Stimming...are you aware of it?

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I'm not often aware of stimming. Luckily my stims are mostly inconspicuous so I don't get into any trouble with it.

If I'm stimming depends on where I am and what I'm doing, heh.

At home, I tend to talk myself out loud. Confirm what I'm about to do myself ("Make toast, ok, need a knife, and butter and bread. Bread in the toaster, whee, toastytoast") in probably a less than adult manner. I know I'm doing it but feel somehow compelled to do it if that makes sense, if I'm outside I'll still vocalise quietly under my breath or just form the words with my lips and not say it, I can't think coherently if I don't. I try not to do it when people are around, unless I'm hyperfocusing on my special interest (computers) at work, I'll have my earphones in and being working on a problem and I start quietly talking about it to myself ("That goes there, catch the exception, hmm, what if that's a dangling pointer" etc) no-one at work has said anything, so either they don't notice, don't care or accept it.

I don't pace a whole lot any-more, but if I'm sitting down I tend to twitch my leg, its kinda hard to describe, I lift my heel off the floor and bounce the leg on my toes, only one leg or the other, I tend not to notice when I'm doing it, and even after I've noticed I forget again. if I can't do that because I'm laying down and there's music playing, I'll follow the beat with one leg and another part of the music with the other leg or foot.

I do the (normal?) thing of playing with my ears or earrings and stubble just infront of the ear (Its kinda soothing o.O)

Most of these things I'm more or less aware of to some extent, but I gave up trying to stop myself long ago, my (seperated) wife always complained about me twitching my leg constantly.
Most of them are also pretty conspicuous, I try not to do them too much in public, but lately (6-8 months) I've been less bothered about fitting in with NT's.

(I also put lots of stuff in parenthesis (and then sub parenthesis those things) but I think thats a combination of Lisp and being a complete nerd.)

(First post, heh)

Actually, I was stimming just now and didn't even realize it until I read the title of this thread.

A few of my teachers have pointed it out to me when I rock when I am focused in class, and after pointing it out my physics professor asked if I was autistic.

My dad gets irritated when I tap my foot and my leg moves (which is nearly constant), but I think that is just because it distracts him when he is sitting next to me.

I have to be careful if I am in a classroom that has long tables with the chairs attached with 5-20 chairs attached to the table, as I will shake the table while I rock and shake my foot. I do these stims all the time when I am focusing in class and I rarely notice, but this can cause the table to shake a little and that can irritate my other classmates. I still have not figured out what to do in that situation.

Vesicant, I also talk to my self in that manner. "Oh, I want to chew gum. Where is the gum package? Look in my purse. Open the big pocket. See black paper box, yeah! Open box to see if it has gum or if it just teasing me. Look gum wrapped in shinny blue wrapper! Open wrapper. Chewing gum, hip hip hooray!" And so on for most of my daily activities.
It is a little embarrassing when I get caught doing this as I am an adult now.

Well, nice to know I'm not the only one doing it in such a way. I used to get embarrassed in my teen years but I figure people probably think I'm crazy anyway so why bother?

At least we get a decent conversation with someone who can keep up intellectually on the odd occasion we need a chat.

I've done it as far back I can remember, I didn't have imaginary friends as a child, I just had myself and my talking. o.O

Hmm, sorry, I got distracted by Cello Suite no. 1 in the middle of editing that.

I am very aware of stims when they occur (and if I have recognised a movement or behaviour as a stim) but it would be unusual if I wasn't.

I have this heightened awareness because of which I notice too many things at once that I can't just stop noticing. How could I not notice when I move even the slightest? Or when I hum? I'm also not sure how anyone could not notice what they're thinking (in the case of "mental stims"). This extreme awareness is what seems to cause a fair number of my autistic impairments.

I can't imagine how people can do all sorts of things while only semi-aware.

I imagine that it is like breathing. Most of the time I'm not aware of breathing but my body keeps doing it anyway. I'm not sure how that example would account for anything but breathing though.

Sometimes I can get so adsorbed in a thought that I have no idea what my body is doing or whats going on around me.
However if not deep in thought or zoned out I'm extremely aware of whats going on around me as well.