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what is your stim?

I actually had to google this, since I'm considered a high-functioning diagnosis and had no idea what that was.

This would probably explain the toe tapping. lol
 
Please be more specific. You are not sure if any of what behaviors qualify? The whole thread?
 
Just discovered a new stim, casually blurting out different lines of Tom Lehrer's 'Elements Song'. For those who haven't heard it:

I also have started rocking from side to side in bed, it helps me sleep.
 
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I have just recently learned what stims are, but I have two biggies that I've done since I was really young. One is rubbing and rolling a piece of silk-like nylon in between my fingers. I can't believe I'm even telling people this but I guess you'll all understand. I've always been extremely embarrased by it and have always hid it from anyone. My parents know as does my sister, but that's it. I guess I see it as too child like, but I can't give it up. I have always done it. It's very relaxing to me but I believe it's starting to give me carpal tunnel in my right index and middle fingers. My left hand is still good though! The other is scratching and rubbing my lips with my finger nails and cuticles. It isn't satisfying though unless I have a fairly sharp piece somewhere. Sometimes I go too far even and form visible scratches, especially with a sharp cuticle. I use to do this in public but learned quickly that it's inappropriate. I got some strange looks and laughs, so I don't do it anymore in public. Then there's the toe crunching and muscle tensing in patterns, and I grit my teeth and such, pick at my finger nails, but I consider those minor and see fairly normal people doing them, don't know if they'd be considered stims or not.
 
Today, while on the computer at work, I kept repeating French phrases to myself and had to pay very close attention to whether there was a customer inside!
 
It could be nice to have names for these. Well, I kind rise my upper lip reaching near nose and move them right to left and right. It could be described as picking nasal septum flesh to the cartilage in it with cheek muscles. Try, it's nice! I've understood it can look really adorable when done with just tiny movement with upper lip intact.

Scratching my rash trough epidermis. I also tend to squeeze my eyes really closed for few times now and then.
 
Aalo said:
It could be nice to have names for these. Well, I kind rise my upper lip reaching near nose and move them right to left and right. It could be described as picking nasal septum flesh to the cartilage in it with cheek muscles.
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If this action is what I think you're describing, I do this exact same thing very often. :) I also squint my eyes really hard often too. (which you mentioned in the same posting)
 
If I'm really upset and overloaded, I rock back and forth
bouncing my knee up and down
flapping my hands when I get really happy and over excited
squeezing my eyes shut really, really hard
humming/singing
talking to myself (full on discussions where I say what the other person would. Just as Sportster described.) but I think that may just be displaced info dumping. No one wants to hear me talk about Sherlock Holmes for over an hour, so I talk to myself about it for over an hour and supply the interested party.
 
When I was young, I would lay on my stomach and kick my feet to help me get to sleep. Sometimes, even now I'll find myself "rocking" myself to sleep. I don't really know what to call it, it's more like a shaking or something.

I also twirl my hair into balls and then rip it out. I did it all the time as a kid and my parents would yell at me for doing it because I was giving myself bald spots. Eventually, I switched to chewing out the inside of my mouth (sometimes to the point of drawing blood) so that my parents wouldn't see it. I did both on and off for years until I decided to stopped chewing my mouth around 17 or 18... I chewed through some larger blood vessel and I bled out enough that it actually dropped my blood sugar. I stopped chewing after that but I've picked up my hair twirling again. Now that I've grown in hair in those... um, private places... I use those for stimming instead of my head so as to not to draw attention when I'm out and about. I also now use my fingernails to grasp a hair from my chin and tug at it to remove it.

The feeling and sensation of my hair is tied in with my sensory perception. I love feeling different textures and often pick things up and touch them all over to feel the texture. Some textures even make me hungry or salivate. The feeling of my own hair tangled up into a messy ball and the sound of it snapping and crunching helps me in a way.

I do my stimming by second nature and so I usually don't even notice that I'm doing it. I've yet to see if I actually stim any more when I'm stressed than when I'm not.
 
abinun1987 said:
When I was young, I would lay on my stomach and kick my feet to help me get to sleep. Sometimes, even now I'll find myself "rocking" myself to sleep. I don't really know what to call it, it's more like a shaking or something.

I also twirl my hair into balls and then rip it out. I did it all the time as a kid and my parents would yell at me for doing it because I was giving myself bald spots. Eventually, I switched to chewing out the inside of my mouth (sometimes to the point of drawing blood) so that my parents wouldn't see it. I did both on and off for years until I decided to stopped chewing my mouth around 17 or 18... I chewed through some larger blood vessel and I bled out enough that it actually dropped my blood sugar. I stopped chewing after that but I've picked up my hair twirling again. Now that I've grown in hair in those... um, private places... I use those for stimming instead of my head so as to not to draw attention when I'm out and about. I also now use my fingernails to grasp a hair from my chin and tug at it to remove it.

The feeling and sensation of my hair is tied in with my sensory perception. I love feeling different textures and often pick things up and touch them all over to feel the texture. Some textures even make me hungry or salivate. The feeling of my own hair tangled up into a messy ball and the sound of it snapping and crunching helps me in a way.

I do my stimming by second nature and so I usually don't even notice that I'm doing it. I've yet to see if I actually stim any more when I'm stressed than when I'm not.
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I twist and pull out my hair too.
 
abinun1987 said:
I also twirl my hair into balls and then rip it out. I did it all the time as a kid and my parents would yell at me for doing it because I was giving myself bald spots.
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There's actually a specific name for this. Trichotillomania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I won't assume anything though, so I have no idea whether it's a seperate condition or related to AS. I'm just mentioning this in case you did not know, I'm not assuming anything there either.

A cousin of mine has a good friend that used to do/does this, and is how I know about it.
 
_Josh_ said:
There's actually a specific name for this. Trichotillomania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I won't assume anything though, so I have no idea whether it's a seperate condition or related to AS. I'm just mentioning this in case you did not know, I'm not assuming anything there either.

A cousin of mine has a good friend that used to do/does this, and is how I know about it.
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Yeah, I've heard about it before but I'm not really sure if it's what I have. I don't know if the whole switching to chewing out my mouth thing means anything in that regard...
 
I do something similar to the above on occasion, except it's my tongue that I bite. The worst part is that it will stay that way for usually about a week becuase I can't stop biting it or rubbing it against my teeth long enough to heal. Gets frustrating. Thankfully I don't do that very often.
 
Well, let's see...I also chew the inside of my mouth. I rock sometimes.

But my biggest is talking to myself. I do it ALL the time.
 
Leej07 said:
Don't be shy. We're quite understanding here.
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Well it's not that , actually my older brother used to tease me about it when we where younger .. When I get angry/ over excieted I press the tip of my tounge against the bottom row of my teeth and than bite down, not enough to break the skin but it's an "interesting expresion" ..My older brother I supect is also why I'm terrified of ballons still to this day as well ..
 
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