Stimming

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I am a big fan of downhill stimming. Never been much for downhill skiing, though. I'm not sure why, but when I'm going down hills or stairs I tend to bend my arms at the elbows and let my wrists and hands bounce and flap around. Sometimes it gets more exaggerated and my whole arms get into it. If I'm on a really good downhill, I look like I might just fly away.

Usually I'm more subtle, though. I bounce my leg to no end. It can end up shaking the whole room. When I was younger, my mom had a big shelving thing in the kitchen with all kinds of bowls and stuff displayed on it. I'd shake my leg and all the bowls would rattle against each other and drive her nuts. Once, I was riding in my dad's car in the back seat and we were at a stoplight. He got all worried because he thought there was something wrong with the engine, but then realized that it was just my leg shaking the whole car.

I also rock a bit. I'm not sure how noticable it is. Nobody's ever said anything. I usually do it in time with my pulse. Either just my head or my head and torso, front to back. To me, it sort of feels like I'm only moving on the inside and not on the outside. But I bet I also move on the outside.

Blimey! I do that too!

i stim quit alot.

i chew on my hands alot and suck them.
i rock backwards and fowards.
i bend my fingers.
i flap my hands
i pace

Stimming is fun!

I probably do a lot of things everyone here does; it’s just that no one has pointed them out to me in person so I assume everyone else does them, even though I’ve never noticed them doing it.

ha! I just realized I have more while on the net-I outline things constantly with the mouse. If there is a picture of a person or something on the site, I'll outline it repeatedly until I'm done reading whatever it is I'm looking at. I also do it with things that are outlined or boxed in, I'll make the pointer go up and down the spaces between the boxes.

Not sure it's a stim, but it's definitely odd

Some of my stims include: tapping/shaking my foot, rubbing my heels/feet together, wringing my hands, bouncing my leg(s), rocking, spinning something, making sounds by sucking air in between my teeth, clicking things, picking at the bumps on my legs, and when going down stairs i wave/flap/sway the lower portion of my arms. and maybe others im forgeting.

One thing that i do that I'm not sure is a stim or not: puckering my lips (like the stereotypical kissing thing) so that the top of my upper lip touches the tip of my nose. It's something i do when concentrating(reading, doing work, etc) and hardly ever notice. I do it a lot when i'm on the comp actually(im doin it now too heh). My mom will often walk in and say "you're doing it again" and mimic me. I never even notice till she says it

I also tiptoe when I walk and kinda crawl upstairs...(stim?)

i like moving around so my chains make noise especially during exercises

Ok....we all stim in various formats. That's a given. So, lets have a stimming contest! Who can do it best, longer, most uniquely? Up to the challenge, Aspies?

Personally, I stim a lot. But it's mostly just manifested as rocking/swaying my upper body (helps my balance too). I'm kind of dance-y. So, who's really a creative stimmer out there?

sometimes... i like to do thise jittery thing with my eyeballs...

people tell me it looks like i've ODed on coffee... but it kinda just jiggles the eyes back and forth really fast and doesn't move them too much... just looks twitchy and creepy. kinda like the way your eyes twitch if you roll them up way back.... only im looking kinda dead ahead... and they're not really focused... so looks extra cool.

I think that has a "proper" name, not Nystagmus but something like it.

Didn't realise these were stims. I always have some form of music going in my head and always in time with whatever i'm doing (walking, typing etc)



I do something similar but with my bottom lip and whatever the bit between your lips and chin is called.

Lots of finger-related stuff (drumming, twisting, nail-biting etc) and pen/coin/lighter fiddling (I've set fire to my pockets on several occasions as a result!). Because of this I often sit on my hands when I'm out. Leg bouncing is another one I do a lot. It drives the guy who works opposite me a little nuts sometimes cos both our desks will be shaking as a result but I don't even realise I'm doing it til he says.



Well, I sometimes find myself practicing guitar lines with my teeth. Basically there seem to be 5 positions that I can move my bottom jaw to so that only 2 teeth are touching (1 upper, 1 lower). The easiest way to explain is to relate these to the first 4 frets on a guitar (ie furthest left is open, next is 1st fret, etc etc until the furthest right is 4th fret) so then as I run thru the line in my head, my jaw moves to follow emulating what you would see if you if you watched my left hand from directly above whilst I played the line. I've got no idea how this started or when I started doing it but if any other guitarists do this I'd love to know as I've become kind of fond of it - I think it may have subconciously helped me learn many lines, solos and scales over the years.

I don't have as many stimming behaviors as I used to in fact I don't stim at all, but my mother does. She is constantly tapping on something or humming and these behaviors make me cringe. I often try to tell her to stop, but she won't and I get really annoyed. It makes me very anxious when she stims and I just want to scream!

I'm always pacing and sometimes like to sing/chant in made-up languages. It'll start out relatively simple, with some rhythm and a few repeating syllables, then slowly evolve into more complicated sequences, with variations in tone and intentional 'missed beats' (creating an expectation of a particular pattern and then deliberately violating it in a way that still seems correct.) When not pacing, my feet and hands always need something to do, enough so that when they're sitting still, it merely serves as a pause in their sequence. I'll tap my toes, rub my chin, press my forehead into my fist, or perhaps start drumming on my temple. If I'm particularly lost in thought, I may rock back and forth in my chair while sliding my left hand over my right in a loose clasping. All of this is exacerbated if I'm exposed to caffeine.

The way my internal soundtrack works is that every day, I typically wake up with a particular song in my head. It's rarely the same song two days in a row. The song (mostly the chorus, but sometimes other parts of the song) will play in my head repeatedly throughout the day, whenever nothing else has my attention. I can 'change the station' with an effort to remember another song, but it's not uncommon for me to drift back to the morning song later.

Heh, I started clapping my hands yesterday in a shop where I was talking to someone... I just had to do it.
I stim a lot, but mostly when I am stressed or bored or overstimulated.
I do it a lot in queues... or when standing talking.
I flap fingers, step from foot to foot, sometimes even jump around.... I also pick out my eyebrows repeatedly, but I am self conscious about that being seen. I have done that since I was 10.
I also tap things, doodle, mess with anything that is to hand and clench my fists and sometimes when walking, I have noted that my fingers take on odd positions.
For the longest time I would play a piano song on my fingers when younger whenever I was stressed.

I must be a bit like Donald then as I don't normally flap my hands - it's just when I'm upset or agitated that I do and then it is up and down and quite fast.