Adults- how much hand flapping do you do?

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I think I handflapped as a small child. I noticed myself handflapping as an adult, but only with I am really upset. Like the other day I choked while trying to swallow some vitamins and noticed that I was flapping my right hand like mad while I was choking. How many others do this only in times of stress? How many do it frequently or in public?

PS: There's some handflapping videos on UTube of autistic children if you need to know what it looks like.

I still handflap sometimes, its for excitement, if I get reallly excited still, I find myself handflapping. I too also handflap when I get extremely upset too, but the only difference there, is that I handflap with my hands closed like in a fist, but when I'm excited handflapping, my hands are open..weird. haha

I hardly ever hand flap.

Yep when i have a meltdown, usually a good signal to leave me alone.

I also make many other repetitive hand moments, the most energetic ones only at home. I did try to repress my physical stims in public for a long time before Dx. I but every now and them I just couldn't stop myself like when I find myself leaning over following the patterns on a carpet with my finger.

Nowadays I don't really care. Ill tap my feet, punch my thighs, pace around, rub my hands together. I don’t really hand flap in public.

I don't hand flap. The main AS thing I do when I'm very upset is biting my lips and the inside of my mouth.

I don't handflap as such... however I do throw my hands around in excited conversation. I recently was describing something to the Missus, and managed to stab my upper lip with a fingernail quite painfully.

it's weird cause ive been doing martial arts for a long time... and we have all these wrists exercises...

i tend to go around and do these frequently... but never thought anything of it, cause i always just thought, hey im stretching.

but i think it would count... especially since, one of the exercises is a free-fast shaking of your hands... which i do often do, just always have.

plus i always had this imaginary thing where i was a gypsy and playing those little finger cymbals all the time... i often just clap my hand to my palm in a muscial sense

so i dunno what to say

Me too, although i dont know if it relates directly to being upset. But i suppose theres a fine line between boredom and agitation.

Last edited by psych on 28 Sep 2007, 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I do rehabilitative exercises, which have turned into a sort of stress relief therapy for dealing with agitation in public. Probably doing them more often in public these days than at home when im supposed to be following the prescribed schedule.

Some of it must look extremely bizarre to passers by, but hey - the less inhibitions i have, the sooner ill get better

I handflap quite a lot, usually when overstressed, nervous(in conversation) or very upset.
I have also found myself doing this odd clapping thing where I I have one hand as a fist and hit it into the palm of my other hand repeatedly.
I also sometimes shake an arm out when stressed.

I flap when i'm happy
I don't flap when i'm

Sedaka-
what martial art do you do? your exercizes sound like the same types of warm-ups my dojo does (aikido). I've wondered, since learning about AS, how much the dojo is a healthy outlet where AS traits are allowed or even encouraged, and coupled with social things that are necessary and healthy but difficult outside the dojo:
flapping hands and arms during warm-ups
swaying in warm-ups to practice balance
being aware of people without looking in their eyes
coupled with
firm physical contact without any social overtones
comraderie and a welcoming group of people
respect based on ability rather than personality

I'm quite certian that at least one of the other yudansha at my dojo has AS.

I was convinced that I don't handflap until I saw some of those YouTube videos.

Not sure what I was picturing as "handflapping" before, but I most *definitely* do this. I don't think it's particularly uncommon for me, either, but I do it in only very short bursts when agitated. I don't think anyone has ever pointed it out to me as odd.


ETA -- I also do the "castanet" thing Sedaka mentioned, and I touch my fingertips to my thumbs. It's funny how I've never really thought about *any* of my stims as such before.

I think the "castanets" thing is on one of the UTube videos. I don't do that one. I just handflap on occasion. But mostly I am a rocker. I rock a lot or else jiggle my leg if can't get away with rocking in public.

I flap my left hand (only my left that I can recall) when I'm really P. O.'d I did't know it "Meant" anything or was a "stim" I just thought all these years that I did it as a way of releasing energy so as not to hit something. One of the girls a t my job really made me mad one night and I guess I was flapping my hand, cause one of the other girls at work said "your moving your hands just like Mallory in Natrual Born Killers does in the first scene, right before she kills the "Jerk" who starts dancing w/ her." I was like OMG, I AM doing that. I'd never paid any attention to it before. Hope I'm not as F****ed up as she turned out to be in that movie. Its just a hand flap thing right? I'm a pacifist.

I always just assumed the hand flapping was a sign of over-stimulation that served as a release valve, but really not sure.