I stim all.day.long
Hi. I was just wondering whether other people do this or whether they're aware if they do/not..
In retrospect, I see my stimming behaviours but not at the time. Here is everything that I do in 1 day (not sure if all of them are stims, though):
compulsively nail bite (doing it for 10 years, I'm 17) I'm ashamed of it, but I don't care. I repeat the same bit of song about 200 times/song (no exaggeration). I often body rock, leg bounce, scratching skin, hair pulling, echolalia, muscle contractions (purposely),chewing plastic/nails, repetitively play a certain game on my phone for hours (doing the same sort of thing) it's called Candy block (its really good bad but hey lol).
I'm at home a lot of the time because I hate going out, so most of these are just "natural" however when I do go out and get overwhelmed (which is easy!) I tend to hand flap etc.
I know that the (majority) of things I do aren't directly dangerous to myself or others, does anyone else do things like this and they're unaware when there is no specific stimulus causing it?
Stimming is totally fine, but things like hair pulling or nail biting could make you feel guilty or ashamed, which is a bad thing.
That's why I ordered some stuff on stimtastic (website I found here in some thread) and I'm eagerly waiting for it (really difficult since I don't live in the US).
I guess I'm aware of some things, like I wouldn't bite my arm in public. In public, I tend to stim in ways that are less perceivable or better accepted socially.
StampySquiddyFan
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I do just about all the stims you mentioned at home as well. My stimming gets a lot worse during the school year, when I'm under more stress (even though I like school, it's way too overwhelming for me). Most of the time I am aware that I am stimming, I believe. Things that I wouldn't do in public I have not noticed myself subconsciously doing. It is a natural behavior if I am in the same area however- so if I stim a lot in a certain chair, I will always stim a lot in that chair, but not necessarily in other places. I listen to the same song over and over more than you LOL . On the occasion I will catch myself doing something I was unaware of, but I catch it pretty quickly. I also have tics, but that's a whole different thing- I do usually notice I'm doing those as well, though .
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Hi! I'm Stampy (not the actual YouTuber, just a fan!) and I have been diagnosed professionally with ASD and OCD and likely have TS. If you have any questions or just want to talk, please feel free to PM me!
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dragonsanddemons
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I'm pretty much constantly stimming in one way or another (at least). Sometimes I'm aware of it, sometimes not. Oftentimes I will only become aware of it once I've been doing it for a while, unless it's particularly vigorous. My most frequent ones are rocking back and forth, flicking or shaking my hand (for some reason, my hand stims are almost always with only my left hand), humming, whispering nonsense, making a kind of snarling noise and jerking my head, breathing extremely rapidly, and pounding on my chest, and any small object near me, like a pen, is probably going to be fiddled with. I also have one of these, and love it. When I'm very excited, I will involuntarily start to flap my left hand. I'm aware of it, but I can't stop it until I've already started.
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Yet in my new wildness and freedom I almost welcome the bitterness of alienage. For although nepenthe has calmed me, I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men.
-H. P. Lovecraft, "The Outsider"
I too stim in a variety of ways, like rocking, leg shaking (when seated), touching my hair/beard/face, drumming/tapping on tables and surfaces (learning percussion undoubtedly fostered this one). You could probably count squeezing pimples as stimming too.
I find that my mind tends revisit one of a handful of phrases/questions (e.g what day is it tomorrow?) when I'm waiting on something or otherwise idle/unoccupied. Context permitting, sometimes I verbalise them.
I find that my stimming generally creeps up on me. The action itself tends to be more relevant to how quickly I notice than anything else. I can shake my leg for several minutes without noticing, but I tend to be more aware of things like tracing my fingers over the borders of my facial hair
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