dustyrose wrote:
Yes, I have been daydreaming this way since I was a very small child. I can play out situations in my mind for hours while employing physical movement such as pacing.
There has been talk of this kind of daydreaming being an addiction (Which I feel it is for me, as I have never been able to control it while in private) called Maladaptive Daydreaming, which you can read more about:
http://wildminds.ning.com/.
I don't think everyone who does this has autism.
That is pretty interesting. Maladaptive Daydreaming. There are things about it that I identify with. I do become quite immersed into my daydreaming, but I don't always remember my daydreams. And I stim all the time, even now at my computer desk, I flap my hands and so on...
I haven't experienced anything traumatic that would have spurred it on. I've been doing it since I was a toddler. But I do think it can be quite addictive and maybe it has turned into that with age.
Halligeninseln wrote:
I still do more or less the same sort of thing and I'm 58. I started as a toddler as far as I know. When I was 12 I worried about it not being normal and thought I was the only one who did it. I think every single day of my childhood I spent some time stimming with pieces of thread or handkerchiefs or running water or other things and going into my private world. It is like a film or video game in my head which is activated by the stimming. I have done it every day for the last 50+ years

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Yeah I run the water on my tap also, and wash my hands continually. For the past 50 years? I think my stimming will continue when I'm older. It's like a part of my nature, I can't get rid of it or control it.
It's the hand flapping, jumping and odd body movements that worry me the most, because of how socially unacceptable/inappropriate it is considered.