What stims do you have?

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Crack my fingers
One handed clapping
Thumb Drumming
leg bounching
hair twisting and knotting (goatee and head hair)
cleaning under my nails

and a few more I can't think of right now that are more rare

Cracking my knuckles, rocking back and forth, clicking pens, pacing, bouncing my leg when sitting, playing with my fingers/putting them in weird positions, hand wringing and shaking, playing with a pencil between my index and middle fingers, jumping up and down.

When I was a kid I would also spin, look up at ceiling fans, repeat lines from favorite shows/movies/commercials, and head bang. I don't do the first two anymore but on rare occasions I still repeat favorite lines, and will occasionally hit myself in the head if I get really upset.

Wow, stims are a pretty broad definition.

I rest my chin on my hand and dig my fingers into pressure points on my face,
generally pressure points,
knead my lips between fingers,
drum fingers against a table or just the opposing thumb,
punch/hammer my own thighs,
drag paper's edge up and down my upper lip like I'm shaving,
cranking on my wrists/elbows,
bubble pop noise with my mouth,
shifting weight back and forth between legs, slowly

leg jigling i love to dop it in certain way so that it goes in cramp and does it it self more faster i always do this on rigth leg then i pick my sock

I get very fidgety, will rub my hands together very rapidly and sometimes scratch my head very quickly when I get frustrated. I will also have a tendency to quitely talk to myself as well when I am stuck on something.

Last edited by Silver_Meteor on 24 Aug 2008, 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm lucky, I sit around and fixate on the entire of Existence.

And when I'm particuarly lucky I sit around and write philosophy about how to write religion and then go onto write religion based on the theories that I create.

It's a vicious circle.

Proof of claim - http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt74903.html

Hmm.

When I'm on the computer and I'm not typing I have to do something with my fingers. I tend to tap my right fingers against my touchpad (I'm a notebook user) or just highlight and un-highlight text repeatedly by double-clicking it, then clicking it, double-clicking, then clicking, etc.

I do this thing with my lips a lot that I can't really describe.

I vibrate my legs.

When I'm out I play around with my keys a lot.

I flap my hands but only in private. When I was a kid (until maybe age 10 or so) I did this constantly but I sort of trained myself not to because I realized it made me obviously very strange. (Little did I realize that people could somehow sense that I was strange anyway.) It is now at the point where I don't do it much at all, I do other, less-conspicuous hand stuff instead. So I actually trained myself not to do it, I guess.

There are plenty of other things I do, I'm sure, but these are just the ones that come to mind.

I click my jaw, pop my neck and ankles, tap my fingers, make piano playing motions, for just a few.

I'm not DXed, but I'm constantly shaking my leg (doing that now), swinging my arms, twisting my body back and forth, bite my nails, probably other things I have not noticed.

I leg bounce and crack my finger joints. In some cases I also rock back and forward.

I had to look up "Stimming" to understand all this, apparently because I have no "stims" at all.

I keep it simple...I rock back and forth.

When I took the "Aspie Quiz" I answered negative on the stim questions. I didn't make the connection that a lot of the "normal" things I do are considered stims.

Now, I've a question, as I don't think I'm diagnosable AS anymore- but what about stims is considered autistic? I see a TON of people doing these things considered "stims," am wondering about the definition of "stim" these days. What about them shows autism? I'm not doubting the idea of stims being an autistic trait, simply wondering where the line is between autistic and "normal" stims.

I think a stim is a repetitive monement that calms someone down and/or helps them to do something. Ex: I bounce my hands together and hum when I'm upset, and bounce my leg during a test to keep my thoughts at a rhythm to help me find the answer.

Thank you for the reply, but yes, I do know what a stim is. As I mentioned, I've plenty myself. My main question is what is the defining "trait" or "quality" that would make these stims autism related, or what about autism causes these traits. There are many "neurotypical" people that do these things as well.

And yes, I bounce my legs as well, practically ALL the time, not just when I'm nervous. It even lasted until I went to sleep, as I wiggled my feet in bed as a child. Drove everyone nuts.

I suppose I should research this on my own. Figured a response here would be more direct and informed then a wikipage or whatever regurgitated page I find on the net...

I think (no idea for sure) that NTs just do it out of habit while we do it out of neccessity.