What exactly is "stimming?"

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I twitch and wiggle my feet almost all the time when I'm awake. Even when I try to sleep. When I was little, I thought I had restless leg syndrome or something. I also chew my nails and the skin around my nails. I'll pick at any imperfections on my skin such as scratches, blisters, ingrown hairs, loose skin, etc.. When I was younger, I used to chew on my clothing, and I had a particular shirt that had a nice texture to chew on and it developed a lot of holes in it. I also would chew on the drawstring when I wore a hoodie. I also chew on my lips and they can get quite swollen and sore from the constant abuse. I also like smelling things. I once got bonus points in my biology class for smelling one of those NCR papers when he asked us to examine them and figure out how they worked.

I used to hold my hoody string in my mouth and that can still happen but they end up being lost from the actual shirt. I do remember not liking to put my back pack straps in my mouth because the taste felt weird and didn't like it. I guess maybe I'd forget and suck on the strap and quickly remember I didn't like it. In last year or two I remember chewing on a pen and taking the back plastic piece off with my teeth and pushing it back together. I ended up getting blue ink around my face. I've done that a number of times before without that problem.

I'm new here and am not trying to interfere with the convo but wanted to say thanks, I didn't even realize thats what stim meant, my daughter who we believe is autistic and are in the middle of getting her tested screams when confused or overstimulated and rocks herself back and forth. For myself (I am diagnosed as Bipolar but suspecting I am at least mildly autistic) I make a low noise, you almost can't hear it if you're not sitting right next to me, and I walk in circles and wring my hands. Its a relief to know this stuff is explainable. Thanks!
Jolene

Sometimes when I read something, usually online, it will make me a little excited and I get up and walk away and back, or a little bit more with the thoughts in my head. I don't call it pacing because it doesn't last for a long time. I've put on a song I like before and done my odd dance, mainly just using my arms.

There are many things I have done.. I'm still matching more and more actions to autism..
I still love walking in a circle of about 6 feet.. I prefer doing outside and can do it for hours.

> when I get stressed, I get a shaking feeling in my hands.. It won't go away until I shake them, some times for a long period.
When there is a quick build up, I'll also shake my head for a few seconds.. some time repeating over and over. I can prevent it, but I don't want to.. It helps calm me.
If I'm in my other world, I can do them without knowing it..
If I'm under lots of stress, my head will shake for a couple of seconds.. it is automatic and I can't stop it...
That is stimming?

My grandfather had parkinson's disease, when I was young I thought that is what I had.
He was an alcoholic. Not sure if that caused it.. no one else in my family had it.

If things are really bad and stay that way for a long time, I'll want to rock.. but only when things are tough.

Thanks!

When i was little i would rock and spin, but i haven't for the past five years. I drum with my hands along with music, usually every day. Sometimes i rub my hands together really fast (the clay marzo stim) or play with my hair. In public i tap my fingers like im drumming or occasionally click with my tongue until somebody tells me to stop.
I see it as a great tool to have, it lets me hyperfocus and almost completely block out the rest of the world.

I bounce my legs frequently when I'm in class. Or I draw shapes and color them in (Not sure if that's stimming). I also drum my fingers, braid my hair, and bend my fingernails or...Pull my finger away from my nails? I don't know how to explain it. It doesn't hurt unless I do it too much. I like squeezing my thumbs against my index finger too.

When I'm talking on the phone, which I do not like, I walk around the house. I do the same thing when I am brushing my teeth. No reason, I just start walking and pacing around. I don't even realize it most of the time.

When I was younger, I used to repeatedly make quiet noises to myself. I don't really know how to explain them...I still do that every now and then.

I think it really depends. I think there are happy stims, anxious/nervous stims, stims that help with focus, and stims that are automatic and don't seem to serve a recognizable purpose. I have all of the above.

Now, when I say "automatic", I really mean stims that I am unaware of. ALL of my stims are automatic in that I don't consciously choose to do them. However, I'm usually always aware that I'm doing them.

My one "automatic" stim is toe wiggling. I bend and wiggle my toes when I'm completely at ease...when my mind is calm, like when I'm reading a book or watching a movie. I guess I don't know I'm doing this one because I'm engrossed in whatever I'm doing. I only know I do it because my boyfriend has taken to pointing it out (at least he thinks it's cute!).

Pacing is my 'focus' stim. I do it when I'm trying to formulate my thoughts or when I'm talking on the phone.

Bouncing up and down and flapping my hands is my 'excited' stim. I don't flap my hands any other time...and excitement is a rare emotion for me, so I guess it's accompanied by my most exaggerated stim because I'm not used to that level of emotion.

The rest of my stims are what I would call nervous or anxious stims. These happen when I'm doing one thing when I'd rather be doing another. These include leg/foot shaking or bouncing, chewing my nails or the skin around my nails, flicking a pen or pencil against a hard surface, etc.

Oh, of course, there is rocking, which is usually accompanied by an intense feeling of distress.

I play with my hair, touch my face, I press the spot under my nose with the tip of my index finger when I'm thinking (I think it's because I used to have a piercing there that I would touch in the same way), I keep my legs crossed & very tense (like wrapped around twice, I try to relax them if I can think about it), I bite the inside of my lips/cheeks, I doodle, play with random things if they're sitting in front of me...probably other stuff too, but that's just off the top of my head.

Besides leg bouncing I don't really do it.

I stim to focus and calm down. I have heaps but they change over the years usually because they're repetitive and someone, e.g. my mum or a school friend continuously told me to stop doing it. I used to shake my hands and wring them but my mum would see me and shout 'Stop it!' So I had to think of different ones.

Ones I do now: Drum on surfaces, grind my teeth in a drum beat, beatbox/sing/whistle/hum, rub my knuckles together, bounce my knees, move my feet erratically when laying down, click my fingers, move my tongue around (ones inside your mouth are good cause no one can catch you), bounce/rock on the balls of my feet, chew my knuckles, flick my toes, bite my lip, and this is gross but move my saliva around my mouth usually in the tune of a drumbeat. I also generally play with my hair, rings, piercings, touch my face and run my fingernails underneath other nails. I don't do larger ones like spin/rock normally but when I'm really angry I'll spin my head around so the only thing I can hear is the air whistling past my ears.

I've actually very recentky cut down on some of my visual stims one I realised how nuts they made me look, I saw an aspies eyes darting around a lot on a youtube video, then figured (from recording myself) that I appear the same when tracing lines with my eyes. Or rocking my head from side to side when lining up things.

However I've now picked up another one which seems new, this is simply circling my index finger round my thumb, funny how cutting out some stimming behaviours led to spontaneously developing new ones.

Jason