How do I stop out-of-control stimming (pacing in circles)?

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I am a 32-year-old adult male with Asperger Syndrome. I was diagnosed 5 years ago at age 27. I was originally misdiagnosed with Tourette's Disorder at the age of 10. I had been taking prescription medication for 22 years, but I just stopped taking my prescription meds almost 6 months ago and have been off of it ever since. This 6 months of no prescription medication is a record for me, as any previous attempts to stop medication had not lasted more than 2 months before I began to have serious enough problems and ended up back on medication.

All my life, at least as far back as I can remember (toddler years), I have always had a problem with pacing back and forth and constantly walking around in circles when I start thinking (or daydreaming) about things that make me feel excited, or I get stressed and feel a lot of pressure over something that is happening or I know is about to happen. All of my life I have done things in public like walking in circles around a whole Wal-mart store (just an example) or any other place in public. I know people in public places are watching me and must think that I am very strange/weird person or something like that. Not to forget, that I often engage in this behavior and do not immediately realize that I am doing it, at least for up to a few minutes. Though there also times when I know right away that I am doing, but I do it anyway just because it feels right. LoL!

I wish I could figure out some natural solutions to completely stop (or at least minimize) this repetitive behavior. Is it possible that caffeine in my diet could be an underlying cause or at least part of the problem? I do get a lot of caffeine from drinking tea and soda and eating chocolate, but I have never ever been a coffee drinker (don't like coffee). Recently, just a couple of months ago, I tried to quit caffeine and made it 29 days with no caffeine in my diet before going through 2 nights straight without enough sleep and caved into the temptation to consume caffeine while I was at work on my 29th day. It only took that 1 consumption to get myself started right back on the caffeine all over again, and I am still consuming caffeine regularly on a daily basis. Oooooooops! My bad!

Does anyone have any answers/solutions for this kind of problem? Has anyone here with Autism/Asperger's had a similiar/same experience with out-of-control stimming/pacing and found a way to gain control of the situation? Any advice will be much appreciated. Thank you for your time and attention.

P.S. Obviously, going back on my prescription medication wouldn't really help with this specific stimming/pacing problem because I have done this all of my life and have been on many different kinds of prescription medication, none of which helped with this problem. I am not going back on prescription medication ever again, by the way, at least not for mental health. I am done with that chapter of my life for good this time, so that is not an option, period.

Yeah I do all the pacing things you mentioned and always have. I don't feel like it's a problem though. Why do you feel it's a problem?

It makes people think that I am strange/weird and affects my social life; why be roaming around all over the place when I could be talking to people and stuff. Yes, you heard me right. Even though I have Asperger's, I really only feel content (or even sad in extreme situations) when I am struggling with my social life. I am not happy when I am struggling to keep up with my social life, seriously!

I pace when I'm lecturing. But when I get anxious about stuff I bounce back and forth from foot to foot and wring my hands. Even if I become conscious of doing it I can't make myself stop without putting a lot of effort into it.

Hmm. Do you ever get a chance to wander around somewhere pretty big like woods or a town or someplace? Might help to do that more. It kind of pains me just looking at people standing or sitting in one place for an extended time talking, etc. - I don't know how they can do that as often as they do without getting antsy. It bothers me that there are kind of strictly delineated times and places for being active and times and places for being a statue. Hm, one other idea is that if I'm pacing even when I'm not really antsy I might be avoiding talking to people who might be in the vicinity cause I have a lot of anxiety about that. In that case dealing with the social anxiety would be helpful (by recognizing it if it exists and not being too hard on yourself, etc. Well I'm no expert in that arena but.)

I do that as well, but usually I just do it until I don't feel the need anymore........I don't feel like it's too big of a problem. I also do it when I'm talking on the phone. But yeah the only concern I have with it is if its late at night if there's a hard floor and I'm wearing shoes because then I don't want to keep people awake. So in that case I just don't have shoes on.

Not really sure how to go about stopping it....you could possibly try replacing it with another less noticeable stim, but that's the only idea I have.