stimming and AS

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I have, or have had, many different stims. Some I had only as a kid, others I still have.

When I got diagnosed, the psychologist wasn't sure if I had AS or PDD-NOS, because he meant that I had too much empathy to be an aspie (hmm... ), but he was convinced about AS when I gave him a lecture on my list of 14 different stims....

And the whole list of traits that I had made also was more aspie-like than PDD-NOS-like.

I stim a lot and I have Asperger's. I finger flap, thumb pop, etc. I believe stimming to be quite common in those of us with AS. You will read a lot about being able to control stims---some can control it, and some cannot. I used to think I could control mine---but then, I find myself uncontrollably doing it---so for me I think it is partly uncontrollable, but at times I can control it to some degree.

I loooove spinning, either on an office chair or I stand on one foot and push myself round and round with the other, usually to fast music or when I'm really happy.
but ONLY when I'm on my own, I want to maintain what little street cred I have

I have come to realize obvious stimulation behavior while working and having enjoyable things (reading, computing):

1) Wiggle my legs side to side.
2) Rock my chair. Kitchen table or other situation
3) Walking to release stress, pretty fast walker (but don't enjoy head pounding of running, especially older I get)

I guess all involve leg movements for me personally.

Eventually I corrected for these as they drew attention. BUt I think at a big cost of mental instability /chemical imbalance. The worst was a pattern of falling asleep by crossing legs back and forth over each other, I almost considered it ping pong. Once I got married, mmy wife HATED this. Took me line 1 year of trying ot fully sotp it.. Probably the biggest mistake of my life both mental and physical health. If' I'd only realized (undiagnosed). It was a natural stress releif, and i've since read this is significant calories and activity.

the worst, only realized with deep thinking the past 2 days

My worst simming:

In crows or stress relationship. I TALK TOO MUCH! I try to dominate the talking.

1.Talking myself blocks out need to process noise. Like a cocktail party, lots of conversations.
1a. (I notice I like to take laptop to bars, reading helps me deal with noise, or writing.)

2. Talking controls the processing oof listening. Listining and understanding is harder, especially in fluff conversations at a cocktail party - or In a stressfull conversation with a mate. By talking and dominating, I push out that need to process as much listening and emotional response..

3. boring people to walk away. it's a defense shield. I'm not sure, but I can see maybe it is naturally used this way.

One-sided conversation was a symptom of AS I had read that now connects with me in a bad way.

God, I'm a jerk and selfish! No wonder I have no friends.

Pacing and chewing things are my two main stims, I think. I find it very hard to just sit and will nearly always get up and pace. I've tried hard to make it look more 'natural', as if I'm just casually wandering around looking at things, but I'm sure it must become a bit obvious to other people after a while that that's not the case...

I do pace a lot more if I'm angry, upset or otherwise stressed. I'll go and deliberately do it for an hour or more to unwind.

Chewing: I stick virtually everything in my mouth. I keep 'chew toys' (usually odd bits of plastic) in places where I'm going to be sitting for extended periods of time like the computer desk.

I thought all autistics stim no matter the diagnosis or how mild or severe they are. Even if its simple as jiggling their leg or rolling their eyes a lot, i didnt know otherwise, interesting... I also notice some neurotypicals stim but not in the sense autistics do so, for instance my mother loves to doodle, or even flickers her fingers in front of her face or at the corner of her eyes, my brothers loves to move his leg, clap sometimes when excited, and is constantly moving, it is normal for normal ppl but its not done to the extreme as somebody with autism.

Im always doing some sort of stim, whether it be noises(screeching, screaming, doing this weird talking but in like babbling to myself, saying parts of words like baaa or eeeee over and over, or verbally repeating words, or phrases etc), facial movements(i love to curl my lips over my teeth, bite my lips til they bleed or my tongue, always clicking my tongue against my teeth, making weird faces, etc), body movements(rocking, bouncing, spinning, climbing, jumping, headshaking, swaying etc), hand or feet movements(finger twisting, finger flicker, flapping, opening and closing my hands, playing with my toes/feet, etc), self injurious stims(headbanging, punching myself or hitting myself, scratching or biting myself, slammin my body against the floor etc) then theres stuff i stim off of like staring at lights for the corner of my eye or rubbing my rubber keyboard, stuff like that.

Somebody once told me that stimming also defines a functioning label, like if somebody stims in public more like without trying to hide it, their seen more as moderate functioning rather then high functioning, or if all their doing is stimming nothing else not even communicating or socializing their seen as severe, I don't think thats true, but i dont know.

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

I think lots of obvious slimming behaviors is going to get you diagnosed or considering autism a lot more than those who do not so obviously stim.

I don't sit still much. I stim.