Hand flapping.

Post Reply New Topic

I don't flap my hands, but if I get excited I have the urge to. I do it in my head, if that makes sense? I vaguely remember when I did it once when I was a kid, someone called me gay for doing it, so I stopped doing it. I guess because of that, that's what I've always associated that urge with, not autism. Now I do that finger thing though, as I'm sure I've mentioned before.

Eh, who has the right to call it inappropriate? It's not hurting anyone.

Ever since I learned about hand flapping being a stim, I've actually started to do this occasionally but as more of a conscious fun thing to do with my body when I'm walking around and all than as an actual stim. It actually does feel good to do sometimes.

That's true of me too, I can't recall if I handflapped before I learned of autism, though I don't do it on purpose

I would not really describe what I do as 'flapping' .......a lot of times I don't keep my hands still especially if I am talking, but I don't flap them just move them a lot usually I am unaware of it. I also tend to pick up random things, wonder why and then set them down again. Or whats bad is if I'm holding a peice of paper lol usually end up folding it, rolling it up or just crinkling it into a ball before I realise what i'm doing.....I've gotten some weird looks when handing in papers for school or any other documents for anything else. I also slightly crinkle the pages when I am reading....not the best description but i don't know the exact word for what I do to the pages when I read is.

I flap my hands when happy or excited, and more often lately, anxious or nervous. Also if I've been out for a good part of the day, the second I get some privacy, my hands are all over the place. I also do something with one hand when I'm wearing this long sleeved sweaterish thing because I like the feel of the cloth against my hand. I don't really consciously decide to do it, and it's one of the stims I've started doing around people recently. At least I think I started, I may have done it before and not noticed/realized.

Yesterday, my nephew did a somewhat subdued (as compared to ShinyMetalBrain) hand flapping happy dance at the thought of getting a new laptop and didn't realize he was doing it. He's got ADHD, but as far as I know he's not autistic.

I can't stop doing it. Usually I'm bored and need to move around or I'm nervous and the more overwhelmed I get the more I'll do it.
When I exercise on my trampoline and listen to music I do it too. Though I got overstimulated and couldn't stop.

That's he only time I'll o any kind of hand flapping--if I'm talking and I'm having trouble finding the words to say what i want to say, I'll wave my hands towards me, in a kind of circular motion. It's pretty mild. I don't even know it is qualifies as an Aspie stim. I've seen NTs do it too.

I don't have a happy dance. In fact, I'm uncomfortable around people on the spectrum when they do that. It's ok if they're small kids, but teens and adults, it's very unnerving because the erratic movement and sounds trigger my anxiety. I'm worried they'll move into my personal space or bump into me. I don't mind when little kids on the spectrum do it and bump into me, but older kids or adults, no.

Something I did more as a kid. Now it's only occasional. Most of my stims come out when talking or nervous social situations.

I hand flap some, though mostly in private. At age 3-4 I seem to remember doing it a lot, though it wasn't made a big deal of, so it might be less than I remember. When I was still pretty young I somehow figured out to keep it subdued in public. I ended up with a 'covert' stim that turns hand-flaps into thumb-on-top-of-ring-fingers-with-other-fingers-straight, basically. And 'finger-wiggling.'

It's usually from stress, or cringing, basically. If something strikes me a really funny it also sometimes happens. Not so much from being really happy though.

Whenever I feel like there's a lot of stress/bad-feelings "in my spine," so to speak, it relieves it immediately. And, unlike eating Xanax all day, a tolerance doesn't build up and it seems a lot healthier in the long run.

There was an interesting thread someone started last week(? I think DandelionFireworks?), asking if people stim in different ways according to different feelings. Ah, found it:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp3297472.html#3297472

Might be interesting to see some more data points, there.

My one year old niece hand flaps constantly. It's too early to tell if she is on the spectrum although she wails whenever the family wants to take her out.

I see NTs wriggle their fingers or fiddle with their fingers when they talk to eachother, all the time. Or when they sit, I often see them move their foot up or down, or tap their fingers on a wall. That is all normal.

The movements what NTs don't do so much is wave their arms about or flap their hands above their head, or whatever. But little finger movements is quite normal. NTs don't just stand or sit stock still all the time.

NTs do have stims. Generally speaking, their stims are socially acceptable in most contexts, or have a meaning in terms of body language that other NTs interpret as "normal."

Yep. I think it's mostly a context-related thing for NTs (stereotypical Italian hand-gestures, etc.) but with us it's more often a specific, directed-interest thing.
And good fun too!

Certain kinds of finger movements, yeah, but I've not seen too many people wriggle them pointed upwards and/or in front of one eye or the other (not that I do that one in public much). And actually when I was in about 6th grade I did disguise some finger stims by turning them into normal-looking finger tapping, but they go back to what they originally were if I don't think about it.

It is interesting to wonder if it serves a similar function (stress? processing ?), just on a less intense level, though. Like how NT's can be induced (and even animals) to rock if put under lots of stress (or some if they're just thinking really hard). There doesn't seem to be a hard boundary between NT stimming and ASC stimming.

They do certain little finger movements. I know they do nothing like my little finger movements, at least I've never seen one do them. I ought to eventually use my webcam to record it the next time I'm doing a lot of it.

NT's do finger movements or leg shaking because they may be impatient or some other reason. It's not the same as stimming. Stimming is done more intensely, for me at least. It's hard for me to stop it. One, it feels good. Two, once I get in the habit it's too hard to control. Controlling it doesn't feel right.
Sometimes I just feel numb so I have to move my arms and hands around. If that makes sense?