Are these stims?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm wondering if a couple of things I do are stims. I do pace, walk around on my toes, and rock, though I have the ability to not do that around other people. Sometimes I can unobtrusively rock, but when I'm not doing those, I find other things take over, like:

I click my teeth. It's not really grinding them, because I don't bite down or clench my teeth, but I'll click one side and then the other, repeatedly, over and over. Sometimes I'll do it in a certain rhythm. While I do this, it dissociates me sufficiently enough to help me calm down from overloading situations. I am almost constantly doing this, in order to keep myself from going into overload. Is that a stim?

The second one I'm wondering about is something I do when classrooms at school get too overloading. I have mechanical pencils with really thin little lead points, and I jab the point so that it pops through my jeans and pokes me in the leg, over and over. It's painful, but it's like the pain doesn't matter, or I'm actually seeking it. It actually calms me down. Is that a stim? It seems to be "self-stimulatory".

Pretty much anything someone on the spectrum does repeatedly as a soothing behavior can be considered a stim.

yeah i would say so if its repetitive.

Since you do those things to calm yourself down, yeah, I'd say they're stims.

[quote="Dots"

The second one I'm wondering about is something I do when classrooms at school get too overloading. I have mechanical pencils with really thin little lead points, and I jab the point so that it pops through my jeans and pokes me in the leg, over and over. It's painful, but it's like the pain doesn't matter, or I'm actually seeking it. It actually calms me down. Is that a stim? It seems to be "self-stimulatory".[/quote]

i actually used to do this too. I loved the feeling of the pencil point going through the material. I also remember the pain not mattering. For me this stopped when I was in therapy for PTSD and self-harm was addressed. This did not fall under self-harming behaviors, but I stopped it just to keep myself from going to a bad place again. I wouldn't worry about that for you though.

Yes, all of the behaviors you described are stimulating behaviors.

I do the teeth clicking thing, too. It's a bit more subtle than typical stims. Honestly I can't imitate the way my boys do it. They can skip, shake heads and flap arms at the same time when they walk. I'd have fallen if I try that many movements simultaneously.

Do you know that muttering or humming to yourself is a form of stim as well? I try not to talk to myself and hum instead. It seems a bit more accepted by others.

yep

I start pacing the room when something interests or exites me and I rock back and fort and from side to side when I feel extremely sad or scared, it calms me down. I never do that when there are other people around. I also have a tendency to talk to myself and I twist my hair obsessively.

Well now, that was a real revelation because I don't tell that to anyone. Not even to my therapist. Ssssssst! Hush, hush.