Redirecting Certain Stims

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For a while I had completely forgotten about Wrong Planet... Just remembered I had this account, so here I am posting. January through mid April is always a stressful time for me for some reason. I'll probably be posting here more if anything for community support because of that... Anyway, on to the post!

Like most on the spectrum, I stim a lot. That's not a huge surprise of course, however some of my stims are a bit impractical. I like to jump around all over the place. Jump on furniture, rebound off walls, generally just gallivant around all over the place. This helps me decompress or process positive emotions. This is quite a raucous stim though. My parents used to complain that I'd shake the whole house. I've gotten complaints from other students in my dorm that I make too much noise when I do this. Another one of my favorites is jogging or pacing. The rhythmic feel of my feet on the pavement during a jog is another great way to decompress, and it keeps me in shape! I also tend to pace back in forth. I do this to help my process, gather, or collect my thoughts. When reading something intellectual I have to take short breaks to pace back and forth so I can process, understand, and store the information I just read. I need to do that to focus too.

The few stims I mentioned above are of course impractical most of the time. The jumping around needs to stop lest I get too many complaints and am kicked out of the dorm, and I can't exactly always get up and pace or jog around in the middle of a lecture. I need the benefits these stims provide me, but without the impracticality of it all. Therefore, I have decided I will try to replace one stim with another.

I've never been a hand flapper, though flapping is so ludicrously common among other autistics that I've decided to start there. I am going to attempt to start slowly replacing my running around with hand flapping, as flapping won't disturb the neighbors. Whenever I've gotten the urge to run around, I've started flapping my hands. I'll say, you hand flappers are on to something! It's actually really effective, and it provides the same benefit as my previous stim. I'm hoping that eventually hand flapping will come naturally instead of running around.

Has anyone ever tried anything similar to this? Intentionally replacing one stim with another for personal benefit? Also, does anyone have any good replacements for pacing, at very least for pacing in a classroom environment? Some sort of discreet-ish fidget perhaps? Sorry for the long post, and an advanced thank you for any input!

I have not attempted to do what you are attempting; however, I have some suggestions. Instead of pacing, you could kick the leg of your chair (quietly), as long as it is not disruptive. Depending on the environment, you may be able to get away with it - I do it in school, and nobody seems to mind. I have also recently developed a stim where I rub very firmly with one hand on the opposite forearm. It feels good to me because of the pressure, and has the advantage of not being associated with ASD and stimming, so people wouldn't recognise it as a stim like they would with hand-flapping.

I also find pressure stims helpful (maybe more for in the dorm as opposed to lectures etc.). I tend to kneel with my feet and legs squashed into the ground. This might not be satisfying for you - I don't know.

Down below I linked to a fidget cube. I don't have one yet, but I'm planning to order one as soon as my mom will let me, lol. It's a good way to get stims out in a class setting. Also, I tend to, if I'm like, sitting at a table, slowly kick my leg, and pop my knee. It isn't too noticeable.

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I don't know what my original stim is, or I forgotten which... Maybe it's pacing or self talk. Maybe it's something less physical like playing the same song or watching the same thing all over. Those are the earliest stims I remember.
All I know is that I rarely hand flap.


Yesy, I had redirected my urge to stim channeled through repetitive actions of crafting. Crafting is my long term special interest doubled as a stim and can literally generate profit.
And my pacing got a bit... 'Extreme' that I go on same routes for miles or hours. It saved me a LOT of fare money.

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I have a lanyard clipped to my belt loop. In class I twist it around my fingers and chew on it and stuff, which helps tone down my more distracting stims.