When is a stim not a stim?

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Ok so i'm new to all of this having stumbled accross AS by accident as my friends son was just diagnosed, now at the age of 28 turns out there may be a reason i've been a freak my whole life

Looking at stimming threads on the site some of them seem very familier, others not so: I play with my beard (and my hair in general, twisting and snapping/pulling out), i stick my tongue out when i'm concentrating (which my wife thinks is cute ), i twirl my ring (usually when i'm teaching\presenting to groups or otherwise very stressed), i take pens apart, i destroy erasers (snapping, tearing, cutting), i put EVERYTHING in my mouth (i once ate all the buttons on a tv remote, i was 22, my wife didnt think that was so cute!!), i will eat all the caramel off a twix, then the chocolate off the biscuit, then the biscuit, i will eat any mixed colour sweets (skittles etc) in strict colour order (seriously, dont mess with me on this )... i could go on but i'll get to my point which is...

What makes a stim a stim? when is it just a habit? is that the same thing? is my coloured sweet thing more of a compulsion than a stim? is that the same thing? (red is ALWAYS last btw, regardless of type of sweet)

Thoughts?

Mike

ps just caught myself rocking

Good question!

Welcome

If it's stimulating (hence the name), it's a stim. Of course, conditions apply, and they are usually considered abnormal behaviour.

If anyone has a better answer, I'd like to hear it.

The hair pulling/twisting could be a stim. However the Skittles thing and eating buttons off a remote control are not stimming. Stimming doesn't mean doing something weird. A stim is a self calming mechanism that is done repeatively. Stimming is usually rocking, spinning, playing with hair, hand flapping, tapping foot, jiggling leg...that sort of thing.

Eating the remote control buttons sounds like Pica. Eatting Skittles in order of colors is a symptom of OCD.