Do your stims change over time?

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I was wondering if anyone on here has noticed that some of their stims change from time to time...

Ever since I was little, I've always had certain types of fabric that I rub back and forth between my fingers. I do this a lot - whether relaxed or upset. As a teen I also began engaging in self-injurious types of behavior when overwhelmed (not really sure if thats considered a stim or not). My psych pointed out that I excessively ruminate, too.

However, I seemed to have picked up a new stim. Over the past several months I've begun shaking my left hand several times whenever I get stressed out. Its much more noticeable than anything I've ever done and its embarrassing because I often don't notice I'm doing it until its too late. Is there any hope that I can somehow control this or expect it to pass?

i notice that i stim when daydreaming so if i can stop daydreaming i stop stimming. my stims have changed over time i used to like trampolines but now i like to bike.

I've had a lot of "nervous habits" over the years. Most of them are related to chewing or the need to touch/rub something. I think they just relaxes me somehow, though I don't know they qualify as a "stim". I never did hand flapping or head banging or anything like that.

Edit: To answer your question, the only "cure" I've ever found for a particular stim or nervous habit is to replace it with another one... OR, find some way to deal with the anxiety or stress that's causing it. Sorry if that's not very helpful.

Throughout my life, I have been known to pick up some stims and drop others. For instance, my current 'primary stim', which is pacing, was only picked up around 2007.

Other examples would include rocking, which I did quite frequently when I was at primary school but only began doing again in recent weeks; 'bouncing' off walls (a consequence of rocking while standing, I suppose), which was often done around '06/'07 but never again since; and flapping my hands, which I have shown quite an on-off interest in since '09.

Rocking back and forth used to be my major stim since I was small, never in public though. So, tension would build up during the day and as soon as I was home from school, I was rocking. Later, when I lived on my own and was a working girl, I would rock for half an hour or so before going to work, and after I came home. I needed to do this until I was about 40 (I am 48 now).

To get to sleep, I would hum songs and bang my head into the pillow at 'the beat. ' I did this until I was into my late teens, I think.

I work from home now on my own so I do have less tension. I have music on all the time so by the time I need to stim, I am just at my desk rocking side to side at the beat of the music.

Yes I have one stim ....twiddling string or string like objects in front of my face with my fingers that I did as a child and then did as an adult only in private during times of stress.....however the last time I started doing it during a stressful time I got addicted to it and now do it all the time (in private...at home). As a child I also hummed, spun, repeated words and phrases and occasionally flapped arms(the latter only when very small). At one point I stared at water flowing from a puddle down a drain ( all recess and/or lunch on my school yard) as a child. As an adult I occasionally repeat phrases, I hum and I bounce around my room when really excited. I guess I stim a lot.....but yes some are consistent but some change.

Ohhh yes and I forgot about my SIB stim which consists of scratching at my skin (to the point of creating scabs which I then want to pick at) which I developed as a young teenager and still do now.


I also rock but oddly only if I'm very upset.

Last edited by daydreamer84 on 01 Apr 2011, 10:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Throughout my life so far, the stimming just keeps getting more frequent and more noticeable. Gone from very little stimming thats not noticeable at all as a kid to rocking back and forth even when i'm in public now.