Does anyone else do this when anxious and/or restless?

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I have this sort of weird thing I sometimes do when I'm anxious and/or mentally restless. People around me (which, in most of these cases, is my boyfriend) think I'm pretty annoying and/or weird when it happens. Anyway, I sort of start to make noises, laugh (even though I might be really depressed), make sudden and/or repetitive movements and I say things over and over again (I might for example quote something multiple times). Even though the things I do are voluntary (so not compulsions or anything) they just happen and it's like I do them to either distract myself from the anxiety or somehow get rid of it. It's a bit difficult to explain.

Anyway, most of the time when I'm anxious or overloaded I shut down but sometimes things like what I've described above happens. Now I'm simply wondering what it is and if anyone else does something similar? Or am I just really weird?

I do this - saying random things over and over again (actually, I've sort of settled on a few sayings that I use each time, so they're not really random anymore), laughing on occasion, sometimes yelling or making random noises. I've decided it is a way to block out the thoughts that make me anxious.

oh yeah .... a lot. It would bug me so much but I could not stop it. It was like watching a movie that I could not pause. It was one of the reasons I actively worked to figure out what was going on with me. I thought it was just PTSD response. Come to find out it was the ASD brain I tote about.

What was awesome was when I found out that I was very much NORMAL for someone who had an ASD.

You've just described what happens every time I come back to my apartment. After spending seven or so hours in class and out in public, it's a private place where I can decompress-by doing whatever I can to ease my anxiety, whether by laughing or repeating phrases that feel good in my mouth. So glad to know I'm not insane!

OP,it sounds like its a combination of echolalia,tics [they arent involuntary up to a point] and stimming and these are extremely common in times of anxiety for autistics all over the spectrum.

try practicing deep breathing exercises and meditation,these bring the heart rate down and help with anxiety which shoud help with reducing the behaviors.
youtube has lots of videos on how to do deep breathing,but heres an article to get started- http://ptsd.about.com/od/selfhelp/ht/breathing2.htm
just ignore the fact its aimed at people with PTSD as that doesnt matter.

-the old junior pyschologist of mine tried teaching DBEs for months using PECS tutorials and cartoony videos on youtube but for self was not able to learn it, however it shoudnt be an issue for high functioning autists and it woud be a good skill for anyone to have.

yeah I do this, like yourself I don't have compulsions but when I am anxious or restless I will hum or suddenly make a weird movement with my hand or body, or sometimes say "I don't know" over and over, its embarrassing thinking back to it when I am not anxious anymore but at the time I just do it almost instinctively.

When I get anxious I may freeze, flap my hands, make sounds, or hit.

I make noises or just talk non-stop.

Same here, whenever I get nervous I usually freeze up. I've been told before that I look like something akin to a bug-eyed zombie whenever I do that.

Thanks for the replies. Good to hear I'm not the only one.

I read the wikipedia page for echolalia and it doesn't really sound that familiar to me. Couldn't really relate to it. I don't know why I'm doing the things I do during the situations that I described but it's more like I'm "goofing around", though it's all very repetitive and I feel very anxious/restless/depressed instead of feeling happy or whatever.



Most of the time when I'm anxious I don't do what I wrote in the first post. Instead I freeze up, shut down and turn inwards.



The reason I started this thread was because I was quite anxious and mentally restless yesterday night and spent at least an hour doing the things I mentioned above (in the beginning of the thread). Talking non-stop was one of those things. Quoted the same things several times, talked about my books etc. I don't usually talk that much.

Quoting things is an example of echolalia.

A lot of people quote things but that doesn't mean they all have echolalia, right? Sorry if that's a stupid question, I just want to understand the difference.

I have a tick that happens when I'm walking down the street and someone is walking towards me.

It's completely involuntary, it just happens.

All it is really is just a quick sniff and I twitch my nose.

It probably goes unnoticed and it's not really a problem but as I'm here I thought I'd just mention it.

Yes, but people generally quote things in context. Echolalic quoting could be any of the following: seemingly random, repetitive, might be almost the only talking a person did (in severe cases), would be used in place of the person improvising their own speech, or somewhat involuntary, like a stim.

Oh, okay. Things I quote are quite random and/or repetitive sometimes. I might for example all of a sudden imitate and quote a character from a movie or a youtube video (yesterday I quoted things from a movie and a certain youtube video for 20 minutes or so). It's not really random to me though. There's almost always something external that has triggered it (something someone has said etc). Mostly just happens around people I'm somewhat comfortable around and they either think I'm weird, annoying or funny. I sometimes change my dialect when I speak as well. I've always been good at imitating things like that. Also, I sometimes say random things (well, they probably seem random to some people) out loud at random times. Things such as the latin names of different muscles and bones or just words or phrases that are on my mind. Could these examples be some sort of echolalia?

Repeating things you've heard: yes. I'm not sure about the anatomy recitations if you got them from a book, but if you are repetitively/randomly/half-unconsciously repeating what a teacher/professor said, I think that's echolalia.