What is stimming?

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I hate to ask such a simple question, but I've heard this term used several times. I don't know what it means and it's driving me nuts. Can someone help?

simply doing an action to relieve stress

One common form of stemming often associated with autism disorders is hand flapping. I had done it all my life at times when I was stressed or excited without even realizing that I was doing it. In fact I didn't realize that I still did it until I asked a few people who I talk with regularly and they all confirmed that yes, sometimes when I am stressed or excited about something I do this rather strange flapping of my hands.

I mentioned it to my psychiatrist who explained that from his point of view it is a kind of pressure relief valve. People on the Spectrum and no doubt some others tend to lack a self-soothing mechanism - So when the pressure builds up quickly some may release that over supply of nervous energy with something like hand flapping or some other repetitive movement to dissipate that energy - many times without even knowing they are doing it. My psychiatrist recommended that I acquire some kind of pocket fiddle device such as a squeeze ball or some other comforting fiddle object - so that I can dissipate that stress in a less demonstrative manner.

Here is an expert stemmer right here. This should answer a lot of questions for you.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oukupxRUA84[/youtube]

I wonder how many time I've posted this video on WP already?

Stimming is just anything you do to relieve tension in your body or automatically when you feel happy or agitated. It can be something like flapping your hands, jumping, or anything. For me, it usually means laughing and rocking back and forth with a sort of little "bounce" (especially if I'm sitting down). Stimming can also be "fidgeting" with some kind of object, like a piece of paper, string, or a stuffed animal....I stim with my stuffed animals a lot - they're some of my best friends.

When I get overwhelmed or over stimulated I tend to flap my hands around allot and wiggle my fingers, its not even a conscious act really. and when its really bad I start to badly stutter too.

Self-stimulation.

The thing is, everybody stims, even NT's, it's just less frequent and less obvious for them. An example I just thought of is how when people stub their toe or bump their head (or something similar), often times their immediate reaction is to put their hand on the hurt spot and apply pressure. This obviously doesn't help the injury heal and doesn't really have much of a function as far as the injury itself is concerned, so it must be a sensory thing. People do this because it stimulates the hurt area, and the sensation of the pressure blocks some of the pain sensation.

I think it's the same exact thing for people with ASD's, over-stimulation causes pain and stress, and to block out those feelings they stim in some way. So it's just something (anything really) that provides some kind of external stimulation, and helps to dull the unpleasant stimulation.

i don't think it's much of an autistic thing. nt's do it all the time.

my preferred methods are foot tapping, head scratching and scrawling whatever text pops into my head. my practice math test has a big ol' "YOM" on the top of the page. i carry a pen with me at all times.

My stims is tapping my leg and nail biting.

Oh, now I get it.

I'm a notorious leg-tapper. And if I'm in a swivel chair like I am now, sometimes I'll swivel from one side to the other with my feet for minutes at a time. If I'm alone in my room I might put on some music and pace rapidly back and forth.

My odd habits are making more sense to me since I joined here.

My stimming is pretty generic; rocking, hand flapping, sometimes I'll rub my hands together really fast. I also have a whole box of stim toys; squishy balls, slinkys, stretchy rubber animals, plastic tangle, etc. I carry a fuzzy tangle in my bag with me to school and play with it under the desk during class. The texture and physical manipulation help keep my anxiety under control, and sometimes it's easier to listen when I'm studying the random looping constructions I make rather than looking at the professor or other people in the room.