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zghost
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21 Dec 2007, 4:36 pm

I have never (that I can remember) done hand flapping.
(Other than "flying" when wearing an oversized sweater or something, my "wings". Since I was attempting flight it wasn't random or purposeless.)
However, I have had some assorted odd behaviours, but I don't know if they count as stimming. I can stop (okay, put off) any of them, and I've read it's supposed to be uncontrollable.
When I was very young, I was a nose picker. I was eventually shamed into stopping that (publically anyway).
Then for a long time I picked at my lips, often until they bled a little. I tried to stop doing that, but still do sometimes. (I can stop, but I'll start again later.)
Next I started basically chewing the skin on the ends of my fingers, often until they bled. This one was very hard not to do. I would occasoinally resort to putting on fake fingernails to block my access. (I was never a real nail biter though, I would nibble them a bit if they got too long but that's it.)
The more stress I was under, the more I did these behaviours.
Eventually, my "chewing tooth" became worn to the point it would hurt when I chewed my fingers, and was becoming obvious to look at as well. So I stopped, except for very rare occasion.
I could (okay, can) trade one action for another, but can't just avoid them all.

Now days, I still pick my nose in private, but doesn't everyone?
I still pick my lips some, but I try to keep it under control.
I almost never chew my fingers, but sometimes I just can't resist. Especially whan stressed, or strangely enough, when watching old home movies recently. (Not sure why that set me off.) I do pick at them with my nails, but can't do much damamge that way so I don't care.
And wierdly enough, I sometimes do my toes like a cat, especially when relaxing or comfortable.

Do these count as stims? I'm just really not sure. It sounds like stims are more of a spastic uncontrolled movement.

And, to save you the trouble of looking me up, I am diagnosed with Asperger's and ADD.



SteelMaiden
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21 Dec 2007, 4:43 pm

I'm not sure, because I have things too. They might be.
I peel skin off from the skin near my nails.
I bite the skin on my fingers.
(As you can imagine, my fingers look quite sick)
I poke the area around the lacrimal sac of my eye a lot. Weird.

I also have an almost uncontrollable neck clicking problem. Sometimes the click sound is so loud that I'm worried that I've fractured something, but obviously that hasn't happened.
I have completely uncontrollable twitches sometimes, but these have eased off since I dropped the olanzepine.


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777
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21 Dec 2007, 4:46 pm

I was always real bad about my lips. They are permanently scarred from the damage I wrought on them. Fingernails are still a big issue for me. One of the first things my doctor first noticed was that my fingers were constantly bleeding and red from hang nails I still literally rip off and take mounds of skin with it.



SteelMaiden
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21 Dec 2007, 4:55 pm

777 wrote:
hang nails I still literally rip off and take mounds of skin with it.


I rip them off too. Bleeding fingers are all too well known for me. I have never been to a proper manicure in my life (and definitely not a pedicure, as I tend to scream when people touch my feet), but I think that if I were to take my nails to a manicurist, she would faint.
I like to clean the muck under my nails by getting one of the blades of a pair of scissors and carving it out. Problem is, is that the skin comes off with it too, so I end up having to stick my finger in Vaseline for a while.
I cannot use nail scissors on my nails because they are too hard. I have to use powerful nail clippers. I have actually broken (bent it out of shape) a nail clipper on my toenail. I'm not sure why my nails act as if they are made out of granite.


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Wistaria
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22 Dec 2007, 6:11 am

I have done (and in a couple of cases still do) most of those things. I'm a nosepicker despite my dislike of the unhygenic, I used to bite my nails (I kinda' fiddle with them now but not bite), I used to bite the skin off of my fingertips, and I broke the habit of biting the skin off my lips just this year. I also have a habit of doing the "flying" motions with my arms when wearing a big jumper/sweater too, but it was more out of random larking about than trying to fly (I try to fly in my dreams instead ;) ). I also kinda' pick my ears too, I hate it when they get too full of wax, it feels uncomfortable.

But when I think about it, these habits will most likely all come back to me when my as-little-stress-as-possible lifestyle inevitably gets dislodged.

If these habits really are stims, then so be it. I'm proud to be Autistic.



AngelUndercover
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22 Dec 2007, 6:46 am

I pick my lips too. I tend to do it more when I'm craving sensory input, so I guess that makes it a stim.

None of my stims are uncontrollable; I just get restless if I can't do them.



SteelMaiden
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22 Dec 2007, 9:12 am

Picking ears...

Apparently you're not supposed to put anything inside your ears.

CRAP

If I didn't pick my ears, or clean them with cotton buds, I would have ears full of wax. I didn't put anything inside my ear for a week once, and I nearly scored poorly on my audiology test after that.


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SpaceStace
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22 Dec 2007, 9:40 am

I used to clean under my nails with my teeth until I got braces and couldn't do it. When I got hte braces off, I changed it to biting my nails. Then I changed it to what I still do all the time - I bite my cuticles, and tear off little pieces of cuticle-skin, often causing myself to bleed. Like SteelMaiden, I'd be mortified to let a manicurist see my hands. When I was a kid, I'd do my toes too, like zghost.

I also bite dry skin off my lips, and pick at zits. I guess what it comes down to is that I really have something against dry nubs of skin.

And I'll admit that I pick my nose. I can't stand the feeling of boogers in there! If I have a tissue handy I'll use that, so now I just try to always have tissues in my purse. But when I'm alone and they're hard, I'll pick.



SteelMaiden
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22 Dec 2007, 9:51 am

SpaceStace wrote:
I used to clean under my nails with my teeth until I got braces and couldn't do it. When I got hte braces off, I changed it to biting my nails. Then I changed it to what I still do all the time - I bite my cuticles, and tear off little pieces of cuticle-skin, often causing myself to bleed. Like SteelMaiden, I'd be mortified to let a manicurist see my hands. When I was a kid, I'd do my toes too, like zghost.

I also bite dry skin off my lips, and pick at zits. I guess what it comes down to is that I really have something against dry nubs of skin.

And I'll admit that I pick my nose. I can't stand the feeling of boogers in there! If I have a tissue handy I'll use that, so now I just try to always have tissues in my purse. But when I'm alone and they're hard, I'll pick.


I have the same feeling with my nose... Snot is uncomfortable and I'll remove it with my fingers, unless its watery, then I'll blow my nose.

When I'm alone, I actually bite the skin around my toes. Disgusting I suppose, but I can't help it.


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zghost
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22 Dec 2007, 1:11 pm

Well, I still don't really know if these things are stims, but they're apparently fairly common anyway. Good to know.



SteelMaiden
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22 Dec 2007, 6:35 pm

Could be "semi-stims".


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corroonb
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22 Dec 2007, 7:47 pm

I pick my nose but only when I'm alone as other people think its digusting and unhygenic (usually in that order). Sometimes I go too far and it bleeds but then I know to cut back for a while. I hate the way muscous feels in my nose but dried blood is much worse and stinks of iron.

I also lick my lips a lot and lick my teeth. I also have OCD and sometimes these things feel like OCD compulsions but they might also be "stims", though I don't really know what that word means.



ed
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22 Dec 2007, 7:54 pm

That thing you do to your lips is a stim... I do it too, and my psychaitrist pointed it out to me... I can stop myself, but I always start right back up again. I'm starting to hurt my gums. :(



TrueDave
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22 Dec 2007, 8:37 pm

all i want for christmas is to stop picking my nose.

I think its from sleeping with the heat on and a fan on my head i get dried up.

I used to cut my nails back, chew etc.
But now thanks to the proper tools i keep my nails short healthly and round. I'm a hair picker and cant stand crazy hairs. I pick stray hairs from my eyebrows and wish i could have electoalisis on the back of my neck( Ihate neck hair)

I used to shave my feet.I cant stand non symetry and recently got a skin tab on my neck but promptly got a wart freezer kit to get rid of it.

All in all these habits make me out to be a very well kept looking person. I trim nose hairs et all.
Next time you're bored ( watching tv etc) instead of using your teeth get an emery board and take proper care.
One thing if you have ridges in your nails and you want them smooth buy the stuff you can get to fill in those gaps. If you sand it down youll cut to the skin .



corroonb
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22 Dec 2007, 8:55 pm

ed wrote:
That thing you do to your lips is a stim... I do it too, and my psychaitrist pointed it out to me... I can stop myself, but I always start right back up again. I'm starting to hurt my gums. :(


Thanks for confirming my suspicions. You must have a good psychiatrist if he noticed something like that.

If I don't do this, the area around my mouth sometimes starts to feel numb. I get worried that this is "flattened affect" and I have schizophrenia as well as AS and OCD.

How do you stop stimming if it's doing you harm?

I tend to grimace or compress my lips if I don't lick them and I would rather people thought I was nervous (lip-licking) than angry or disgusted (grimace, lip-compression).

Sorry to run OT.



matt
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22 Dec 2007, 9:06 pm

I both pull the dead skin off my lips and lick them a lot.

Keeping your lips moist helps stop that.

I use Burt's Bees.