If you rock/sway, how long have you done that for?

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If you rock back-and-forth or sway side-to-side to stim, how long do you think you have done that for?

I've done those things my entire life, and my favourite thing to do to "play" as a child was to find something I could rock/sway on, like swings or something else. I still find the motion really relaxing and also entertaining, I feel the most "normal" sensory wise when I am rocking or swaying. I have memories of doing this even as a toddler.

Stimming behaviors. I do pacing and hand flapping. Occasionally knee bobbing.

I've been doing the hand flapping as long as I remember, and I caught sh*t from mom for it my entire life. I have a fitness tracker on my phone and I log a couple of miles of just pacing every day.

Last edited by r00tb33r on 03 Feb 2021, 11:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think I started doing it sometime in my early teens/pre-teens, not one hundred percent sure. I’m vestibularly hypersensitive, and any time I’d try to use a rocking chair or a swing or anything, I’d do it too hard and give myself a headache. It wasn’t until then that I discovered how soothing gentle rocking is, and I’ve been pretty much constantly doing it for years now, I really have to try to stop.

My dad used to talk about how me and my brother didn't rock back-and-forth and would talk about that behaviour like it made someone seem ret*d, which was always irritating as I remember sitting in a recliner with my brother after he got home from school when I was a toddler, and we'd just rock back and forth in it together. lol


Me and my brother used to rock/sway pretty intensely. I am hyposensitive vestibularly so I need to rock/sway a lot to have enough stimulation.

Your dad should have given the two of you a two-man saw, you'd both rock and saw some logs for firewood.

I only noticed myself doing this when I started paying more attention to my stimming behaviors. As far as I can remember I have always preferred some outlet for this stimming energy, such as a swing or chair with rocking capabilities. My parents got my brother and I these black leather rocking chairs that were curved kind of like a banana (they didn't have legs like most chairs), and I would always sit on one while playing video games. I also had this periwinkle- and white-colored Fisher-Price rocking chair that I played video games on and couldn't play without it, which I used until 6th grade when I could no longer fit in it (puberty growth spurt and such). My "happy place" tended to involve stimming and playing video-games, and a chair with rocking capabilities was usually a part of that.

I was in my "happy place" as a kid when I was able to rock/sway and play video games, too.

I didn't really have a lot of specific things I could use for rocking throughout my life besides a recliner and a rocking chair we had, but I got creative. We did have this yellow, plastic chair for little kids that had a curved back, that I'd put onto its back and stand/crouch/sit on so I could sway on it. The top of our toy box was this plastic, removable top that was also curved so I'd put that on its back and do the same thing, except it was easier to position myself in a way where I could sit in it and rock instead of just swaying. Those two things were probably my favourite makeshift toys. lol

I've done it for years. Another primary stim is fiddling with ribbons.

All of my life as far as I know.

I also liked rocking/swaying things as a kid. My favorite toy was a rocking horse. I also loved the swings at the park, and would beg my dad to pull the hammock out. He eventually just put one in my room so I could swing in it as much as I needed.

When I was younger I used to rock, I don't think I do it as much now.

My sister says my mom told her I used to do that. I don't remember ever doing it, until recently. Like, months.

I'm nearly 50 yeas old and still love swings.

I remember I used to do it until I was maybe 6 or so. My parents say I used to rock so hard in the crib as a toddler that it sometimes ended up blocking the doorway. Later, I remember I used to do it only more rarely, mostly during long road trips (I used to puke a lot during those trips, and I dreaded them). I would close my eyes (maybe also cover my ears? I'm not sure anymore) and sort of tune out and start rocking back and forth and hum really loud.

I'm not sure if I stopped doing it because I stopped feeling like doing it or if it's because I found other ways to distract myself that I knew would draw less attention to me.

I always hated swings, for the same reason why I hated those road trips.

Hmmmm. Since my teens. I myself thought: "This is not normal - I do NOT rock".... but I did.

I. Love. Swings.

I am just too old to use one. I sometime creep into the park at night to have a go.