Do you still "stim"?

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Kajjie
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15 Jun 2009, 10:28 am

I 'stim' a lot. It's one of the things that makes me think I'm on the spectrum a bit. Right now I'm rocking backwards and forwards.

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sunshower
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15 Jun 2009, 2:31 pm

Yes, but I have better control in public than I used to (either that or my stims are less obvious; the old one involved me twisting and flailing both arms almost violently - and I was teased throughout year 8 because of it).

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15 Jun 2009, 2:36 pm

willmark wrote:

Stimming. Now I have a name for it. Before joining this site, all I knew to call it was figiting. It is something I have done all my life, and I cannot seem to not do, other than when I am mentally exhausted, and my parents made certain that there was a lot of shame associated with it, in my mind. Family members point it out when I do it, and often let me know how embarrassed it makes them feel when I do it around them, when we are in public. I have tried very hard to stop it, and I manage to get it down to one thing, but never zero. I am always looking for socially acceptable ways to stim, and it just doesn't seem to exist. I try to do it with my hands in my pocket, but I am told, that is a bad habit also. One should not walk in a store with one's hand's in one's pockets. People assume you are hiding something, and I am, just not what they think I am hiding. On one of the court TV programs, the judge will reprimand men standing before her with their hands in their pockets saying, "Take your hands out of pockets!" My wife suggests that I carry around a small rubber ball in my pocket, so I can bounce it on the floor, which is not real useful in carpeted rooms, or squeeze it with hand, but rubber balls make your pocket bulge. It's an ongoing conflict for me, that I have no solution for.

Please forgive my ignorance. I am not sure what people on this thread are referring to when they talk about flapping.

Flapping the arms as if they were wings. Autistic kids do it all the time.

Get a smartphone! Load up some games and other fun stuff on it and mess with that under the pretext of checking e-mail or reading news. That's what I do. I have an iPhone. Sometimes I just twirl it in my hand or turn it off and on repeatedly. It doesn't look out of place!

Ambivalence
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15 Jun 2009, 2:48 pm

DarrylZero wrote:

I've always done little fidgety things with my hands. When I was a kid I was always twirling my hair, to the point that my parents would tell me to stop. I don't do it anymore since I now wear my hair as a buzz cut, but I often find my hand reaching for my hair to twirl; of course, there's nothing there to twirl.

That's why I keep my hair short, as soon as it's long enough to twirl, off it comes! :lol:

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willmark
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15 Jun 2009, 3:06 pm

Ambivalence wrote:

DarrylZero wrote:

That's why I keep my hair short, as soon as it's long enough to twirl, off it comes! :lol:

I used to do that when I was in grade school. I would get my hair tied in a little knot, which I liked because the feel of that knot rubbing on my forehead was somehow stimulating. That is when my mother decided I needed to wear my hear in a flat top instead.

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15 Jun 2009, 3:17 pm

I do these hand waving movement thingys, i think "the airplane" is probably the best description of it. I enjoy it. i find it cute. And i am not a cutesy type of girl.

wigglyspider
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15 Jun 2009, 5:03 pm

Well, I never really did a lot of unusual/noticeable ones even when I was a kid, but my right leg is usually doing something. Not just bouncing, but a lot of weird things. (Like when I'm lying in bed, I move it like in a walking motion.) Never my left leg though. So weird.

Besides that, just small things like fiddling with stuff. Does chewing on stuff count? I like to chew on things.

Willmark: that's weird. People really pay that much attention? I never got the feeling that it was socially unacceptable unless it was something that was really noticeable or looked really weird. A lot of people fiddle with things like in their hands and stuff, don't they? I'm sure you could find something more pocket-friendly than a rubber ball. Just looking around I have like 5 random objects here on my desk that would be good. They don't bounce, but they do other things.

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NicksQuestions
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15 Jun 2009, 5:19 pm

I'm not sure if this is stimming or not. For example often I'll be walking and then all of a sudden freeze in place looking at some detail in the wall or ceiling, while keeping my head still while doing so. Then I'll move my eyes back the same way that they came, since sometimes it feels weird if I don't, and often repeat it a few times. Sometimes as one of my hands moves against something, I'll rub it back the same way because I don't like the way it feels to have my hand rubbed one way. Sometimes I'll stare at the number two on a clock (or another number the next time around) for twenty minutes very rigidly as I daydream. Sometimes I'll click back and forth on my browser tabs for a few minutes for stimulation. Sometimes I'll move back and forth on my feet because there's a crack under neath me and I don't like the way it feels and I'll try to move back the same exact way my feet rolled the first time, but then doing it several times to get the feel that I came back the same way.

Xinae
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15 Jun 2009, 5:30 pm

Now that I'm aware of what it is, yes I still do it.

As a child I rocked furiously when I was aggitated. Now I bounce my knee, braid small pieces of my hair, scratch at my throat, pick at my nails, if standing and waiting in line I will catch my self swaying side to side. A new stim under severe conditions, I recently did, smacking my forehead with the palm of my hand and stamping my foot, luckily severe conditions don't happen often at all :oops:

robbokris
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15 Jun 2009, 5:36 pm

I flap my hands randomly sometimes (on my own) and when I get nervous (when having a bad or depressing thought) My whole body shakes and it shocks me. I get really random shivers from time to time as well for no apparent reason.

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15 Jun 2009, 9:50 pm

Yep I still stim. I don't hand flap that much, but I do leg shake and drum my fingers. Swaying often happens too.

willmark wrote:

Stimming. Now I have a name for it. Before joining this site, all I knew to call it was figiting.

my teachers called it that. Kids would get in trouble for swaying or moving their legs. I still get told off for shaking my leg. That's a stim I do the most.

One way I can stim in public is when I'm wearing headphones - swaying and rocking looks like I'm enjoying the music. Same with finger tapping.

Flapping is either moving or hand or arm up and down repetitively.

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willmark
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16 Jun 2009, 8:43 am

wigglyspider wrote:

Willmark: that's weird. People really pay that much attention? I never got the feeling that it was socially unacceptable unless it was something that was really noticeable or looked really weird. A lot of people fiddle with things like in their hands and stuff, don't they?

Yes people notice. Most don't say anything when they observe it, but they see it. Observing that constant movement when they think a body really ought to be able to just sit still for crying out loud, makes many people feel nervous. For others it is like a pattern that has become associated for them with people who are mentally challenged, or mentally ill. The concern expressed by some members of my family is that they don't want the man that they love dearly to look ret*d, to put it bluntly.

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