Adults- how much hand flapping do you do?

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I don't flap unless I'm off-the-charts excited and bouncing , but I do stim with my hands in other ways.

I flap my hands a lot to be honest. I always feel like I need to be doing something with them. I don't do it for long periods of time though. I do it a little bit but a lot throughout the day. I also like to play with things like zippers

I sometimes do if I'm really excited about something. Or I tense my body up and ball my fists really hard (but this tends to happen more when I'm angry).

I have been running the tips of my fingers together a lot lately and pressing them into each other hard. I've been trying to stop because the skin is flaking and I'm getting callouses but I can't seem to. :/

If I'm feeling excited or nervous I tend to flap my hands up and down, whereas when I'm overwhelmed, stressed or irritated I flap them from left to right. Not sure of the reasoning behind this difference. It's sometimes intentional, but not always. Admittedly, I don't always realise that I'm doing it.

The moments that I do it can be quick, or they can last a while. In a blooper section of a video I once made, there is a fleeting part where I hand flap and then place my hand on my back. This happened when I forgot what I was going to say, and I was trying not to get too frustrated. Putting a hand on my back is one on my tells.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheTell

I do it when I'm quite literally and emotionally holding back. Since I was trying to hold my composure whilst on camera, I wanted to get back on track as soon as possible. Whilst it was tempting to just lie on the floor and give out a muffled scream, I tried to keep things going. Hence the quick hand flap (irritation) followed by holding my back before readjusting. Also, I tend to give a quick hand flick outwards whilst the hand is on my back if the issue is external (getting annoyed at something happening around me) or inwards to my back if the annoyance is due to something going on in my mind. If I'm flicking outwards and inwards repeatedly, it means it's a mixture of both and I'm freaking out a bit.

So in that instance it was a part of other body language, but it can occur by itself. However, I tend to hand flap when I'm pacing.

Up-down: Anticipation, excitement. Usually co-occurring with either jumping, or standing on the top parts of my feet. Happens less than the left-right kind.

Left-right: Stress, overwhelmed, irritation, a negative surprise. May pace about, start swaying, or rock back and fourth whilst doing so. If a piece of food is particularly strong, I might flap one hand. Once I hand flapped without meaning to when my alarm went off in the morning because I wasn't expecting it.

There are other hand movements that I am prone to. For instance, in another video I found myself dropping my left wrist repeatedly and shaking my arm.

I suddenly realised towards the end that I was doing it, so I not so subtly grabbed a piece of paper to stop myself and I readjusted. Unfortunately, since I'd acted that way throughout the speech and there was no time to redo it, we couldn't cut it out. It's really noticeable and I hate seeing it on camera. People asked about it a bit. I used to have an umbrella that I would drop and catch repeatedly whenever I walked somewhere, with a small strap around my wrist. Not sure why, but I found the repetition relaxing. I still do that hand movement sometimes, I think I unintentionally ingrained it in my mind and now I do it subconsciously at the worst times.

...Which is why I'm hoping that I'll have other people in my videos next academic year instead of me. I hate how awkward I look on camera, I haven't quite mastered the art of acting casual whilst being filmed.

Is pacing in squares a form of stimming as I do that a lot when I am thinking about things. It helps me concentrate. I've done it from when I was young.