Addictive stims?

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Sometimes I get overwhelmed by anxiety, and usually a tight hug or some "normal" stimming (spinning side to side, rocking, also singing) will soothe me. When it happened one hour ago, though, I couldn't calm myself so I started hitting myself on the head with my wrists, and I calmed down. I know I shouldn't do things like this, but what I am really afraid of is that if I do it again out of desperation it might become addictive. I have Trich and that's already too much to deal with.

I'd say work on developing positive stims, which will largely take the place of negative stims. And anything above 93% positive, I think is plenty good enough.

Maybe something as simple as a good self hug with firm squeezes and releases of your shoulder muscles?

Maybe you could make a list or flow chart of stims that you like, starting with a simple level and then going to a higher level or things to try if the others fail? Hitting yourself would not be on the list, but you could try to think of some things that would soothe you instead of that. Like take a hot shower if you like that, or sing and take a shower, or put cold water on a washcloth onto your eyes, or lay under a pile of blankets or a certain song you could sing with that would get some of your anxiety out and bring you back to calm.

I need lists to remind myself of what "fixes" me best. otherwise in the moment of trauma when I need them I forget what to do. I would definitely encourage you toward any way of being nicer to yourself, rather than hitting.

i know the feeling....reach a point of desperation and hit myself in the head probably enough to cause a small concusion, and cause a small numbness in my head and a decrease in thought.

i try not to as well...but every now and then i reach a breaking point.

guess it's better then cutting....maybe.

When I sometimes watched my college tennis team as a spectator back in the 80s (and it took me three times to graduate from college!), there was a player from Europe who would sometimes slap her thigh when she got frustrated. And this seemed to be accepted by her teammates as just one of her things.

PS And this tennis player may have actually been Aspie, or she may have simply marched to her own drummer, and either way is perfectly alright.