stealing stims

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Do you steal stims? Let me clarify: do you ever see another person stimming and somehow, whether consciously or not so consciously, pick it up and it becomes "yours"?

I've had several occasions of stim theft.

1. When I was ten, I was in the hospital for awhile. This other patient, Dana, shook her leg vehemently when in a seated position and nervous. I thought it seemed interesting (not that I knew what a "stim" was at the time) and I started making an effort to do it. And so for a good number of years at school while at my desk I'd do my "leg bobbing".

2. I used to pace quite a deal and rock while pacing. But then I saw a little autistic boy who rocked as he sat, and somehow I ended up picking it up, switching from pace-rocking to regular rocking.

3. I used to notice my cat, JonJon, as he kneeded various pillows and blankets (and me) and I began imitating this with a curling of my toes, one foot at a time. To this day, and I don't even realize I'm doing it, I fall asleep curling my toes. I call it toe kneeding.

So, whose stims have you stolen???

The only one I can think of is Rainman - the rocking back and forth with one foot in front of the other.
Most of the time I don't notice someone else stimming unless it is dramatic.

I can't recall specific instances of stealing fidgeting behaviors, but I can say that I seem quite susceptible to the power of suggestion when it comes to fidgeting. Reading about that kneading thing made me crave it and briefly try it. I think I remember getting inspiration to try some (very light) rocking from here, and reading about wringing on here made me crave some of my own twisting and gripping behaviors. (Now thinking about twisting and gripping is almost making me want to do them.)

It's conceivable that I may have picked up fidgeting behaviors from the general environment in the same diffuse subconscious way I picked up general body language and stuff.

Hmmm.... can't say that I can ever recall stealing stimms.

However I DO very much steal phrases, and jestures, from others or from movies and use them when it seems apropriate.
Been doing that for a long time.
My dad called me out on it in my earliy teens and told me to stop emulating him. I thought son's were supposed to emulate their fathers?

I remember reading somewhere that Bill Gates rocks slightly, but more than that, some of his senior staff have acquired the habit too!

Whether for good or ill reasons, it seems people copy the mannerisms of those they admire: eg, http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Strangely enough I can't think of any characters or stims that I imitate. When I am alone in my room and I'm stimming in a way that I notice, and I decide that it isn't too awkward/embarrassing in public, I stick with that. Everything seems to be derived from my own mind.

The only things that I do copy are phrases that are clever but that I could never have thought up myself. Unfortunately I sometimes use them in the wrong context

Ah, but John Nash was a paranoid schizophrenic... different in his own special way.

I do this all the time.

Stealing stims, phrases, wise guy sayings, quotes, etc... one of the few things I seem to be really good at in fact.

I suppose I do. I don't recall before, but now I'll consciously try stims that I see my daughter use and I'll sometimes suggest ones for her. But her sensory issues are quite different and more extreme than mine so there isn't a lot of crossover.

I've never really stolen a stim.. I do recall alot of people bouncing their legs and I picked it up from that, but I don't often do it. I know alot of people start stealing my twirling hair-ness alot, I often make everyone around me twirl their hair, somehow.

Yes. I've always stimmed, but I didn't rock much (at lkeast not forward and back) until I was exposed to other autistics. Now I rock regardless...it has effectively become 'mine' even though I didn't do it before.