Do you have a favorite stim? And why do you do it?

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I do various things like hand flapping and rocking, but my favorites are cracking my knuckles and rubbing my thumb across the rest of my fingers (I only do this on my right hand for some reason).

This is a really nice place to find out if you are stimming or not, nice summary of common, semi-odd and odd stims. http://insideperspectives.wordpress.com ... /stimming/

Pacing is my most prevalent stim. My mother use to tell me that I was going to wear out the carpet.

Besides that I mumble to myself, jiggle my leg, wrap and unwrap a rubber band around my left index finger, and listen to the same song over and over again for hours.

the two i noticed doing the had motions of piano warmups and swishing liquid in my mouth

I pull my head up wards and tilt my head sideways very fast to make my neck go "pop". Why do I do it? Honestly the most stupid question I've read in here, because if we knew, then it'd be able to stop it and thus not do it - Which I'd really like to, since it involves a fair amount of pair and honestly isn't without risk ... it most often happens when I think of something embarrising .... note the fact not when I might do something embarrassing, but when I think of it ...

I tend to play with my hands, or if there is an object I am holding, I will play with that object instead. It is something I do out of nervousness in social situations.

It used to be biting my nails. I genuinely loved biting my nails. It calmed me down and I loved it. Now that i've let them grow out, I obsessively paint them and tap them on hard surfaces. Sounds good. Feels good. I like to... er... rotate...? my ankles and wrists. Uhh. Feels good. I stick my tongue out when i concentrate. I wring my hands. I think the biggest one is cracking my thumbs, though. I do it a lot. I was at a waterpark when I was 14 and inadvertently cracked my thumb underwater and it made a cool tinny sound, so ever since it's been a big repeated thing. I curl my toes and lock my two big toes together.
EDIT: and picking my nose. I love to pick my nose. Ain't sorry bout it.

Okay, I'm back..


Seriously, I thought ASD was like HFA, not everything else that comes with it, or that there was a spectrum even. I know my mom and grandpa has some peculiar traits (</SARC> I thought I was just one of the family.... "All F'ed up and no where to go" - Mother.... Now that all this is really clicking into place I'm having One Ah HA! moment after another... it's great that I'm figuring it out, but it sucks that it took till I'm in my mid thirties.

Anyway, to answer the question.

I have this HSP audio/visual thing going on, I see flashes of light and fractal patterns when I close my eyes, sound activated, like an internal VU meter. Mostly just flashes but I get some kewl colours thrown for effect. High chimey notes bring huge red green and yellow strobes, bass gives me these grey fractal swimmy-changey patterns depending on the frequency, I just love low sub audible bass. I used to have a wall of sub boxes in my room at the head of my bed because I can feel the pressure waves of the bass flowing over my whole body. Some of the HSP stuff is the bee's knee's.

My favorite stim at home in private is loading up a great liquid dubstep playlist, crank up the volume to just below clipping the signal, kicking back in my office chair, stick my feet up on my desk and start rocking, like hard core back of the head bouncing off the seat back/tapping my feet/leg/toes/fingers to the beat of the music. Sometimes swinging the chair in 1/4 turns back and forth if there is a lull in the rhythm. That's it, I'm gone, off in La La land. Not sleeping, but not around if you know what I mean.

So warm, comforting, soothing, relaxing.

Like. A. Drug.

That's where all my best ideas come from. that's where I go to when I'm stressed or just generally freaking out.

I have about 40,001 other stims, but you wanted my favorite.

- Picking at my nail cuticles

- Pulling out my eyelashes (like another poster mentioned)

- Rubbing my dolphin plush in a certain area where the fabric has a nice, nappy feel

- Rolling my head around on my shoulders to get rid of neck tension

- And sometimes when I'm watching TV or something, or if I'm happy, I do this thing where I sort of lurch backwards when I'm sitting on a couch or chair....not necessarily rocking, just sort of like a bounce.

- And my dad also remembers that when I was about 6 or 7 and I'd sit at our old kitchen table drawing, I'd actually rock back and forth in the chair. When we moved, I got my own desk in a carpeted section of the house, and when I tried rocking there, the chair fell backwards. I stopped rocking in chairs after that.

for me, it's twirling things in the air or with my fingers. When I worked fast food it was twirling spatulas.
If I was coordinated enough to juggle, i'd be doing it all the time
It can be a little dangerous because I WILL twirl knives or swords if I have it in my hands for long enough

Now, it's mostly small bottles of wax or buffing compound when I'm at work.

The most common thing I do is tap my fingers to my thumb. A lot of the time I don't realize I'm doing it at first. It's usually while I'm walking. I've done this for as long as I can remember.

I have no idea why I do these things. I'd guess it's just something for my mind to focus on.

Like a lot of y'all, I do the finger tapping thing, drumming to songs in my head. Before I knew about stimming, my DH thought I was mad at him and asked, "Why are you tapping?" I said, "Ummm...I've got rhythm?" I also bite my cheek--sometimes to the point where it really hurts. I've lost a couple of wristwatches because I was opening and closing the catch and they fell off while I was hanging my arm out of the car window. I can't keep a watch on--the stretchy ones pull my arm hairs and the leather/cloth ones smell after a while. Does anybody curl their tongue?

I run up and down the halls without even realising I'm doing it.