Mimicking behavior

[UFO]

Since diagnosis, my stimming has taken on a new level. Perhaps in the past, I was scared and so restrained myself.

This was actual trigger for me to sign to this forum.

One reason I am confused about should I consider myself autistic person or not, is that I don't think I have visibly stimmed (mainly rocking myself back-and-forth, and waving my head) before I began to suspect autism and read about it to find more information.

I have recognized decades ago that I mimic and adopt other people's behavior. For example, I used to have a co-worker with a nervous twitch on his face, and I made that same twitch for couple years after he had left the company. For this reason, I have considered a possibility that I have began to unconsciously fake and exaggerate at least some of my autistic behavior. Or I have just began to unconsciously unmask behavior that I haven't known that I have had because of unconscious masking...

I wonder is this kind of mimicking of uncommon behavior how common?

 

[kriss72]

Stimming isn't a go or no-go for a diagnosis for autism - if anyone had asked me if I stimmed, before I startet to really think I might be autistic I would have answered no, when I started to suspect it, I also started to stim more open, like I started to carry stim toys around with me. This sounds to me, a bit like what you are experiencing now (there can be other reasons for stimming than being autistic, so not saying you are or aren't from this).

As I went through the process of learning about autism and adhd I also started to realise that I had always been stimming, like I realized how many times my spouse had asked me to stand still, because I was rocking from side to side when we talked - or how many napkins I had been folding and destroying at parties, not because I was bored, but because I was overloaded and trying to calm my self down - or when I went to concerts and rocked back and forth, not in any rhythm to the music but because it was a stim to the sensory overload I was to having (there are many more examples).

With respect to mimicing the behavior of others, I think that is very common for autists - at least I spend a significant part of my life, before being diagnosed with copying others that for one reason or the other had my attention at any given time - it is not until after my diagnosis I have been trying to find out who I really am instead of who I want to copy.

(Take the above as my experience, others will probably have different experiences)

 

[Rodafina]

I have definitely inadvertently absorbed other people's repetitive behaviors. Sometimes they are just a passing phase, but other times, they have stuck around permanently. There's a few of us here that have noticed we can do that.

@UFO, hopefully you spend some time exploring the conversations happening here and you will be able to see if you can relate to some of the things we experience and the different ways people describe their autistic characteristics.

Here's a few existing threads concerning stims, just in case you are interested:

https://www.autismforums.com/threads/stim-that-has-started-to-a-bit-of-a-problem.45926/
https://www.autismforums.com/threads/idk-how-to-stim-anymore.42570/
https://www.autismforums.com/threads/whats-your-stim-that-nobody-knows-but-you.43857/
Favorite Stim Thread

 

[Misty Avich]

I don't have the typical autism stims like hand-flapping or rocking, even when I was a child (and I was diagnosed in childhood). I just never found a need for it. If I do stim it's more like socially acceptable or unnoticeable stims, and also non-repetitive.

 

[UFO]

if anyone had asked me if I stimmed, before I startet to really think I might be autistic I would have answered no, when I started to suspect it, I also started to stim more open, like I started to carry stim toys around with me. This sounds to me, a bit like what you are experiencing now (there can be other reasons for stimming than being autistic, so not saying you are or aren't from this).

I think it is same thing. I know I have stimmed before, just done it in less obvious manner (I like the surface of a metal decorative button at side of my old gym pants. It used to be painted, but now the paint is completely worn out because I have been rubbing it with my finger tip).

It is just that I have picked more visible stereotypical behavior (rocking back-and-forth) and I find it amusing that it might be more mimicking than unmasking. Ie. just another way to fit in the crowd by acting in similar manner, this time just to a different crowd. It is subconscious, I just realized one day that I was doing it.

hopefully you spend some time exploring the conversations happening here and you will be able to see if you can relate to some of the things we experience and the different ways people describe their autistic characteristics.

Oh yes... I had a lot of other things to do today, but I ended up reading a lot of old threads. Better stuff than google-hits to Quora questions and answers, by sheer amount of material. I am starting to get an idea about the scale of variety.

 

[Kavigant]

I once unconsciously began to mimic a coworker's stutter. I didn't even realize that I was doing so, but he became very angry with me, assuming that I was mocking him.

I have spent most of my life trying to be like others, in ways both large and small, consciously and unconsciously.