Hi, everyone. I'll preface by saying that I'm 25 years old and I was only recently diagnosed with High Functioning Autism after struggling for, well, my entire life with little to no help or understanding.
It seems to me that my public stimming is getting worse. Usually it is quite mild. For example, I walk through stores and malls rubbing my middle fingers against my thumbs and lightly whistling. I also have an eyebrow movement I'm known for, and I curl my bottom lip outward and move it down my beard, but I try my best to keep those under control in public, as they look funny to the random person. I know I'm doing it when someone looks at me funny followed by widening their distance from me.
To the point, though... I was at my little brother's eighth grade graduation Friday. Sitting is the seats was OK, I guess, but once the graduation was over with and everyone was standing around talking and rejoicing things became too chaotic for me. Too many people, too many voices, too many eyes, too many movements. My facial stims broke out full on, I began whistling loudly, I was snapping my fingers, and pacing profusely back and forth, in circles, side to side, you name it. My siblings are not understanding, nor is the majority of the rest of the family or their friends, or the majority of the people there for that matter. My wife tried to snap me out of it while people were ridiculing me and I ended up just storming out of the school.
It seems to me that my public stimming is getting worse. Is this unusual? How can I control it? And how can I make people understand?
31 May 2015, 6:22 pm
