If you do things like bang your head or hit it, why?

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If it's literal pain, you should see a doctor about it.

I only ever hit my head like that when I'm overwhelmed to the point of shutting down. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often. For example, a guy I'd been living with decided to break up with me. I never see things like that coming and in this case I didn't even have a vague inkling that something was wrong. It was the first time I'd ever lived with someone and suddenly everything I had gotten used to in my life was going to change and I couldn't do anything about it. I remember that I wedged myself in between a wall and a CD cabinet and started banging my head on the wall. It felt like my brain kept trying to re-boot and failing every time.

When I have meltdowns (very infrequent, perhaps only 4-5 times a year) that is on the list of my behaviors. It’s a bad habit I know but when I have them I ball up on the floor, clench my teeth tightly, pull at my ears and bang my head on the floor pretty hard to where I can feel bruises in the days after my meltdowns, so I really try to avoid situations where I would degrade to meltdown mode. Sometimes it’s unavoidable though. That’s really the only time I bang my head, but when I’m bored I’ll sometimes push hard against something with my head, like the back of a couch or the wall where I’m standing. Not too hard but I just like pressure. I don’t do it when i am wearing my noise reducing earmuffs or whatever you call them because they put enough light pressure on my head to where I don’t seek it out.

I will occasionally bang my head (not hard) in relation to these things I call brain crunches, but I now suspect are autism-related.

My brain is collapsing in on itself and it's like there's a pressure as it all crunches together, and my functionality very limited. So I may bang my head as one of the actions I can do that feels better than not doing it, until the crunch passes. Same reasoning as the head jerking, rocking, repeating words etc. during a crunch.

I don’t bang my head violently or anything, if I’m sitting against a wall I like to sort of tap it against the wall because it’s comforting, the same as tapping my fingers against a table or something.
When I have a meltdown though I do punch walls, just because I feel like I need to release that energy or else I’ll go mad. I’ve actually managed to fracture one of my knuckles doing that, thankfully it only happens maybe once or twice a year these days.

Similar to what a lot of people have already said here, I tend to hurt myself when I’m having a meltdown or feel like I’ve lost control of a situation, or if I’m super over tired. I tend to hunch into a ball and clench my hands into fists and smack my head with em to relieve the pent up stress or confusion, but it doesn’t happen very often at all.

My meltdowns are usually violent. Head banging is one of said 'behaviors' on the list among many things.
But I'd rather break something with my hands because it's my hands craves more stimuli than my head, or any other parts of my body. And does craves more stims outside meltdowns.
Also, I still think so too if I have another meltdown someday.
And still do it out of frustration when it happens.


Last I bang my head off at any surface is because of some dull headache I couldn't 'reach' or 'explain'.

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Some of my stims involve hitting my head. Sometimes with my hand, sometimes against a bar or wall if I'm standing near one. Never hard enough to hurt myself though.