Reasons for some specific stims

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If you think it doesn't relieve stress, try going an entire day without doing it at all.

Just because the rocking and swaying is "normal" for you (it is for me, too) doesn't mean its not acting as a relief valve for stress. IMHO Autism is a condition of constant stress. When you live your life constantly unsure of yourself - how you're supposed to behave or react in any given social interaction, whether with one person or twenty; when you are constantly being told that whatever it is you're doing, you're doing it wrong; when you are in constant danger of misunderstanding or misinterpreting or even being totally oblivious to some remark or unspoken signal and ending up looking like a fool - if that is your everyday life 24/7, you're going to live in a state of anxiety that is far higher than that of a normal human being, even if you don't realize it - because you've gotten so used to feeling that way, that you're not even aware that others live in a much more relaxed state than you do.

Someone was asking in another thread the other day how we appear to 'normal' people, since we can't ever really see ourselves the way others see us. Janissy, who lives around several Aspies, but is not one herself gave a very good answer, but the key to it all was summed up in one word: "stressed."

That was kind of an epiphany for me, although I was already aware that I live in a state of tension much higher than that of any NT person. I suddenly realized why I hate the way I look in almost any photograph that's ever been taken of me. Its because I always look preoccupied, unhappy and slightly angry, even if my mood was completely neutral at the time the photo was snapped. Its the look of STRESS. The face of a human being waiting for something bad to happen at any moment, without ever quite knowing what its going to be.