What is the difference between stimming and fidgeting?

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My daughter's stimming is directly proportional to her happiness. She nearly never stims anymore (I think she has self-extinguished it), but if she is extremely happy or excited, she flaps and will continue to flap until she realizes she is doing it, at which point she tries to stop. She will then substitute a more "typical" looking jumping around for the clearly atypical-looking flapping. (She's 7, so she can still get away with jumping up and down! )

I fidget/stim. I don't know which it is, though for some reason I consider it more of a fidget. I usually do it to help me concentrate. Or sometimes I do it simply because I like to. I bounce my feet off of one another, rattle my teeth together, and rub my index and middle fingers together. Sometimes I rock. None of these around others, though. But nearly constantly when I am alone. I do not have AS. I have ADD.

OK, now let's throw another variable in.. what's the difference between stimming, fidgeting, and hyperactivities?

Or do you consider physical hyperactivities (as opposed to the verbal one of excessive talking) to be repetitive stimming even though there's no urge to do them, they just happen automatically?

I'm getting a couple of little bitty "fidget" thing in hopes of wrangling my excess energy. Has anyone tried anything like that? I've been all over the stimming map after a lifetime of being told to "stop it!" and "hold still" so I don't think I will have any trouble adapting to it, but it's quite small.

From what I've observed, stimming appears to be a release of built up energy. When I put a lid on it, I get little bursts of shaking that I can't always control but if I can and put a lid on THAT, then I just make myself sick. I had a whole slew of symptoms, as a kid, that the doctor just threw together and called "nerves". Rashes, shaking, vomiting, nosebleeds, stomach aches - sometimes my eyes even sort of shimmy if I've been holding it back all day and am tired.

Nobody knew I was autistic so I grew up being told to "sit still" or "stop fidgeting" or just plain "Stop it!" (usually when I would bounce my leg - just a tiny bit but really, really fast. No one could see but sometimes the whole house would shake. LOL! I was just a little kid and it was, literally, a lot of energy - mechanically and mathematically speaking - and I could do it for hours.).

Anyway, the fidgety things appear to move very smoothly so I'm hoping I can make up for the lesser movements with pure speed. Has anyone else tried something like that?

I often have stims that start out as not-stims, like scratching my head or the back of my neck or wigglimg my finers, rubbing palms together, etc. - things everyone does, that I'm doing for a logical reason - but then the repetition and ritual of it feels good and has a calming effect so I keep doing it long past what's considered "normal."

Stimming is short for stimulating. The technical term is "stereotypy."

Fidgeting is usually a sign of nervousness. Stimming, for Autists, is very relaxing.

This is very interesting. I've never much thought about the difference before. Fidgeting is a release of energy which cannot otherwise be released. Either general energy that must be held in (like kids in a classroom who should be running around but are forced to sit at desks who squirm, tap their feet, bounce, bang the table, etc.) or nervous energy during a conversation, etc. I never thought of stimming being the same as fidgeting, but maybe it is. Maybe we just have a more constant need to release this energy due to stress/anxiety, and it feels calming/soothing because the excess energy is being released.

I'll have to talk to some of my NT friends today and ask them if fidgeting has a similar effect on them as stimming does on me. Maybe they really are the same.

Reciently I started to fidget/stim so much they increased my mood stabilizer to calm me down. The disorders I am diagnosed with do not account for this behavior so I need to seriously talk to my doctor.

That's my guess, too. But I also stim when I'm reasonably calm, when I'm excited, you name it. Maybe it's more generally a response to being more sensitive to the world than others?

Interesting to see the new replies to this.

I would not have thought that what I do is stimming, until I asked here. I had the idea that stimming was gross motor movements--hand flapping, turning, etc. But now I recognize that it is that thing of bursting with energy and needing to release it--at least that is my current understanding of it.

Having so recently recognized my autism and received confirmation through professional diagnosis, I have been doing a great deal of looking through my memory and rethinking experiences I had in light of my new knowledge.

I can recall being told to stop doing repetitive motions that would qualify as stimming when I was a 6th grade student at the American school in London in the 1970s. One teacher told me that my leg movements were distracting and that I should stop them because they amounted to a form of masturbation--this was quite untrue, but it worked to get me to suppress it. I still do it when I am anxious or excited. I also rub my feet together when I am lying down, twiddle my fingers and toes and touch my face. I believe all of this fits under the definitions of stimming that I have seen.

I think there is no real difference between this and NT fidgets except perhaps in frequency or degree--but I am sure there is a spectrum for these things and NT and Autistic overlap somewhere.