Stims that come and go

Post Reply New Topic

Hi all.
Do any of you have stims that change. Like you might jump more instead of flap, or shake your head instead of banging it?
I have noticed that my son is jumping more than flapping and has also started a verbal thing again that he hasn't done for a while.
I thought I would ask here instead of parents discussion so I could get answers/thoughts from non-parents as well:)

Every stim comes and goes for me. The specificity of the stim itself isn't important - it's all about the effect of the stim.

I get that. I am not questioning 'Why', I just want to know if other ASD'ers stims change at times.
Me asking Why they stim would be like asking 'Why is the sky blue?'

yea my stims go and come too, and every now and then i notice a new stim, like lately flicking in front of my face competely new to me.

_________________
Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

My old stims were where I just rubbed forearm or tapped excessively. Lately, I've been rocking and fidgeting with my hands. I sometimes even question myself: "Why are you doing this?" If I see or hear something, it enters my mind and I begin to do that unwillingly.

It changes based on timing, situation, my own emotional state (fear and nervousness can make me either very stiff or very stimmy, not sure what makes the difference), etc. Sometimes I can go a long time without stimming, sometimes I do it all the time.

And then which one depends on a whole lot of things, including why I'm doing it. Why can be it's an automatic movement in the background that probably has a purpose but I don't know what. It can be a defense against motion sickness. It can be a tic (not really the same thing, but can look the same). It can be an expression of the sort of excess energy being burned off from an emotion. It can be to force body awareness. It can be a way of becoming physically involved in comprehension of my surroundings. It can be a way of relaxing. It can be just because it feels good. It can be a way of managing overload without blowing up or shutting down. If it is that, it might be a deliberate thing ("this made me feel better last time, so...") or it might be an instinctual reaction somewhere deep in my brain. It can be part of shutting down, though, too. It can be a way of dealing with stress. And modifying the motion in some way can be a means of communicating certain things.

...And all those things get called the same thing.

i hand flapped from toddlerhood to age 6. Then the hand flapping came back at age 13. and now i don't know when that's gonna stop. But i've been "twisting" my hands back and forth my hole life when i'm in " my own world"

I had several stims as a kid that I don't have today. Others have remained, or new ones have come.
E.g. as a kid I, in a period, would rub my neck against my shoulders, or smell (almost) whatever I took in my hands, or put the tongue out anytime I felt for it (!), or I picked the skin around my nails or picked my eyelashes.

Today I have stims like turning things around in my hands, hand flapping when exited, rocking gently when I'm thinking about something, and other things. I keep it in private, though.

I'm new here, so what's a "stim"?