Food as a stim and forgetting to eat

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I used to stim a lot as a child, but my parents "corrected" the habit. And sometime after that, I started overeating as a kid, and kind of didn't stop for many years. After my diagnosis, I started letting myself stim freely, and I noticed a reduction in my desire to stress eat. I think food became my parentally accepted stim.

Now, it's gone even further. Stimming is (once again) my preferred method of dealing with stress. These days, I'll forget to eat periodically. Today for example, had about net 700 calories by 11pm. I eventually figured out the shaky feeling was hunger and ate some more.


Do any of you have either of these issues? Eating as a stim, or forgetting to eat for long periods?

For now I'm thrilled with this development; it's making my diet much easier. But I can see it being a problem in the other direction someday as well.

I think chocolate can be a stim for me. I sometimes start eating and feel a compulsive desire to take some more, just as I feel the need to rock my body... I also was overweight in my teens, due to eating too much (I love eating), but that had to change after I developed IBS (which led me to losing 17 kgs and reaching a normal weight).

I tend to forget to eat. I have never ate as a stim. I know I have ate out of boredom in the past because I enjoyed the taste. I think I may have ate out of sensory seeking because I enjoyed the taste and then I wouldn't stop until I got tired of it.

I have both of those issues. As a child I did lots of stimming - my parents tried forcing me not to stim - and now I realize that that corresponded with the start of my overeating as a kid - although I still did many non-eating stims, if they were noticed they made me stop.

Another thing I developed during that time was how I constantly play with my hands or have my hands doing something when I'm in a situation where I don't want to go into stimming. I have hand/finger flapping ones that are very visible and strange looking, and they start involuntarily without me noticing them until they stop. The constant playing with my hands helps prevent that.

Then the past 6 or so years, I've been doing much more stimming, and I've also become thin - not underweight, but normal range. There are many days where I forget to eat meals - and it's always the shaky feeling that makes me realize I need to eat. I also sometimes will forget to eat due to being immersed in doing something.

I do not know if eating can be considered a stim, but I get your point. When my daughter was very little (around 2 years-old) she started biting her nails. At the beginning I didnt care much (I did the same until I was around 12), until she started hurting herself badly because of the nails biting. At that time I had no idea she had AS, she was dx at 8. So I tried to remove the nail biting. Until I succeded. But them she replaced that stim with something else that took about 6 years to remove (the new stim was also a hurting one). That's why now I recommend moms no to try to remove stims. It is used like a scape valve to release stress, and removing that might be dangerous, because stress is a BIG issue for people with AS. So I think your overeating was not a stim but a way of dealing with stress. My Aspie husband also overeats when he is stressed. We have being fighting with his overating since we met, 17 years ago. And no, he never forgets to eat. But sometimes he forgets to pee, and he notices because he gets headaches.

Interesting post. I started overeating at 10-11, when my parents made me stop my favourite stim (flapping my arms). I always thought I started gaining weight because I was comfort eating, but eating as a stim does make sence to me. I now allow myslef to stim and still have problems with food, but not to the same extent. I've never forgotten to eat, when my blood sugar is too low my body sends so clear signals that I can't ignore them.

I am notorious for forgetting to eat, but what I prefer to eat is usually healthy. For years I've used a protein/vitamin drink mix called Spirutein to make sure I'm getting my vitamins/minerals, etc. It comes in several different flavors, and it really has to be immersion blended or it's clumpy, but it's great stuff if you don't eat much. I do better when I don't forget it too.
My first therapist's rule was (since I love dogs) to feed myself when I feed my dog and keep my dog on a strict twice a day feeding schedule...if I forget they will remind me. Now my cell phone alarm reminds me, and the dog hears that too. However I often feed the dog and just go back to doing my thing. I have to make an effort at it. It doesn't help that I'm on two meds now that wreck my appetite and my taste amplification is such that a lot of food is disgustingly strong to me. The more stress I'm under the worse that is.

Nobody labelled them "stims" when I was a kid in early 80's, but my mom knew some of my repetitive behaviors had something to do with autism and I don't recall ever being told not to do many of them. I'm grateful about that since seeing it discussed more. I just remember hearing people comment to each other on them and realizing it made adults anxious/worried I did these things, so I started either internalizing them (like when I'm severely upset I can rub my tongue on the roof of my mouth so much it blisters) or I do all kinds of socially acceptable crafts/things with my hands to keep them busy. Eating is an interruption when I'm engaged in what I'm doing, so that's another reason it tends to get skipped/forgotten.

Making a decision about what to eat was an ordeal as a kid. I remember the evaluator (when I was 9) asked about that specifically, because I stopped answering the questions, and people thought it was a hearing problem (ruled out) or rudeness. People were asking me things like "What do you want for lunch?" Well that's a broadly worded question that I was at first taking absolutely literally, and I would think it over and give them my answer and it would be some off the wall thing that I could NOT have for lunch. I would end up with a sandwich and a glass of juice. Well why did they ask, and why did I bother putting the effort into answering the question, if they had no intention of giving me what I asked for? I saw answering the question as pointless because no matter what I said I was going to be given what the adult wanted me to have for lunch, not what I wanted. So when asked questions of that very general nature I remained silent...just patiently waiting for the inevitable adult to give me what they wanted me to have, which would happen whether I answered or not. (textbook aloof and pragmatic issue there?). I wasn't deaf or trying to be rude, it was simply practical. I could be less frustrated this way, without a request denied. Later, my grandmother figured out my problem with the question wording and realized the questions had to be specific: 'What do you want on your burger?" "PB&J or grilled cheese?" Problem solved! But I find as an adult that I have the same issues choosing what to eat in my own kitchen and when asked where I want to go out to eat. Too many choices, lots of overwhelm, and not much appetite.

Same. I weighed 200 lbs (I'm 4'10") when I was 15 and I think it's because my parents, for lack of a better way to put it, beat the stimming out of me.

Since I started to "Figure" out this whole AS thing I've started stimming, or letting myself and figure out what works. And while I had already lost weight the old fashioned wya, I do feel less of an urge to eat. UNFORTUNATELY now that I'm doing it I am sometimes doing it without really realizing it? Is that normal? For instance today I was talking to a coworker about something work related that I was stressed/anxious about and I notice that she is staring at me with BIG eyes while talking and I'm like why is she staring like that? It was then that I realized that while we were talking at some point I had started dancing around, bouncing on my toes and hopping from foot to foot while making circles with my hands. I must have looked like a 4 year old dancing. Which made me wonder if I have been doing that other times and not noticed.

Anyway I almost never stop my daughter from doing what I believe to be stimming (shes being evaluated, not sure of DX yet). The only time I stop her is if it's harmful or messy and then really I attempt to redirect to something less diruptive. For instance if I catch her pouring her milk onto the table and running her hands through it, I get out the playdough or the finger paint. If she is twirling a toy I replace it with a safer object (a piece of tshirt cut from the bottom of a shirt with knots tied in it or some braided yarn) so she doesn't hurt herself or her sister or the wall. I did stop her from biting her nails and now she just does it when I'm not around. I know she must because I never have to cut them. Dancing, spinning and all that motion stuff I don't stop unless we're out and she's getting in the way of other people or if I think she might get hurt somehow. But again it's more of a "tone it down a little" or "do it over here, not over there" kind of thing. My biggest fear is that she get grossly over weight like me because food is a bit of s tim for her. Certain foods she would eat all day long if she could. In particular greek yogurt. She doesn't even care if it is plain (yuck) it's a texture thing for her. She will also eat ketchup straight from the bottle if I let her. Which I don't obviously.

Oh, forgot to mention food stims...think it is mostly crunchy healthy stuff when I am angry or anxious...baby carrots, romaine, jicama, apples, bosc pears, nuts. And when I need them they taste more fantastic than most desserts. Creamy stuff like pudding or ice cream or yogurt sometimes but I am very particular about the texture/flavor being just right or I won't eat it. I was upset when Stonyfield sold out...their old greek yogurt was the best and the new management discontinued it.
It never occurred to me that I may have been so accident prone due to unlimited stimming.

To be clear, I don't think it's the food itself that is the stim, except maybe some crunchy things, but everything associated with it. Pacing is a very effective stim for me. Frequent trips to the kitchen scratched that itch a bit, and was accepted, whereas pacing in the house wasn't. Add in some comfort food effect and you've got stress eating.

That makes sense to me - pacing is also one of my main stims, and my family still thinks it's weird when I pace around the house - they reacted more to it when I was a kid - but I'd always make frequent trips to the kitchen.

For me there was an element that made some foods a stim or maybe an OCD thing or maybe both combined into one - I sometimes had to eat things in 3's, and sometimes had to keep repeating that until I felt like I had done it perfectly (the perfect number of repetitions of 3), so I could stop - this could go on for a while.

Totally. Mostly when I was younger. At home if my parents didn't make me or tell me to eat I would forget or just not eat (it was rare that I was so hungry as to feed myself a snack). It was like eating was a chore. Plus I eat very slow. Short lunch periods made me a little better with that, but its healthier to eat slow than fast anyway.
For awhile it was caused form a combo of pickyness and my ADHD meds making me not hungry.
But since the start of this year I sometimes will not eat when I'm stressed or depressed as a sort of weird rebellion.
I don't think its really rebelling, but its what it feels like to me.

So its called stimming? Alright.