Questions about stimming...

[Caelix3]

What is considered a stim? I don't think I stim. But I want to be sure.

Sometimes I start counting for no reason, in my head. I feel like I have to. It is just all of sudden, happens out of nowhere. Can't really control it.

 

[LittleLemon]

It's repetitive motions and sounds for the purpose of stimulating yourself...I think. I am constantly doing something with either my feet or hands like doing patterns with my fingers, rocking my body back and forth, rocking my leg up and down, twirling hair, biting my lip, tapping out patterns with my feet, etc. I used to have verbal stims where I'd hum a certain melody over and over until my brain feels like I did it enough. When I was in high school and college, one of the things that always stood out to me was that I was the only one in class in constant motion. Most everyone else could sit somewhat still, but I was always doing some repetitive motion. I'm not sure about the counting though.

 

[Aidan49]

Stimming makes me feel good.

 

[zurb]

Part of the reason people commonly don't think they do it is because 'stimming' and 'self stimulation' are really bad names for it - there's a thread about that too.
If I can ever find the thread again (can we have search back in the app please!) I'm going to vote for 'combobulating'. Not only does it sound cool, but the meaning's not that far off.

 

[ksheehan88]

I wiggle my feet and legs all the time, twirl my hair, bite my lips and tongue, tap my nails. Not sure if any of those would be considered stimming

 

[zurb]

http://what-is-stimming.org

 

[ksheehan88]

Wow, thats a rather extensive list!

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Yeah, counting is quite a stereotypical autistic stim. If you want to go further it'll be things like counting up prime numbers.

http://what-is-stimming.org

Never thought of the bubbles I used to blow with my saliva as a stim.

 

[Judge]

Saw that someone provided a list of stimming on the thread. Apparently I do stim and I didn't know.

That's part of the story of my nickname an adult gave me as a child. That I paced around with a very serious look on my face with my hands in my pockets. "Looking like a judge".

Yep...I never gave any thought to my pacing or swaying back and forth until I connected it to my autism. Funny when I first was learning about ASD I was sure stimming wasn't something I did!

 

[Ronin82]

OMG, I didn't realize how many of those things I do...so I really am stimming almost all the time and didn't know it! Gonna have to be more mindful of that I guess...

 

[OrdinaryCitizen]

I don't stim does it mean i might not be autistic?

 

[Judge]

There are no absolute traits and behaviors that exclusively define autism. Though what gives creedence in the diagnostic process is perhaps the number of autistic traits and behaviors one has, and what their individual amplitude might be.

It's why one might truly be an extrovert and yet still be on the spectrum of autism. Not particularly common among our species, but they do indeed exist.

Or as many of us say here, "If you've met one Aspie, you've met one Aspie."

 

[Kalinychta]

The majority of autistic people stim but some don’t. It falls under “restricted, repetitive behavior, interests, or activities” in the DSM (you live in Estonia, though, right?). I take it you were never officially diagnosed?

 

[OrdinaryCitizen]

The majority of autistic people stim but some don’t.

Is it always so extreme as shown in this video here? I never did any of that when i was kid.

I always thought stimming is more trait of "high/medium/low functioning autism" and Aspies being even less autistic don't stim?

 

[Kalinychta]

Is it always so extreme as shown in this video here? I never did any of that when i was kid.

I always thought stimming is more trait of "high/medium/low functioning autism" and Aspies being even less autistic don't stim?

It has always been extreme with me, yes. I mean like very obviously out of the ordinary.
This is pretty much what I do.

 

[Kalinychta]

You might stim and not even know it, though. There are standard stims (meaning, ones that are very common e.g. rocking and hand flapping), but there are other kinds, too. There’s a thread I posted yesterday about stimming. It gives examples.

 

[Judge]

You might stim and not even know it, though. There are standard stims (meaning, ones that are very common e.g. rocking and hand flapping), but there are other kinds, too. There’s a thread I posted yesterday about stimming. It gives examples.

Yeah. I once thought that I didn't have any either. Eventually I realized that this was not the case...

 

[OrdinaryCitizen]

It has always been extreme with me, yes. I mean like very obviously out of the ordinary.
This is pretty much what I do.

I tried something like this not so much movement though and it does feel good, however it might feel good for NT as well?

The Stimming Checklist

They list smoking as stim i dont agree i think this list is bit biased they call too many things stimming.

 

[Kalinychta]

I tried something like this not so much movement though and it does feel good, however it might feel good for NT as well?



They list smoking as stim i dont agree i think this list is bit biased they call too many things stimming.

An NT might swing side to side in a chair or rock in a rocking chair, but it’s very different for autistic people. It’s the result of executive dysfunction. You won’t ever see an NT doing what the boy in the video is doing. It’s a compulsion. An itch. I do it every day. When I was a kid, I did it on the couch like the boy in the video (also lying face down in bed) but then I switched to doing it on the floor when I got older. As an adult now, I sit on the floor cross-legged and rock back and forth.

I agree about smoking. That’s an addiction. I suppose someone could argue that it’s also a stim, but that seems like a stretch.

 

[YogaAbba]

Hi,

A number of months ago I made my first post considering whether I might have autism. I concluded at that time that I am probably an introvert with some autistic features.

Fast forward to today: last week I got formally tested for ADHD. The conclusion was that I do have ADHD. However, the psychologist said the symptoms I reported about social exhaustion (really the main issue for me) and sensory sensitivity sound more like what hears from people who have aspergers (and he's been hearing from people for over 30 years). He did not diagnose me with aspergers (said I do not meet all the criteria), but is quite sure that my social exhaustion and sensitivity to stimuli are Aspergers traits, not ADHD.

Since I had not said to him anything about how my prescriber had mentioned that hyperfocus can be related to "mild autism," I was really surprised by this: I was sure the social exhaustion came from the ADHD.

So now I am looking at this whole question again. The more I learn, the more I am seeing how I may actually be on the spectrum.

People who have autism point out that stimming is one of the things most likely to be masked. And a diagnostic question is whether you do things alone that you don't do when others are present.

Aside from the fact that I am constantly tapping with my foot at a fairly rapid pace (it's somewhat more socially acceptable so I haven't felt the need to avoid doing that), it didn't seem to me that I have stimming behaviors.

But then I recalled that that when I am meditating, my body starts rocking back and forth. It's not something that I do intentionally. It is literally more like my body just decides to do it. I first noticed it years ago when I started meditating and just figured it must be some kind of random energetic release. I usually stop myself after a while because it feels a bit weird for my body to be making movements I don't intend it to.

So this morning before meditating, after watching an excellent explanation of stimming, I decided not to stop myself, but just let it go where it wanted to. It really felt like my body was doing this because it needed to. But more than that, as I was rocking, I began to feel a wrenching feeling of grief in my chest. I just paid attention to it, and as time went on, it became almost physically painful. The only reason I had to stop is because I needed to move on with my day.I noticed also that I felt a kind of peace and relief when I let it go on like this.

Does this sound familiar to anyone as a form of stimming?

One more thing that seems to me like more classical stimming. Several years ago I was in an airport with colleagues on business trip returning from a foreign country. The airport was noisy and chaotic, and the line to the check in counter seemed endless and completely chaotic. I felt trapped. As I got more and more anxious, I started shifting from side to side from one foot to the other. I was trying to get a better glimpse of what was going on ahead of me, changing position to look over the people in front of me. But these movements took on a life of their own and became rather dramatic in a steady rhythm (I mean, how many times do you need to get a glimpse of what's ahead?), and after short bit I heard my colleagues saying something to each other behind me. Then one of them yelled, "Stop doing that, you're driving me crazy!" I was really embarrassed; I don't recall ever doing anything like that before, but maybe I'm just not remembering?

Does this kind of thing sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks for your comments.
--YA