How bad is your stim level?

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I stim constantly. I always just called it pacing, fidgeting, restlessness, and other such things before I started reading the forums here...

I used to stim and fiddle A LOT when I was younger - but now instead usually I just listen to the ongoing conversation or read a book (I stim usually when I'm in public). I prefer fiddling to stimming myself but it's still a wee bit of an issue.

OMG
I've just realised how much i stim. I too thought it was something everybody did, just being restless etc, fidgeting.
And I thought that stimming was something I didn't really do much!!
I am a bit stunned .
Now I realise what all that compulsive doodling was that everybody remarked on, on courses , in work when had it ,at one job it was very visible at a counter; and smoking which I swapped for chewing gum when I stopped , but was almost always rollies so I could engage in a good twirl every hour or so ( and much more often in social situations ); and pushing my hands through hair constantly (literally) in some situations; and rocking I knew that one , usually only at home that; and one I kept thinking was just cos did Tai Chi for a while, a kind of bending of leg and swinging with it, when standing up . And putting on lipsalve every half an hour was one in the past that I'd forgotten about. And ...........
And I sucked my thumb until was about 9; does that count? Aswell as beginning nail-biting at 5 , and never stopping , but I do it neatly so it looks nice !

Crumbs!

And yet there's times I can sit unmoving for an hour or more ,( I think ?!) When I'm thinking very hard about something usually. So that's like someone else said higher up too.

So weird; I didn't realise!

Does eating/nibbling/munching/chewing while reading count? Because I realised a while ago that I noticed reading on its own unless was something really gripping , and/or had never read before , didn't feel like it "occupied"" me enough , and so was wondering for a while if had better stop reading cos always seemed to end up eating to accompany it ! Is that stimming ? In which case how much of obesity ( I'm not cos I do watch it and my metabolism is ok) and over-eating in western world might be result of stimming needs ?!

I'd chew my tongue. All the time, especially when I was stressed. When I was really stressed, or my tongue hurt from chewing it too much, I'd dampen a towel with water and chew on the ends of that. It was extremely comforting to me. If I'd have been allowed, I'd have always carried a towel around with me to chew on.

I grew out of that when I hit my teenage years, but still occasionally do them.

A stim I do now is tap my fingers. Usually the fingers on my right hand, which can get a bit annoying because I use the mouse with that hand, so when I'm there tapping on the mouse buttons, I sometimes accidentally click on something I didn't mean too. I also bounce my leg, but I try not to do that when others are around because people tend to think it's a little odd in my experience.

I stim most the time. I stopped caring what other people think. If it helps me then I'm gonna do it.

I stim some of the time now.
It usually happens when someone is insulting/making fun of me and my stim level shoots way up, to the point where I am told to "stop acting like an idiot."

This was posted a while back (I forgot which thread it came out of, it was stored in my notepad. )
http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... c&start=15

Kaleido wrote:

MasterKron wrote:

Kaleido wrote:

Since I have found out about my Aspergers, I have noticed that I love thinking deeply, but I enjoy it so much that I seem to get over excited and will suddenly get up out of the chair and pace off into another room and wonder why I am there;

Quote:

I do this quite a lot myself. Often I find myself getting up and going to an empty room to pace around while thinking...usually not productive thinking either But it helps me get my space, particularly when I feel "people-d out."

I am so relieved that someone else does this too

I do this often when I am not doing anything but thinking. Other times I "stim" by rocking
back and forth. Another thing I sometimes do is stim in sync with some external stimulus,
ie: tapping my fingers in sync with a car's turn signal.

the lip chewing is of interest as I have previously never heard anyone else do it!

Voila - again I feel at home here.

I don't stim all the time but I run my fingers over my scalp and pick at stuff. It's a bitter sweet activity because I find it so soothing to do when I'm reading or watching tv, the down side is that I'm embarrassed to get my hair cut because the hairdresser will see all the scabs.

I'm pretty constant. Fingers are constantly twitching or tapping. I pick when I'm watching telly or a movie because my brain is preoccupied and needs the input from somewhere else. I can't just sit and watch anything. Makes things difficult for others because I have to always be doing something else and then they think that I'm not paying attention but I actually pay better attention. I'm constantly picking at scabs, etc because I can't stand to have things not be smooth. My phone used to have a brushed metal cover with some sort of thin plastic on it. It started bubbling up and peeling...I couldn't resist picking at it non stop.

I sew a lot when watching telly. It's my coping mechanism. I chew on straws in the car because I can't do any of the other things that make me feel better. I'm trying to think of other things that I do. I can't sit still at meetings, so I'm doodling or writing silly things...I remember sitting through a particularly boring lecture on poetry in college and a rather long and convuluted explanation of "The Goblin Market". I wrote "goblin dick makes you sick" and starting laughing hysterically. Very embarrasing because whatever is going on in my head is much better than whatever is going on outside of it!

My son constantly stims with his fingers. He chews his nails down to nothingness. He picks at things too. We both grind our teeth, but only at night. It's like our way of getting the daytime frustrations out. He has ground his teeth into practically nothingness. We both do verbal stuff too. We talk too much when we get nervous and repeat ourselves alot. Did I mention that we get nervous and repeat ourselves alot. LOL.