Stimming/Fidgeting

Post Reply New Topic

Civet reveals,

Notice, is there a defined rythem in your movements?

If yes, then a determinating factor could be due to the safety we feel in routine. Familiarity, seems to me, is a haven. An example would be the new forum on this website (Haven). The reason for the stringent rules on the forum is due to the fact that if someone is in need of a safe place to go and vent or whatever, they can feel assured in the consistency governing the rules of post. Whereas, and in particular, the politics and religion forum has an eclectic array of incostistent topics, views and responses. If you post there, then you should not be surprised if you are received in a disagreeable manner.

Haven is general concurance, or 'atta-boys.' or motivational, uplifting exchange of dialogue.
(consistent)

Politics and religion is an unpredictable spectrum of viewpoints, oft times, terse and heated in exchange of ideas. (inconsistent).

I remember the break-dancing craze of the early eighties. What a gift it was. I was practicing the art of 'popping' all the time and nobody consdidered me a freak. Although due to poor motor skills and lack of control therein, it could be argued that practice does not always make perferct, true in my case by that example.

I think HAND flapping is where you hold your arms up almost at shoulder level and bent at the elbows in a < > shape stance, then flap your hands up and down at the wrists.

ARM flapping could be the same position but all of LOWER arms
or maybe
The whole of the arms like a bird almost straight
or maybe
whole arm bent at the elbow and doing the funky chicken motion.

I nicname my BF Fledgeling and he calls me mummy. We each do the funky chicken type of flap to each other to indicate fledgey or mummy is excited, or whole arm motion if very exicted and might take off!

I was initially confused over what exactly hand-flapping was as well. I've come to believe it's any gesture that involves rapid movement of the hand in various directions, with or without arm movement beyond that required to shake the hands. For instance, sometimes I'll make a hand-waving movement but very quickly and repetitively and I consider this to be hand-flapping. I could, of course, be mistaken.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

Rythem.

can yoou feel the rythm of the beat.

is thre any, pencil, foot etc...

familiarity.

we feel safe in rythem because its consistant and familiar.

There was a young man on my flight last week who was obviously somewhere on the spectrum from the stimming. He was:

- rapid leg bouncing (left, then right, sometimes both)
- hand flapping(hand just above lap, rapid shake at about 5Hz and about 5cm movement)
- rapid thumb twiddling, periodically altering the direction of rotation

I bounce legs a lot, but don't hand flap unless I am feeling generous to myself (it is really relaxing, but I was trained not to do such things by my parents...). I can't twiddle my thumbs - not enough coordination!

Other things I do range from pacing (especially if concentrating on moving my feet in geometric patterns based around the floor tiling) to rubbing sharp edged objects or seams in fabrics (I wear out shirts rapidly). I also like point pressure on my forehead, and in extreme cases have found myself repeatedly banging the end of a pen in to my forehead - this is a Bad Thing if I happen to be in a work meeting at the time and don't realise what I am doing.

I don't hand-flap but I will hold the middle finger of one hand and move that hand from side to sideas quickly as possible. I will also leg-bounce (I get told off for 'jigging') and you know those pens that you click to get the nib in and out? I will click those a lot, which would be BAD in my exams - I think I'll take in a fountain pen without the clip on the lid, just be to safe. And I'll stim however else I'll discover - actually clicking my fingers is a tried and tested favourite too, although it seems to annoy others. Oh well ...

I understand more now. Thanks to everyone who explained hand flapping to me.

I do something like this. It's like I've just washed my hands and am shaking off the excess water. It feels really relaxing. I just wasn't sure if this was what other aspies did. Sounds like it's one method.

On the topic "NT stimming":

Studies in body language show that NTs use what we would call stimming behaviors to send messages, not just to let off steam. If you sit too near a person in a library or other space where they feel they've staked out territory, they will start tapping a pen, jiggling their leg, and doing other stim-like behaviors to tell you non-verbally that you're not welcome. It's like a rattlesnake's rattle.

Interesting...didn't know that, probably because I've never had to study body language and never got interested enough to just study it anyway. I imagine that the fidgeting is also letting off steam, because the invasion of their personal space makes them feel uncomfortable, creating steam. Perhaps it's just kind of accidental that it's also picked up on by other NTs and taken as a warning sign. If it were me, I probably wouldn't even be aware of the fidgeting, and if I were, I would blame it on steam and not even think of it as sending a message. For all the self-analysis that I do, it's amazing how much I just wing things, how little knowledge I have of how I operate.

I remember one time when I was interviewing a potential roommate. I sat rather close to him and he didn't seem to keep his hands and his head and such contained and comfortably outside of my personal space. I don't recall fidgeting in that situation, but I do recall actually telling him that I felt he was invading my space, since I wasn't thinking of him as an optimal candidate anyway so didn't care much what he'd think.

If I'm fidgeting, it's usually due to cabin fever and I need to go out and spend some energy.

Often this gets me into trouble, but it's (usually) better than pacing my cage.

Wow. Thanks for that! I shall have to watch out