Stimming: Autistic vs "Normal"

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I am curious about something: Supposedly there are types of stimming that are specific to an autistic spectrum diagnosis and some that are not. From what I understand, the autistic type is stereotyped movement in response to anxiety and the normal kind is not. Is this true? I ask because when asked about stimming, my mom said I didn't stim, but I did fidget an awful lot.(I did not rock or spin) Can the two be one and the same and differ in terms of perspective? I often wonder if my mom dismissed it as such so as not to think about the autism label.

Please feel free to post not only on my specific questions about my life but about your thoughts about different types of stimming as well.

My stimming is on by default, not a response to an emotional state like anxiety, eggsitement, or boredom. I also stim when I am anxious, eggsited, or bored, and I have different stims for different emotional states. I think that stimming in response to emotional states is something that autistic people and typical people both do, but autistic people stim moar moar moar by default, and stimming is a basic physical need to feel physically OK. I also think that autistic stimming is moar moar moar obvious, involving larger body parts, larger movements, moar moar moar repetitions.

I don't think any particular stims are specific to autism. Many blind children have similar stims (called blindisms) as well. My nephew, who has ADHD but is not autistic, tends to flap when he gets excited.

I flap both my hands and my arms.

My hand-flapping #1 is moving my hand back and forth at the wrist, sometimes up and down, sometimes sideways, and I usually do it when I am eggsited.

My hand-flapping #2 is moving my hand and forearm back and forth at the elbow, alternating like palm facing me, palm facing away, palm facing me, palm facing away, and I usually do it when I am bored.

My arm-flapping #1 is moving my arms like a byoootiful ballerina in Swan Lake, and I sometimes do this when I am bored while walking around the neighborhood.

My arm-flapping #2 is holding my arms out like a skeeery skeeercrow and flapping my hands at the ends of my arms, sometimes hand-flapping #1, sometimes hand-flapping #2, and I usually do it when I am bored while walking around the neighborhood.

Hand-flapping and arm-flapping are stims that I do in response to emotional states.

I often look really weird while walking around the neighborhood.

Around here we have some big black ants and big red ants in the pastures and alongside the caliche roads. I've liked to watch them since I was a little kid. One time at a church picnic when I was 2 or 3, I got so many ant bites that they took me to the emergency room, but that didn't slow me down.

By the time I was 9 or 10, I had learned to stand to the side of the ant hill instead of right on top of it.

I wonder if that's a form of visual stimming and if anyone else does it.

I've sometimes wondered about that too, what the difference between autistic stimming and NT nervous habits are, because there are certain things I do (like rocking, flapping my hands in such a way that my fingers slap my palms, rapping my knuckles together) that are obviously autistic, but I also do other things (like messing with my eyebrows, thumbsucking, nail biting) that seem perfectly ordinary, but I don't really know why one is 'normal' and the other isn't.

I believe autistic stims are generally more weird and more frequent than their NT counterparts.

Constant stimming is almost always a symptom of autism. Sensory information is not processed normally in the autistic brain. The body automatically compensates by stimming to integrate the senses and it usually goes on beneath your awareness unless it is brought to your attention.

I rock when sitting and also rock my head from side to side. I finger tap and nail bite. There is probably lots more that goes under the radar too.

Some things I do...


Bouncing my leg, or tapping my foot. Tapping my fingers or a pencil (etc.) repetitively, usually in a simple beat/pattern, over and over again.

Repetitively stretching/bending my fingers back (I'm double jointed so they bend back pretty far ). Sometimes twisting my fingers in weird ways. Rubbing my hands together, rubbing my arms. Cracking all the joints in my hands & feet, and trying again even once they have been cracked.

Rotating my feet in a circular motion. Pulling my leg back in the same way people do to stretch out their quadriceps muscles. Moving my head side to side, as if I was stretching the muscles in my neck.


If I have something that clicks or pops that I can hold in my hand, I will make it click/pop. I will rub certain fabrics & stitching with my fingers over and over again. Rubber bands & pieces of string provide my hands with plenty of stim.





I notice if I am walking about trying to focus on something I will move my keys around in my hand making them click & jingle together, I do this a lot when walking through a store & grocery shopping. If I am in conversation, rubbing my hands/arms helps my thoughts come out & flow better.

I think the main difference like people have said is the frequency.....autistic stimming can be like a special interest for some autistic people.........you do the same repetitive movement most of the day everyday and it interferes with getting other things done. Also the weirder stims like hand-flapping, finger twirling and rocking can occur in young NT kids but usually not in older NT kids or NT adults -maybe because they learn these things aren't socially acceptable and look weird so they stop them. My stim is twirling a string in front of my face - the string has to be the right type and thickness-it has to have a certain feel-I only do this at home now-I used to do it most of everyday all day-I would find string at school since my mom wouldn't allow me to bring any and I would do this during class and at recess ect. while daydreaming. I also would walk in circles while talking to myself and sing and hum to myself and flap my arms as a kid. Now I mostly just do the twirling string stim and only in private and I have more socially acceptable stims like skin picking and leg shaking ect that I do in public. I also still sometimes talk to myself or hum or sing to block out noise sometimes. I guess another thing about my stimming that I think of as being autistic is that it's tied to sensory issues or to sensory needs -like I make noise to block out noise and my fiddling with a string-partly I just like the fingers twirling in front of eyes feeling-but the string must have the proper feel and I need a really specific kind-it's like a tactile sensory seeking one.

I am not sure what the difference is. I know some autistics can do stimming that is normal but yet for them when they are doing it, it's because of their autism. I bet if an autie were to doodle in class, a fuss would be made about it vs a normal student doing it and no one says anything about it.

I do stimming off and on and I often wonder if it's normal stimming or anxiety stimming or autistic stimming but yet I have read that some on the spectrum will only do it when they are anxious or nervous or stressed out or upset. I wonder what is the difference between NT doing that and us. They also stim for those reasons too, same as for out of boredom. My husband says the stimming I do is definitely autism and he can tell.

I just think when you have autism, anything you do no matter how normal it is because NTs do it too, will be blamed on your autism.

I do things like rock or pace or tap my feet, bounce my legs, hit my head against the couch, I have had so many stims over the years. Mom used to tell me to stop like "don't play with your hair" and I always go back to doing it but I always stopped when she tell me too. I just thought those were habits I had and I also twirled my hair and still do sometimes. I can remember ding things in class and I be told to stop and I always did or else it be taken from me. I wonder if things would have been different if they knew? I am sure they still wouldn't let me do disruptive stims. But I survived.

NT stims seem to be tapping a pencil or pen, bouncing a leg when sitting, shaking a foot when sitting, maybe wringing hands too..
No one ever calls me out on those.
However, my constant fondling of random objects around me has irritated a friend of mine, who I apologized to about it. I play with binder clips in my left hand all the time, which my family always thought was very weird. Also, walking in circles...