Page 1 of 1 [ 13 posts ] 

jojobean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk

24 Jan 2010, 8:56 pm

I wonder why I cant EVER stay still for even a moment. If I force myself not to move a muscle...I feel like I am going to explode! Most of the time, my foot or feet tap, my fingers wiggle and occasionally I flap my arms and hands up and down. Mom hates it when I do that in public...she says it looks like I am going to take flight.
Other times my legs wiggle back and forth and my toes scrunch. I can stop this at any time, so it is not like a muscle disease. When I was little, I would run around the house in circles for no other reason than it felt good and I would do this for about 30 minutes to an hour...or until my mom caught me and sat me on the couch and made me stay there for 5 minutes...of course I cried the whole time because I hated being still more than anything.
My poor mother...I drove her batty sometimes. But nowdays I resort to twitching, flapping, tapping, wiggling and sometimes snapping my fingers.

Why cant I stay still and when I do...it feels like I am going to explode?

Jojo


_________________
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin


CTBill
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Oct 2008
Age: 59
Gender: Male
Posts: 514
Location: Connecticut, USA

24 Jan 2010, 9:00 pm

It's just stimming. I do it constantly. It's fun, and feels great!



j0sh
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,191
Location: Tampa, Florida

24 Jan 2010, 9:12 pm

CTBill wrote:
It's just stimming. I do it constantly. It's fun, and feels great!


Yep, it's just stimming. I do it too.

I do allot of the same things you do jojo. Many normal people do it too (if there is a such a label), but they usually don't do it as much as someone on the spectrum. It's normal behavior for someone who's autistic, so it's not something you should be ashamed or embarrassed by.



Peko
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,381
Location: Eastern PA, USA

24 Jan 2010, 9:25 pm

It just stimming :), just find ways to stim that are not noticeable and its fine :D


_________________
Balance is needed within the universe, can be demonstrated in most/all concepts/things. Black/White, Good/Evil, etc.
All dependent upon your own perspective in your own form of existence, so trust your own gut and live the way YOU want/need to.


jojobean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk

24 Jan 2010, 9:41 pm

what is stimming? I never heard of that before?



j0sh
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,191
Location: Tampa, Florida

24 Jan 2010, 9:56 pm

jojobean wrote:
what is stimming? I never heard of that before?


Google search says...

Quote:
"Stimming is a repetitive body movement that is hypothesized to stimulate one or more senses. The term is shorthand for self-stimulation. Repetitive movement, or stereotypy, is often referred to as stimming under the hypothesis that it has a function related to sensory input."


and

Quote:
"Stimming is a repetitive body movement that self-stimulates one or more senses in a regulated manner. Stimming is known in psychiatry as a "stereotypy", a continuous, purposeless movement.

Stimming is one of the symptoms listed by the DSM IV for autism, although it is observed in about 10 percent of non-autistic young children. Many autistics have no stims. Common forms of stimming among people with autism include hand flapping, body spinning or rocking, lining up or spinning toys or other objects, echolalia, perseveration, and repeating rote phrases. [1]

There are many theories about the function of stimming, and the reasons for its increased incidence in autistic people. For hyposensitive people, it may provide needed nervous system arousal, releasing beta-endorphins. For hypersensitive people, it may provide a "norming" effect, allowing the person to control a specific sense, and is thus a soothing behavior. [2] "



SirLogiC
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 31 Dec 2007
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 350

25 Jan 2010, 1:50 am

I pick at my nails constantly though I do not chew them to stubs, mostly just harmless picking at. If I have something in my hands, coins, a pen, paper, anything I will fiddle with it constantly. If I am writing so can't fiddle with my hands I will rock one foot. I could sit still for hours as long as I had something to fiddle with. If I had to sit completely still I probably wouldn't last 2 minutes.

The way I see it is that I need to maintain a certain level of mental activity and just listening or seeing is not enough. I need to fiddle to fill the "slack". Uni lectures that are boring a very un-stimulating so I fiddle a lot, draw crap and stuff. I've taken to drawing simple fractal patterns recently :D. Anyway that is what I think the stimming is for me.



jojobean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Aug 2009
Age: 47
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,341
Location: In Georgia sipping a virgin pina' colada while the rest of the world is drunk

25 Jan 2010, 6:16 pm

thanks that really helps....and yes I am very hypersencitive and when I do move alot it feels good.


_________________
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up.
-James Baldwin


superboyian
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 9 Sep 2009
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 14,704
Location: London

25 Jan 2010, 6:20 pm

You are definitely not the only one who happens to do it, most of us tend to do it for the fun of it :D

I know I do especially when i'm very overexcited like when I get to see my favourite person, I feel like I have the urge to stim and also when I watch something that I really like, I also tend to stim... :wink: and also occasionally when i'm bored, I stim... :lol:

It seems weird to people, but I make sure that people don't see it... :lol:


_________________
BACK in London…. For now.
Follow my adventures on twitter: @superboyian
Please feel free to help my aspie friend become a pilot: https://gofund.me/a9ae45b4


persian85033
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jul 2009
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,869
Location: Phoenix

26 Jan 2010, 12:43 pm

I can never sit still. I always have to be tapping my feet, or have something in my hands to fiddle with at least. I can't stand still, either. I usually pace, or kind of rock or spin.



Lyriel
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 12 Sep 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 135
Location: Kansas City

26 Jan 2010, 5:44 pm

I have a very hard time staying still. So far, the only thing that really helps is when I wrap my legs tightly with a blanket (I really want a weighted blanket, but I can't afford one... yet), and even then, it keeps only my legs still, and only for a couple of hours. It seems like I'm always squirming, readjusting myself, playing around with something... I'm even a restless sleeper.



TonyTheTiger
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 16 Dec 2009
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 94

26 Jan 2010, 9:33 pm

I have the same issue, didn't know what it was until I came here. It's just voluntary, but compulsive little tics to keep my mind active, and it makes it very hard for me to fall asleep.



Rocky
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 May 2008
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,074
Location: Uhhh...Not Remulak

26 Jan 2010, 10:23 pm

SirLogiC wrote:
I pick at my nails constantly though I do not chew them to stubs, mostly just harmless picking at. If I have something in my hands, coins, a pen, paper, anything I will fiddle with it constantly. If I am writing so can't fiddle with my hands I will rock one foot. I could sit still for hours as long as I had something to fiddle with. If I had to sit completely still I probably wouldn't last 2 minutes.

The way I see it is that I need to maintain a certain level of mental activity and just listening or seeing is not enough. I need to fiddle to fill the "slack". Uni lectures that are boring a very un-stimulating so I fiddle a lot, draw crap and stuff. I've taken to drawing simple fractal patterns recently :D. Anyway that is what I think the stimming is for me.


I used to doodle in boring classes. Often I would draw something that looked like a huge highway with an incredible number of overpasses and underpasses doubling back on itself. Once a classmate looked over at the sheet of paper I filled and burst out laughing. She couldn't believe it. Maybe I was bored and that is why I was skipped a year at one point.

I have always been prone to tapping, fidgeting, humming, whistling, etc.


_________________
"Reality is not made of if. Reality is made of is."
-Author prefers to be anonymous.