To stim, or not to stim?

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One thing that confused me when I first self identified as aspergish, is that I came upon this concept of 'stimming' and I didn't know what it was.

I have a better clue now, and I have a half baked idea now that, if stimming is to 'stimulate' then this would suggest a kind of hyposensitivity to stimulus, much like people listen to loud music or go on roller coasters to stimulate them. Those kind of activities send me right over the edge, I've always preferred quiet music (if any) and not going on roller coasters.

Some people think that some aspies can be hyposensitive, and others are hypersensitive. I think I'm a hypersensitive type and so am inclined to attempt to 'calm things down' rather than 'stim things up'.

Is my thinking on this subject totally whacky?

I think people can stim to stimulate without necessarily being the thrill seeking type. I think there are small pleasures in manipulating sight or sound or touch. Wiggling fingers in front of your eyes would be an example.

Your thinking on this subject makes perfect sense to me.
However:
* Most autistics are simultaneously hypersensitive and hyposensitive. (hypersensitive to various stimuli, and hyposensitive to other various stimuli).
* Stimming can be used to calm oneself, so stimming is also helpful to 'calm things down'.

I do stim. Mostly because it's pleasurable.
I'm hypersensitive to taste and smell, at least.
I'm not sure about the others, since I'm able to shut out the whole outside world if I want to/if I'm distracted by a thought. I zone out a lot, and then I don't really register anything that's going on around me. Is that hyposensitive? I'm not sure I know all that well what it means.

You can be hypersensitive to some tastes and smells and hyposensitive to other tastes and smells.
(I have yet to meet someone who is hypersensitive to all tastes and smells).

Makes sense. Can't truly know if there's some taste/smell in something that I just don't sense.

there are different goals to stimming. generally the goal is not to excite the senses, but to stimulate them. think of how spices stimulate your taste buds, providing more sensory input. roller coasters stimulate by increasing adrenaline, not simply by increasing sensory input (altho they do increase sensory input, but thats not what causes the excitement). some stimming is to self calm, some for pleasurable sensation or relaxation, some because of a sensory need your body has. there are probably more, but those are ones i see every day.

these are some of the various stims i see in my house from people between the ages of 4 and 39:

moany noises while eating
sucking on fingers or objects
moaning vocalizations when going to sleep
rocking when seated or standing
finger manipulation (wiggling or touching everything)
spinning
bouncing
leaning on or against objects/people
rubbing feet together
biting self when agitated
blowing heavily when exhaling (in through nose, blow out through mouth kind of thing, repeatedly for extended periods)
knee bouncing
whistling

I'm hypersensitive to taste and hypo-sensitive to smells and I enjoy stimming...no matter how crazy people think it is.

I'm hypersensitive to touch and many sounds, smells, occasionally lights and some tastes. But am randomly hyposensitive on occasion; especially after sensory overload when I need to reboot. I find that I stim pretty often and still carry random toys I stim with constantly . But I don't use them too often and found that working out, and as of recently attempting belly dance workouts I found online help to calm my nerves. But I prefer to do this either in the morning before my classes or at the end of the day after classes but before dinner.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately also. I think it is the word "stimulation" that has also confused me, as it could be assumed that many of us want less stimulation rather than more if we are trying to calm down/feel good.

For me I feel that stimming calms me because of the consistency of it. If there are things around me that I am feeling overwhelmed by (sensory, people, etc), that have no "structure", my stimming provides some structure for me to ground to. I mostly rock and/or move my fingers in time to imaginary music. It is all very rhythmic, and I think for me, it lets me escape the craziness of what is around me- ie. I know when that next rock will be, its not going to change, etc.

I probably would consider myself hypersensitve. Although I also stim (sometimes in less rhythmical ways) when I am excited and don't feel like I need to calm down. Perhaps it is hyposensitvity (finding it harder to draw good feelings from whats around us) that lends to stimming almost to boost those good feelings.

Thinking out loud really

I'm both hypersensitive and hyposensitive.

I stim when nervous, excited, extremely bored.

I'm mostly hypersensitive to loud noises and bright lights and when I'm really happy about something, I stim pretty much continually (various types of rhythmic finger movements and occasionally, rocking) - or when anxious in certain situations like busy shops, crowds etc. Or if I'm feeling bored.
It's also good fun.

Not entirely, but not complete either.

The reason that it's called stimming stems from before autistic people had anything to say about why we did it. It was referred to as "self-stimulation", and then shortened to "stimming", by people who really had no clue why autistic people (and other DD people) did such things. They also lumped together a lot of different things. Like they called it stimming if you moved a certain repetitive way (even if it was a tic or something), but they also called it stimming if you liked staring at colored glass all day.

I think we often do it without understanding the reason ourselves, since it's only sometimes a conscious act, and even when conscious we may not know why we "want" so badly to do it.

In my case, I've come to realize it has something to do with how I understand the world. At least that's most of it. It sort of helps me figure out what's going on. But it does other things too. But my neck is twisted at an angle trying to read my computer screen while lying down and I'm in a lot of pain from that and I can't think of anything else right now even though I know there's other aspects of it too.

It just feels good. I mean, why do NTs take bubble baths, ride roller coasters, drink ice-cold water, or sleep under silk sheets? It's not like autistics are the only people who stim.

BTW: It's possible to be both hypersensitive and hyposensitive. I know 'cause I'm both at once.

What's the difference between Other and Other other?

Not that unlisted item over there, that unlisted item over there.