REG: The Great Thread of "What's Your Stim?"

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Luckily my fingers are quite a good fit into my ear canal... can get a good squidge when I have itchy ears

Rocking ANDOR (leg jittering OR foot tapping)

Mainly...
I pace in kilometers. Mainly because I like to sense the space that way, how kinetic movement reaches my body. And, it saved me a lot of money.
My fingers would move -- so I have many options for this. I mainly chose crocheting -- which is my current focus on my special interest of crafting.




I may self talk, I may rock, I may replay random moments on my head just for the heck of it, I may skin my lips and fingers off until it bleeds, I spin and slide around slippery surfaces, and I may tap around with my feet.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

This has to be my main one.



I've also noticed I lift my heels off the floor when I'm sat in a chair, meaning I apply pressure through my toes and the ball of my foot. That feels good, and I guess it's comparable to toe walking. I prefer not to sit in chairs at all though; yoga-ish poses on the floor are better for all-around pressure, and more calming.

If I'm alone I might rock slightly. I've only slipped up and done that in front of people a few times, and they were nice (?) enough to point it out so I could stop .

Oh! And touching certain textures, soft or cool things especially. It's like I have to touch them; I can't stop myself.
I have quite a lot of stims when I think about it, this is a good thread.

holding my fiancees hands (they're so soft) I like soft hands

My most common stims are the following:
* Hand flapping
* Pacing up and down
* Vocal stimming (though I don't do it as much as the above two)
* Grinding my teeth - not always aware of this one!
* Wringing my hands a bit (when I'm in public)

When I was younger I used to twirl my hair, but I grew out of that when it created knots in it.

rocking, pacing, smelling things

Just learned the term stim a month or so ago, I always just called them mannerisms.

A few mannerisms people have pointed out to me are that I like to breathe out of my mouth but with only half the mouth open, and I like doing this weird thing with my front teeth and my beard by my bottom lip where I'll move my lip back and forth so my teeth kind of catch the hair... I've also had people at work point out hand flapping which is kind of embarrassing.

The ones I've noticed since thinking about it are the leg going up and down, rocking, tapping, and when I wear a sweater I like to rub my belly. Oh, and when I talk to people it can be hard not to rub my head. When I was a kid I'd poke holes in the little disposable tablecloths they would use at church suppers.

Jiggling my legs and tapping my feet are common for me as well. I used to do those things a lot when I was younger, but not so much now, except when I'm very nervous.

When I first learned about stimmming and asked myself if I do it, I thought of my habit of constantly rubbing my lower lip.
But probably also:
Making frog-like noises with my mouth;
Playing with my tongue inside my mouth;
Scrubbing inside of my ear with a hairpin;
Scratching my fingertips;
Perssing my eyelids until shapes appear.

I wonder if my habit of talking to myself and singing when I'm focused also falls to the category.

-I rub the tops of my feet together when I’m sitting with my legs crossed out in front of me, usually when playing video games.
-Soft stuff, mostly I rub my hair between my fingers, as a small child I did the same motion with a soft piece of fabric.
-Listen to the same song, or small set of songs, over and over. Lately it’s been Cirrus by Bonobo.
-Singing, loudly
-Repeating sounds or words/names. This happens in my head a lot, I’ve been letting myself say things out loud more often.
-I didn’t think I hand-flapped but, I caught myself doing it the other day when a family gathering got too loud and I had to move to a quieter part of the room.
- I don’t know if it counts as a stim but, when my husband hugs me I ask him to squeeze hard enough to crack my back. It’s refreshing and clears my head for a little bit. I just made myself a weighted blanket and I wish I had made it heavier.
- Someone mentioned smelling things, I do that too. I didn't think of it as a stim until you mentioned it.
- Peeling my fingertips. This is the one that I really wish I could stop but, even thinking about trying to stop gives me anxiety. I've done it for so long that sometimes my touchscreen and fingerprint lock don't register some of my fingertips.

I’ve noticed that rocking, chewing on things, and repeating are things I did as a kid but, I don’t do much or at all anymore. I think the finger peeling may have arisen out of suppressing other stims, for the sake of “appearing more normal”. I was just formally diagnosed a couple of weeks ago so I’m still sorting through it as a middle-aged adult. This board is helping a lot, so thank you. It makes me feel better when I read that someone else does the things that I do and is OK with it, it's helping me undo years of suppression.

Do you all have weird words/names/songs pop into your head and repeat for hours, sometimes days? Last night the name Nicolae Ceausescu popped into my head and repeated, all I could think was wtf brain?