can someone explain stimming?

Post Reply New Topic

Because I didn't recieve a diagnosis until I was an adult and raising a daughter of my own... I don't have the "vocab" for the behaviors I have cultivated and controlled.

When I was a kid, I used to constantly annoy my mother with repetitious activity... little things, like:
organizing m&m's by color, or size or what ever..
tapping a door cause I felt I should

the one that drove her the most crazy was the "marbles". I had a chinese checkers set on a metal board and the colored marbles. I used to arrange the marbles by different patterns and start over again and again. I really had no interest in the number (my grandma was sure it was cause I "liked to count things") I liked the clink clink and the pace I used and the world of patterns I could fall in, I would lose myself, not even really think about the action or anything else - I could lose my thoughts that were always so threatening and painful and condemning. I could ignore the memories from the kids at school, and the teachers who flat out gave up on me: I'd stare in fear when ever they asked me to answer a question in class. Anyway, after about a year of it, my mother confiscated the whole set, and I was devastated - it actually hurt... but I started doing the same sort of repetition with coins (I found a quieter surface) and then when we got a computer, I'd pattern out numbers...if I was somewhere that I couldn't do it - like in school - I'd found that the grid on graph paper had an exquisite amount of opportunities for patterns and repeated actions.

my family didn't tolerate it well... and there were many parts of me that I just didn't share with them: the social anxiety, the hard time in school, etc. etc. etc... but that's one of the few things that escaped - that they still talk about, like it's on a list of crap me and my sisters had put them through: "oh yeah, the MAARBLES, clink, clink"

I find I do well with extremely long periods of repitition... I do great at my job doing data entry, and I've heard more than once, "doesn't that drive you crazy" I just say no... I don't dare tell them that it's sometimes the only thing I want to do....

ok.. that's enough information - I'd love to hear what you guys think

What's the Q?

It feels good -- necessary. Rhythm of my mind. Like physical mantra.

Instead of saying "Om Om Om" while meditating, I might be stimming while thinking about my systems.

Sometimes I think it also helps keep my overactive sensory system in place so I can sit and do things. Like stimming is kind of like idling my overactive sensory system otherwise it would need me to go seek out stimulation instead of sitting in a chair.

exactly.

I find it hard to focus on what someone is saying if I don't play with my hair, earrings, chew my lip or fiddle my fingers.

stimming makes me, personally- more focused, more relaxed, helps the abstract thinking.

When I get stressed out (I'm hypersensive and I do it when I am overstressed ) I will stim.
My stims are pulling my eyelids, sticking my tongue out and rubbing my lips with it, and twisting my fingers.

Exactly, it makes it so I can just do nothing, by causing me to do something... Its like I'm like a car: if i am idling, the motor is still running, or it won't work quite right, and the only way I can truly turn off is to go to sleep, and even then, I can still be in an idling like state. Stimming is basicly the closest thing to not doing anything I can get. For me I tap my feet, hands, whatever, and I will pace, I will play with my hair because its long enough (as a guy, I love my long hair, even if my parents don't), play with my face, etc.

Hypersensory, like hyperactive, but with sensory stimulation instead of running around.

I'm sorry I didn't actually ask the question... but I think I got my answer:
was what I orginally described form of stimming? It's really been bugging me since I found out there might be someone else out there that needs stimulation of some kind constantly.... even if it's for the point of becoming unaware of whatever's going on.

I stim constantly. Why? I don't know, really. I find it sometimes nice or relaxing, and sometimes I just do it, without being aware of it immediately. Or I simply need to, even though it is not that rational.

They seem to be here. Though initially I had found "stimming" referring to more apparent types of behavior like shaking hands in front of your face or spinning in circles, it seems there is a more lax, broader definition. Probably driven by the realization of a common underlying biochemical drive/result. The only catch (benefit?) is that it really blurs the line between "normal" and "abnormal".

All humans require a certain amount of sensory (and intellectual) stimulation to keep their brain chemistry in balance. People on the spectrum can have different requirements, either above or below normal levels or perceive the level of some kinds of stimulus, certain sound frequencies for example, different from the norm. Thus to keep the same balance they are driven to more extreme experiences. But at the heart it's the same deal. A neurotypical that was denied nearly all sensor input or give excessive amounts would "go crazy", torture methods that work over long periods of time leverage on this very fact.

If a particular form of stimming is a problem (for social, logistical, or safety reasons) you can't just tell the person to stop it. They are doing it for a very important reason, you might as well tell them to stop breathing. Instead you have to provide an appropriate, equivalent replacement. Redirect.

Today I found myself at a business meeting with my dad, and tried so very hard to keep my stimming as not obvious as possible... unfortunatly I eventually started to squirm in my chair cuz my tea was done and tapping my feet was getting tiring, and I just had to keep myself from tapping my fingers.... When I started to squirm, I immediatly made sure it looked like I was stretching, and tried to keep myself from doing it.... I think they could tell I was getting anxious to go tho... even though it wasn't I wanted to go, I was quite interested in their conversation, I was just stimming.

I have my own fair share of stims but as a child it was much worse. I used to do things like spin, go on swingsets alone and stay there for hours... but now I walk (which is obviously socially acceptable, how would anyone know its a stim), I listen to the same song over again or watch the same video over again and that I have done since I was a kid.. oh I also MUST touch a dog's nose. Hopefully they don't mind that, because as soon as I see a dog, I have to touch the nose.. love that cold and wet feeling..

well padium....i relate re you rstimming. non stop for me too.

I don't stim, so I don't speak with the benefit of personal experience.
But it does raise some interesting questions.
It mostly seems to be about stimulating an understimulated brain - the brain having a requirement for a certain minimum.

This kind of fits with more global sensitivity thresholds and under-sensitivity.

- Not knowing what to say in social situations might attribute to under-awareness of the thought processes.

- Being 'unemotional' - much the same thing.

- Many Aspies describe not even being aware that they're hungry.

- Others that they're unaware that they needed to take a dump/pee.

- It's like a form of cerebral aneasthesia - of both cognitive and sensory/corporeal sensitivities.

Of interest is a condition under which cognitive sensitivity increases - and that's during the mild delirium of a fever, when the brain is overloaded with thoughts and feelings to the extent that confusion reigns.
Could this underpin the phenomenon of respite from Autism in Autistic children with fevers ?
Here's the link : -

http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/ ... m-symptoms

Well, I've never been any better off during a fever--I stim less, but that's usually because I'm too asleep!

For me it's not truly being "unaware", but not paying attention. If I don't pay attention to where my body is, I don't know. If I don't pay attention to whether I need to eat or am getting too full, I forget to stop or start eating. If I don't pay attention to how cold I'm getting, I'll notice only when my fingers get too numb to type. That kind of thing. Of course those are only the areas of hyposensitivity; with hypersensitivity in other areas, I may notice other things immediately. Heat, I notice right away. Visual information also. Sounds. Tactile information--which is odd because you'd think texture and pressure would be at least a little related to kinesthetic stuff, but apparently for me they're not... I think, actually, that this has something to do with being very good at fine-motor skills and very bad at gross-motor movements: Fine-motor skills make a lot of use of the hypersensitive tactile sensations, but the bigger movements depend on the deficient sense of where I am in space. But I have both gross-motor and fine-motor stims, so for me it isn't dependent on the level at which sensation insists on attention. Maybe I go from one to the other depending on whether I'm getting too much or not enough stimulation, but right now I don't have enough insight to figure out whether that's true.

Actually, a common or garden cold will do.

A common cold will have me hibernating, too. That's the problem with being hypersensitive--you end up losing a lot of your reserves and being much less able to cope with anything.