Gaining stereotypical stims

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Has anyone else done this?

I've been handflapping lately.

I didn't at all for a long time. (Into my 20s)

Then I found myself only doing so in very specific situations - like if I was running back from carrying the trash to the dumpster.

Now I'm doing so is regular daily situations. I just found myself handflapping at the computer. I was handflapping going to the car from my therapist appointment. It rarely happens around other people, but, its happening quite often now, especially compared to not having it for a long time.

I'm wondering why this is that I didn't do this for a long time and then gained one that was this stereotypical.

I have been being around autistic people more - but they don't handflap. Only one autistic person I know IRL handflaps and I rarely see her.

I always tap very loudly with my knuckles on pretty much everything (usually tables). I usually end up doing this when I am anxious.

Some people have said that they started rocking back and forth after reading about other people doing it, and it feels good to them, so they keep doing it.

This started over a year after i was diagnosed - when I was diagnosed is when I really started reading everything about ASDs. I'd also read a lot about them as a teenager. Neither as a teenager, nor when I first started reading about them did I start picking up things like this.

I did rock more - but I'd already rocked. But this started happening a good year after I was entirely aware that it was a very stereotypical thing to do, and after I was being very aware that it was something I didn't do at all.

I've been getting more autistic, and more extreme SPD lately too, so the fact that my stimming is getting more extreme isn't suprising. But this is the first time I've really handflapped much.

Could you experiment with one of those rubber, sand-filled hand exercisers?

And maybe the hand exercise of quickly squeezing and releasing a fist?

My stimming has gotten way more obvious since i've become an adult. BUT, i have also been getting better at dealing with social situations and have less little compulsions than as a kid and teen. So, it's all kind of balancing out in a way i suppose.

This is true for me. I used to rock when I was a kid, but hadn't for decades. Then I read that other people do it, I tried it, and it was comforting to me. So it's one of my favorites now.

Yup, this happened to me. I have been fidgeting my whole life in one way or another; rocking is a specific type of stim that I picked up after reading about it and realized I liked it.

I think it's harmless, when you pick up a stim like that. Stims in general are pretty harmless. If you're going to stim, you're going to do it whether you copy somebody else's style or not.

I didn't handflap until after I got my diagnosis... then I spontaneous started doing it within a few days afterward. I think it was because it was a stim that I probably suppressed from early childhood and after I found out about my AS, I didn't feel self-conscious about any of that stiff anymore.

I probably did have other types of stims before I got my Dx, but I was just not aware that they were stims.

My childhood stim was twirling a string in front of my face and watching it. I did this constantly through elementary school years. Then by middle school I started doing it only in private and I was REALLY REALLY ashamed of this because I was teased a lot for and my family warned me that it would make me look very strange to anyone who saw it etc. that people wouldn't understand and I might get in a lot of trouble for doing it , so I tried really hard to stop it and midway through high school I stopped only doing it at times when I was really really stressed or anxious very occasionally but I pretty much stopped doing it....I also aquired some more socially acceptable stims at this time. Then I started doing it constantly about four years ago in the summer when I was very distraught and still liked the feeling of it, and then the next year I took an intro to psychology course and I started reading more about ASD's (I had the diagnosis since I was 14 but didn't accept it/was really ashamed of it) and decided to accept the diagnosis and any strange behaviours I had. Then I allowed myself to keep doing this stim and got addicted to it again! I still only do it in private, but it's constant at home now and my mom finds bits of string around the house like she did when I was a kid ......Anyway it felt so natural to start doing this again.........like it was still a part of me.

Count me in to that group. It's not something I do everywhere, but when I am sitting up in bed with my computer I find myself doing this now. It's not hurting anyone and it feels good so why not?

It's entirely harmless, I'm not embarrassed, I'm just confused. All the other times my stimming increased it was the same sorts I normally do.

I'm used to the idea of people picking up stims when they first read about them. But a full year later?

Either way, I'm going to keep stimming, I'm not trying not to stim around people, I just happen to not be doing so, because there is other sensory input when I'm around people, so the type of input I
need then is different.

I started off clenching my fists a lot when I was anxious. This has turned into flapping my fingers in other situations.

I think I'm the same as dyingofpoetry - I began doing it once I realised I had autism because I didn't have to worry about coming across as normal anymore. I'm slowly starting to let people in on the real me, which includes these things, so the more I've been doing them, the more I find myself doing them in public.

I didn't do it until I realized how awesome rocking chairs were, and then I got addicted.

I have, even before I've heard of said stim, so it's not phycological.
New ones normally go after a couple of months.

I would wiggle all my fingers, chew and hair twirl before I knew they were stims and have been told about having done the full-on classic handflap. I still finger wiggle when frustrated but the other night I broke into a flap at a happy-happy-joy-joy out of nowhere. It's been less than 6 months since I decided to make peace with my place on the spectrum