Mental stimming

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Hi there. I'm 39 years old, and I'm a collector. I've collected many things (to the point of obsession, it seems) over the years, and while the objects of my collections change, the habit does not. Currently, my obsession is music, and I've been uploading all my cds onto my computer, and it's amusing/overwhelming at the same time. It's amusing to chronologically view my changing tastes in music (sometimes very bad music, just ask my girlfriend), and it's overwhelming to think that I could never possibly listen to, or enjoy, all the music I've collected (700+ cds, 400+ vinyl lps and 45s), and my desire to own more doesn't seem to be dwindling. I find myself buying more music (i don't like digital downloads, I enjoy the material aspect of ownership) to fill in gaps, or just to experiment with something new. I very much enjoy many types of music, but it's not really the point of this post.

I'm finding it very soothing to upload cds onto my computer, and I'm almost not looking forward to the task being done. It was very overwhelming at first, the thought of uploading all that music, but once I got into a groove, I'm loving it. It's mostly automated, and it gives my collection the structure and accessability I've sought in everything else I've ever collected, but was unable to achieve or maintain for any length of time.

I'd love to be able to have the same type of data base for my books, comic books, action figures (yeah, I'm a dork), and anything else I've collected over the years.

I guess that is the point of my post.

More than the collections themselves, I love the process of organizing and accumulation. I can't explain the sense of well-being it gives, but it's nice to have my mind occupied by the details. It's a bonus that I actually enjoy the things I collect, but the items themselves almost seem inconsequential to the process.

I have a few physical stimming things I do (scratch my fingertips with my thumbnail, pull the hair on my chin), but do people have mental stims? It seems pretty obvious the answer is yes, but is it different for NTs? I'm pretty much distracted on a daily basis to the point of obliviousness to my surroundings, and I'm sure other people notice, but while they may find it annoying, I find it relaxing. I love the feeling of deep thought.

Anyways, I know this has devolved to rambling, and has probably lost all its focus. I enjoy reading post from other people, wondering if other people experience the world the way they do. This is one aspect of how I experience the world.

i love music. i have over 7,000 songs in my collection. my brother has about 15,000 records in his (that doesn't even include his cd's).

i have about 50 games ..(hey those thinks are expencive! ) thats great but at now after almost 17 years of playing em they strat to fall apart..so been into pc games where i can always get it back from net....recently i have become one of pirates ..so pm me if u need any help whith games u want or someting...i can get u a free games

Mental stims? hmmmm....Are you saying your collecting is a form of non-physical stim?

I collect raggedy anne and andy dolls. I have dozens and I don't particuarly have a fixation on them and their stories and whatnot (though I really liked the animated movie)...I find them at thrift stores...I have dreams about finding them at thrift stores...it is one of my favorite things....

I also collect homemade toys and quilts.
Between my boyfriend and myself, we have thousands of books.

While I can see how collecting might be concidered a form of stim...I have never really thought of it as one myself.

When you say mental stims, I think of the radio of repetative thoughts and the song clips that repeat themselves over and over....

I also have vocal stims....non-words that I often say over and over which I use to center myself....

I went through a period of downloading all kinds of music. I love music; however, I'm very picky. Right now, I have a little over 4,000 songs on my computer and 3767 songs on my IPod. Probably I would have around 7,000 if I didn't delete any of them. I'm going to have less because once I go all through all the songs in my IPod, probably I'm going to delete around 500. I always listen to my IPod. Maybe, that could be mental stimming in a way. I rock back and forth a little. I don't know if I do it all the time. I bite my nails too. Playing with my ring is a big physical stim for me. I play with it all the time. I like how it feels. My family says I'm going to lose it one day. Almost did once; however, I've had it for over a year.

Last edited by wifferjbiffer on 27 Feb 2008, 11:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'd agree that collecting things is a mental stim.

I've been through a whole heap of phases...

Some things, like DVDs, I collect for keeps - and my whole world revolves around them - others are passing fads.

I had an alcohol collecting phase that lasted about 2 years. I didn't really want to drink it - just collect it.

I ended up with about 60+ bottles of various spirits, cocktail mixers etc... and it all ended suddenly when, after having kids, I was grounded to reality.

We recently moved house and that was a big pain - I've gotten rid of a lot of the bottles, but many were very expensive.

If you use a Mac, I recommend Booxter. I am addicted to buying books, and now have almost 600--not including comics. I was in dire need of a database system. (I almost went so far as sorting the physical books according to the Dewey decimal system, but I thought that may have been a little too crazy.) Booxter is great for organizing databases, and you can even scan the barcode for an easier entry method. Of course, this doesn't work for my antique books, but it is handy. You can use it for music, books, movies, and comics.



YES. This is my favorite thing ever. I especially love old science books. They always smell the best. All of the used book store owners around here know me quite well.



I love that feeling too. I don't really see a problem with deep thought and the distraction inherent, but then, my program of study in university encourages this very thing. Even my neuropsychologist tells me to basically do what you are describing, as a way to reduce theta waves in my brain. I'm doing neurofeedback; in the sessions I do little mental exercises, like thinking of all words starting with "A," or doing math. I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but I find it fun.

Dewey sucks on the sorts of NF subjects I like since computers entered the field a bit late.


I wrote a Lotus Notes/Domino database to hold all my DVDs. It's pretty impressive and works on my mobile phone as well as various computers, web etc... (and it replicates locally for backup/speed).

I often check the DB for movies on my phone while I'm out shopping. How sad is that?

Sometimes I like to "replay" movie dialogues in my head. I don't know if it qualifies as a mental stim.

That's not sad, that's awesome. Almost makes me wish I got a phone that does more than make calls. It's rather embarrassing to get home and realize I already have the book I just bought and was so excited about.

And yeah, one of the other major reasons I kicked Dewey to the proverbial curb was its inadequacy in newer sciences.

I put my high school yearbook on alumniclass.com last summer. It was 33 years old, so I ended up getting Photoshop Essentials to split the photos out of the scanned pages, repair some of the photos (b&w) and remake the pages. This included retyping the text to correct some misspellings. It took about six weeks and I loved every minute of it. I also like to record a song from the radio and repair problems where possible.

I make mental conversations, or repeat a word over and over in my mind, but I have to be careful my lips don't move too much.

I am also a life long collector of things.

It really got started with legos. I would build things (mostly houses or following the directions) and when I put them away I organized them by type of piece in a large tackle box.
I then started collecting sports cards despite having no real interest in the sport or stats or anything. I did love organizing the cards and tracking values of them. I even went as far as building my own database and doing data entry for hours at a time to catalog my collection. I think this one was fairly close to your love of uploading the CDs.
I moved onto different things like collecting trading card games, then war game miniatures.
I moved onto collecting models for a game that I don't even really play, I just categorize them and try and obtain complete sets. I had to stop due to financial reasons. I am so glad that I was able to relatively easily, I could have been much worse.
I now am collecting and organizing japanese drama tv and anime shows on my computer.
I need some sort of system for tracking my manga collection as I hate buying the same issue again. I never can get myself to try and return it so it just sits at home being wasted.

When I read the thread title I thought it referred to the kinds of things that SilverProteus and marmotta do, not collecting/organizing. I have some things that I like to visualize when I'm stressed out.

By your definition it seems that my researching various topics of interest could be considered a mental stim.

By my understanding of the idea of mental stim though, I think the things I spend time imagining are more like mentally stimming. I imagine circles moving within one another; I imagine circles going counter-clockwise; I imagine machinery cogs moving back and forth, unendingly . . . those are the things that I do in my head when I'm not doing anything else.

I see what you mean.
The constant and repetitive motion and mental activity of looking at a card and determining where in the series it belongs and putting it there, repeating for hundreds of cards. In this case it isn't purely mental, but isn't purely physical like tapping my fingers is. It is the mental placement of the card alphabetically or numerically that kept me doing it. The physical card movement just allowed me to progress and complete the organization so that I could begin again.