describe stimming

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Could someone please describe stimming behaviors and do these behaviors last until adulthood?

thx,

equinn

I still rock back and forward while doing my homework (especialy math). Don't know why, it just makes me feel relaxed after concentrating.

I flap my hands or rub them together when I get excited about something. I tried to stop myself because it made me feel silly, especially if someone sees me, but I have been unsuccessful. I'm now 27. Now that I know about autism, it does'nt feel silly anymore. I've just accepted that it's part of me.

I don't know how to describe stimming really. It's just something we do with our bodies over and over again. I twirl my hair and bite my fingers. My son flaps his hands, does "weird fingers" (don't really know how to describe what he does) and drags his blankey over his inner elbow.

I don't think you grow out of these things, though stims may change in time. I imagine when my son has to give up his blankey in kindergarten he'll have to drag something else over that part of his arm or just give that up completely.

Rubbing head, fingers, hands, skin, or certain textures for me...

I have a thing where if I find a material I like I will instinctively run it under my nails. I do this on blankets, sheets, jeans, shirts...
I do a lot of weird things with my fingers, especially during moments of excitment or intrigue.
I suck my thumb... not sure if that is considered a stim.

I believe that the reason a large percentage of my "stims" followed me through life was perhaps the fact that neither of my parents made any effort to recognize or stop them.
Most people I know that used to suck their thumbs quit because their parents didn't approve.
My Mom thought it was cute.

Used to do a lot of spinning as a child. Teachers couldn't pry me out of the swingsets, and I can't count the number of rocking chairs of various types I've literally worn out and replaced. My fallback stim is a hands in hip-pockets side-to-side sway, in a sort of infinity ellipse, much like what Stevie Wonder does. When that's too socially inappropriate, I replace it with a front to back rocking on the balls of my feet.

When I was a kid, my Mom would make me sit still in church. Then my leg would start bouncing and vibrate the entire pew. Got a lot of dirty looks from other people on the bench, but I couldn't help it, stop one stim, another pops up, like sticking a finger in a dike.

Rocking is great. When I interviewed at the university I'll be attending for my Master's, and working at net year, they had rocking chairs in one of the waiting rooms prior to the interview.

I don't think stimming stops, but it does change.

Hope this helps. For reference I call all those on the spectrum jellybeans and neurotypicals marshmallows!! !

People are continually telling me that there are no physical signs of being a jellybean. Oh boy, how wrong they are! Experts take note: jellybeans do talk to you, in a way that everyone can understand - just watch their bodies. Stimming is what jellybeans do when they're anxious, frightened, irritable, stressed, panicky, upset, bewildered and frustrated. They even do it when they're excited. It's the sudden adrenaline rush playing havoc with your jellybean fingers, toes, hands and feet.

If you've heard of stimming before then give yourself a pat on the back, especially if you understand it. It's just another word for self-stimulation, fidgeting in other words, and fidgeting in ways that are repetitive, often involuntary, and habitual. Often they're quite noticeable.Everyone stims, both jellybeans and marshmallows. Some people used to call these fidgety movements "nervous habits". But jellybeans do them far more often and clearly and obsessionally than marshmallows.

Sometimes, of course, these stims, which are essentially comforting, can be tics and could be an expression of Tourette's, so bear that in mind. Let's look at some different stims under different headings, it may make it easier and show you what to look for.

HAND STIMS

Hold on to your hankies, because this is a big one.

a. Finger picking, finger drumming
b. Nail biting/Thumb sucking
c. Hand to face contact constantly/stroking/scratching
d. Scab and skin picking
e. Smoothing hair and hair tugging
f. Pulling at clothes, murdering a cotton hankie or tissue
g. Playing with a pencil, constantly, or any other object
Okay so just about everything to do with the hands, even smelling fingers. ANYTHING REPEATED REGULARLY is a stim.

MOUTH STIMS

a. Gritting or grinding of teeth
b. Clenched jaw
c. Sucking anything!
d. Lip biting
e. Pouting constantly and obviously
f. Chewing
g. Sticking tongue out
h. Puckering the mouth up, maybe to one side
WHOLE BODY STIMS

a. Arm flapping from the wrist or elbow
b. Leg waggling
c. Foot Tapping
d. Over excited rapid, pronounced clapping and jumping up and down
e. Leg jerking
f. Body scratching
g. Eye blinking or flicking the eyes to make them "dance"
h. Head-banging, with their hand or against the wall or floor
VOCAL STIMS

a. Swearing
b. Non-swearing repeated words sometimes said or sung loudly
c. Humming and throat clearing
d. Sniffing through the nose, noisily
e. Involuntary child-like noises - squealing
BEHAVIOURAL STIMS

Repetitive and apparently unnecessary behaviour. Observe your jellybeans, there are so many behaviours that are stims and they are so personal to the owner that you may have to look carefully. Here are just a few to give you an idea of what I mean and what we do.

a. Rocking in bed
b. Eating the bed (my eldest son ate his wooden bunk bed over the course of a year!)
c. Whizzing around in a circle (spinning)
d. Jumping on the spot
e. Rocking backwards and forwards
f. Obsessive repetitive behaviour - computer games and Playstations, mobile phones, doodling etc.
g. Eating and drinking
h. Staring at something for hours

There are harmful stims as well. If you would like me to elaborate I will, just yell!

I will add pacing since I do that and I tug at the ends of my jerseys and cardigans and sometimes stand on tiptoes whilst doing all that.

Hair/head stroking.

Let’s get into these stims in a bit more depth and try to separate the innocent ones from the self-destructive ones. It’s IMPERATIVE that you let your jellybeans STIM, its as essential for us as it is for a diabetic to avoid sugary foods. Stimming is the release valve, and jellybeans must be allowed to depressurise otherwise it could explode, and before you know what, stimming increases and you notice extras like the knee bobbing up or down, fingers going into the mouth etc etc, you may just have had your first severe weather warning, as you can be sure that a behaviour that you probably won’t like is fast approaching. Maybe even a Tsunami. But some stims aren’t SAFE. And jellybeans don’t always realise this because all stims produce the same comforting hormones if they’re performed repeatedly.

There's something really important you should realise about the curious and complicated little jellybean - a jellybean can sometimes treat their body as if it's just an interesting object, and not really in a way part of them at all. Jellybeans fragment things into their parts. They're interested in just a part of something, and looking how it works, tasting it to see how it feels in their mouth, smelling it, making it perform tricks. And they can do this with their bodies. They can bite their nails and suck the bit slowly to see how the nail changes in consistency and mouth-feel as they suck it into disintegration. They can suck scabs in the same way. They can cut their skin to watch what happens and can get excited by this, so "cutting can turn into a stim. They can bite themselves as deeply and viciously as they bite objects. They can bang their heads against walls and the floor, very hard. They can stim by pulling at their hair, rhythmically, and then find that it's far more exciting to pull it out in clumps.

Yes, of course self-harm is a kind of scared self-loathing and self-criticism in a way, but it's also done because they've separated the SELF in their jellybean heads from their jellybean skins! How strange is that, and how do we know? Believe me, you'll know it when you see it, and you, like me, could know it only too well, because if you're a jellybean, you may be able to do this, too. If you're a jellybean, please try to remember that your body isn't a toy! Sometimes your SELF may feel SAFE, but your body is suffering.

Its difficult to know what to suggest except for one sure-fire way DISTRACTION. If like me your hands are giving you the most cause for concern, give them something else to do. Find yourself a hobby, a challenge to achieve. There is always another way.

Because I'm a jellybean I'm extreme, so to help keep focused, I decided to make my Mum a patchwork quilt, king size. I'm no good at sewing by the way, and always been told I'd never finish, I'm good at giving up. One year later and thousands of laborious hours sewing by hand into the night, I finally presented it to her, just to prove a point. My nails are long now! 45yrs of biting them furiously and now I chew the nail varnish off instead. Sadly I still am fighting my scab-picking stim but it's getting easier.

You can't remove stimming, but you really need to change a self-harm stim for something SAFE. There's always a choice. My younger son, always bangs his fist against his head and when thats sore, he will knock it against the wall. A friends son ripped sheets of skin of his lips and constantly uses a chapstick, I think he's addicted to them. These are all harmful, destructive and negative. Please take particular attention of these. DISTRACT your jellybean - without (and this is very important) drawing too too much attention to the self-harm behaviour. Your jellybean won't really understand until he's into his teens that he's self-harming, and maybe not even then. But if you or your child are presenting with an abusive stim and it's affecting your life it must be sorted. Always seek professional advice. Sometimes just a simple tip from an Occupational Therapist can reduce harmful stims in a heartbeat.

Me too!

Actually does it include the tics like tilting your head and lifting your shoulder til they nearly touch?

I was hair-stroking, hair pushing, hair flipping, hair smoothing like mad today at the small family party we went to. It's one of my most frequent "social situation" stims. Scalp "scraping" too; it's not exactly scratching.

I have stim-smoked too. I was a rollie roller, and it was great for stimming with.

Twiddling and crossing and lacing/plaiting fingers.

Nail and finger-end-skin biting.

Doodling. All the time in lessons/classes where I could do it/was allowed to/could get away with it, and in certain jobs. Compulsive constant use of a blue biro.

I rock too. Which reminds me; that's what my son does more than anything, and he flicks his hands/fingers.

It is often difficult to separate tics from stims. With both they are likely to change. Stims can change on a weekly basis as can tics.

One thing I would warn about if any of you are taking medication is this. I am doubtful that your neck/shoulder movements are this. But just be aware.

Signs and Symptoms of Tardive Dyskinesia


Tardive dyskinesia is varcharacterized by repetitive, involuntary, purposeless movements. Since the muscles of the face, eyes and mouth are frequently involved, grimacing, tongue protrusion, lip smacking, puckering and pursing, and rapid eye blinking are common symptoms. Rapid movements of the arms, legs, and trunk may also occur. Impaired movements of the fingers may appear as though the patient is playing an invisible guitar or piano.
Unfortunately, symptoms of tardive dyskinesia may remain long after discontinuation of narcoleptic drugs. Fortunately, the majority of symptoms gradually subside or are improved with medications.


So what are the reasons why jellybeans stim, and do they really need to? Remember I refer to all on the spectrum as jellybeans and neurotypicals are marshmallows! Long story, if you want to know how they came about I am happy to share! SO WHAT MAKES US STIM??

1. RELEASE is the first reason. Let's try a very simple TIP. Imagine a pan of boiling milk on the hob, merrily boiling away, keep an eye on it otherwise it will boil over, smell revolting and go all skinny and horrid, yuk, yuk. Put the lid on the pan and it will spill over leaving all that residue around the pan and lid, more yuk, yuk.

In order to avoid that situation you have to observe it carefully and turn the heat down to simmer mode or simply switch it off completely. Now imagine your little jellybean, they already operate on super-fast and we've already established they're hypersensitive little souls and although they give off this brave image they are all shaking inside. Uncertainty and vulnerability are sure ways of them cooking their sensitive little shells. They release their worries and pressures by stimming. Its a release valve, and it's for once in their lives not on at full speed all the time. Their repetitive little fidgets give them comforting and continual slow-release.

There can be HUGE releases, too! Some of you may know how it feels to Screeeeeam from the top of a hill, or run and run and run until you drop exhausted. Among the HUGE releases a jellybean might have are spinning around like a top. I bet you didn't know that they never get dizzy, like marshmallows! That's why they often love going on the Waltzers or any fairground ride that swirls you round and round.

2. FOCUS. Just try to imagine you're standing at Paddington Main line Railway Station, sorry I am in the UK so just use the busiest mainline station close to you. It's a busy place, people scurrying around everywhere, noise in abundance together with the tannoy announcements, the arrival and departure boards along with the incoming and departing trains all going to different corners of the country. It's confusing and if you don't get it right you could end up on the wrong train or even worse miss it entirely. It's sometimes scary and overwheming to have so much going on. That's whats it's like in a jellybeans brain, especially if he's in a classroom.

Understandably its not too difficult to see why a jellybean's brain is so busy, trying to process all those different noises, smells and most important of all what train we have to be on. Jellyoverload. Having to cope with so much all at once is too much for the jellybrain. Is it any wonder that our brains resemble scrambled eggs?

The problem as I see it, is that there is just too much sensory information coming into the brain too quickly and none of this can be filtered out by a jellybean. When this happens, our brains just temporarily shut down, we lose concentration. Jellybeans become restless and distracted eyes wander, and the brain decides to have an early lunch break.

It's like, have you ever seen those movies where someone is transported to an alien nation and then returned back to earth? What's the first thing the guy does when whoosh! he finds himself back in his own high street. Think about it. Let your visual memory work. Yes - that's right - he touches himself all over. It's a way of finding out if you're REAL. Like pinching yourself. And that's exactly what a stim is. By wriggling and fidgeting, your jellybean is kind of pinching himself and reminding himself he's real, and that he needs to get back to work and to FOCUS.

3. FEEL-GOOD FACTOR. Stimming can be a way for your jellybean to comfort himself, too, and this could be the reason why my son ate his way through his bed on his nightly journeys to sleep! Some stims produce the feel-good hormones, endorphins, which don't always pump out very efficiently through jellybean bloodstreams. If your brain's tuned to "scared stiff" most of the time, that's fairly understandable, isn't it? Scared stiff produces the other kind of hormone, cortisol, which is basically a feel-bad-and-get-ready-to-escape hormone. Too much cortisol give you those wriggly squiggly tummy worms feeling, and it's not much fun.

But if you can do something that makes you feel SAFE, the good stuff comes pouring into your little jellybean mind. It's pure pleasure. Jellybeans can get this feeling from some stims, especially if they're rhythmic and repetitive, like lining things up and looking at them. This puts things in order and makes them, and your jellybean SAFE. Playing on a games' console where your fingers have to move in a certain way to keep it going, also makes jellybeans feel SAFE and happy. Computer games or surfing on Google obsessively do the same thing. So does rocking. It lets you set the rate of your heartbeat, as sucking does.

And even staring for hours can do this comforting act on a stressed-out jellybean. Watching the flickering of the fire and trying to work out the SYSTEM behind the pattern, watching the washing going round in a washing machine, watching the patterns of clouds in the sky, all this is very deeply soothing and SAFE. Marshmallows sort of do this sometimes, but not for hours on end, and they call it zoning out. Jellybeans really like to zone out.

When hotter and more flamboyant jellybeans want to make themselves happy, and show that they're happy, they may even do something that marshmallows find a bit weird. You may find that if your jellybean does this he immediately causes raised eyebrows and careful avoidance from marshmallow mums and their pointing kids in the bakery section of the supermarket - jellybeans flap their hands to excite themselves and to express excitement and even squeal as we're doing it. Yes, even jellybean adults can do this, a sort of wild happy-flappy frenzy that people describe as "odd". But why (and thanks to that brilliant American Amanda Baggs for pointing this out) do people think flapping to show happiness is weird, and yet accept that marshmallows bare their teeth to show that they're happy? It's called a smile. Hand-flapping is a jellybean smile, BIG TIME, so please flap back to us if you want to!

But there's something I should mention here, and I'll come back to it. Feel-good hormones are addictive. Sometimes they can be dangerously addictive to a jellybean who's searching for somewhere to rest his scared feelings and doesn't get much happy-flappy on a daily basis. We have to be careful not to get too stoned on fixating.

4. BRINGING US BACK TO LIFE. Jellybeans are notoriously lazy if we want to be. In the jellybean nation there are two main modes - super-still, and super-hyped. There's not a lot in between. We can swing like King Kong jellybeans through the jellymallow jungle, but you're just as likely to find us secretly asleep in some little jellyhammock, when we're supposed to be scaring Tarzan.

That's us all over. We're either on Fast-forward or Stop.

Stimming is our way to bring us back to some kind of acceptable level of activity. If we can worry our worry-beads, and do a bit of eye-flicking, and a few growls and scratches, and sort out our CD collection in alphabetical order by artiste, we can be up and swinging through the creepers again. Stimming helps us to be a bit like, well not like marshmallows exactly, but to give a good impression of wanting to be like you-hoo.

So please, think of stimming as a kind of alarm clock, a SAFE and gentle one. Thank you and goodnight...