Adults- how much hand flapping do you do?

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i've hand flapped since i was a small child. but it has become less frequent over the years , i'm now 45 years old and i still do it. as a child it was a source of great shame for me. I was punished for it, and when that didn't work they tested me for epilepsy. this was in the 1970's. they told me it was just a bad habit and to try to control it by sitting on my hands. this was successful for stimming in public, but i still did it shamefully in private and didn't know why. when i was caught i was beyond embarrassed. it was not until about 2 months ago that i realized, from my 19 year old aspie son-diagnosed several years ago-that i too was an aspie. i've spent literally years teaching myself to be "normal". i have about 200 community college credits in an attempt to understand the world. most of my social relationships have been with people who were non-conformists-mostly druggies. they never work out-i still have no permanent friends-i always do something to screw it up and am not forgiven. anyway, that is beside the subject. hand-flapping. my parents continued to make fun of me saying i was trying to fly. so i developed a fascination with birds. my sister said this was proof of mental illness. iv'e been misdiagnosed with all kinds of things over the years. a therapist told me 6 months ago that my stimmimg was the result of being left alone uncared for and alone in a crib in foster care for the first 3 months of my life. but my son still insisted he could tell i was an aspie, and that my current nt traits were learned. (my current tests show i'm mostly nt-because i now posess nt social skills to some extent- enough to work as a cashier at a grocery store- i basically learned how to BS and be polite. but i realize all this was learned -not innate...i have trouble staying on the supject-another aspie trait. anyway, i took the aspie quiz a month ago pretending to be me in junior high school and the results were totally aspie! I used to be ashamed of my stimming, only doing it when i thought no one was watching, and feeling ashamed when "caught"- as if i was caught masterbating or something! I tend to do it when 1. deep in thought 2. very happy 3. i've come up with an exciting new revelation about something. so next time i get caught doing this i've decided not to feel ashamed, but to explain that i'm an aspie and that just a weird quirk we tend to have--why do people act so afraid?

That's when I do it too - or if something disturbs me or grosses me out on an extreme level, and I do it when I'm happy about hearing/seeing something related to my obsession, not when I'm happy because I got a good grade or something. I also felt like I was being caught masturbating - my mom acknowledges that I am somewhat autistic, but she still doesn't cut me slack. Her feeling is that it's socially unacceptable, and that's that. It angers her and she makes me ashamed - she's caught mel like 3 times since I was old enough to stop doing it in public - what does it matter if I want to do it in private? Mine isn't exactly handflapping though, it's finger flapping - I can't describe it, but I move my fingers really rapidly and against each other, and if it's particularly intense I do it touching my nose for some reason - so it looks especially odd - but if no one really notices, I don't see the problem. I hide it by putting my hands under my arms. I hate that my mom is so intolerant about it - she doesn't get it and thinks I do it on purpose and should just stop. If I tell her I will never stop, just hide it better, she'd be very upset. But I know it will always be something I do.

For the last two people that posted...I rock a lot and I am enjoying it so much, it is better than yoga, it might sound immature, but I love it. I just felt like doing it again at work...emergency room... and I don't give a rat'a ass what anybody thinks, anymore. I mean it. It just took away all the tension I got working for 12 hours like an animal (without beeing appreciated. )... That's all I have to say. Even getting caught masturbating, specially as a man, what's the big deal about it? Hand flap as much as you need, who cares what anybody thinks?

I did it frequently in childhood... I stopped when I was in middle school, when I picked up the habit of sniffing things like small objects or my hands. I recently started frequently flapping again as an adult... I have been under a huge amount of stress causing a boatload of sensory and cognitive issues that just make the stress worse. I have been flapping, rocking, pacing, cursing, and head-banging like crazy in the last few weeks...
I have had a great number of meltdowns, sometimes more than one in a day....
I could say more, but it will end up being a rant.

I never really done that.

I do other things. I have never done that.

While I haven't flapped since I was a teenager, there are certain stresses of adult life that make this stim very tempting.

I seldom hand flap, but I have other stims. They are rocking, picking at my cuticles, playing with buttons on my clothes, slight head jerking when I'm overstimulated and tired.

I used to do it excessively though I've gained control. I only trip up and flap em under stressful/exciting situations. I can't seem to stop biting/chewing on my lower lip and rolling my shoulders however.

I do it occasionally when I'm really happy/excited about something or when I'm talking to my pets :p

I tap (pleasing feeling the pressure waves on cuticles), and use fans a lot for the wind on face feeling. Visual things are also good sometimes, like turning mu head at various angles to see things differently, or staring at a light and squinting at different intensities to see the effects of lens compression on my vision (little light beams shooting from the light source in all directions). I always have suppressed anything too unusual, for fear of shunning. Makes for some awfully twisted feeling intestines, suppressing everything, though.

I like hand flapping - it feels like a bodily pressure release valve to me. However, if I find myself doing it in public I do get embarrassed. The last time it happened I was very unwell (my gut stopped working) and waiting to be admitted to hospital. People kept staring at me which I hate. What I tend to do when I'm not too stressed is to turn it into tapping out a rhythm on my thighs. This is more socially acceptable I think, so long as it's not too loud and I'm not in church or in the cinema or in the library. (Plus it cant' go on too long or people get annoyed.) It really helps me to have a more acceptable outlet for the flapping feeling.

None. Never. With all the interesting facial tics I have, I have no need of such practices.

Still do when I'm too happily excited and sometimes when anxiously or impatiently anticipating something.

When I'm really happy and or really tired. Especially when I'm really happy it feels like I'm releasing a pressure valve. It feels good!

I do a little bit of hand flapping when I'm very stressed. My usual form of stimming is to play with my hair (when in private). I've done it since early childhood. I know it's really weird but it seems to calm me down.