” As a trio, we have “I feel so awesome!” and of course “Segaaaa” and “meh mah” which I can’t explain how it sounds but it’s high pitched and i think it was supposed to sound similar to sega. 

SO IN CONCLUSION!

Echolalia is simply neutral. It’s not bad nor good, it has its pros and cons. I don’t mind my (internal) echolalia. Sure I wish the noise would stop on occasion, but the music sometimes helps from boredom. If you have it, don’t see it as a negative. Try to think positively of it. 

Sooo, I hope you learned something new, whether or not you learned what echolalia was at all, or if you already knew and you just learned about my experience! I hope this didn’t seem like I was complaining to much lolol, and have a nice day~! ^^