New Girl...here to check things out

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Hi!
I think I posted in the wrong forum earlier. Anyways, I was not diagnosed with AS. In fact, the online test I took said I was NT. The only AS thing about me is that I hand flap. I do this when I'm excited or imagining things. I also gallup, bounce around, and dance around often. In public, I try to stop these behaviours and instead twiddle my fingers. I have always hand flapped since I was a little girl and I tried to stop but I can't.

I guess I'm just here to see if anyone knows why people hand flap or do other stimming behaviours because obviously, most here would know more about it than me. I can't find anything about extreme stimming behaviours that are not talking about AS on the Internet. If any of you know anything, give me a shout. I don't think I have AS but this seems to be the only place that people would know about stimming, although I've been told that few of you hand flap or only did it as a child. I am 21 and still do it.

Well it's a stress habit generally (good or bad stress in my case). An NT can have stress habits. Hand flapping is typically a habit of the autistic, but there's no reason why an NT couldn't pick it up. I tend to think the connection to autism is coincidence.
Most people (myself included) stop flapping, or only do it in private, by a certain age. At least among autistics that I'm aware of. It may be different with those with severe cases.

And welcome, by the way!

Welcome to WP!

You might want to try doing some daily exercises that use the same muscles as the ones you use when flapping, e.g. weights or push-ups or something. I tried that with a similar problem and it seemed to work well; the only issue is that if you stop the exercising, the stimming returns. At least there is no risk.

Welcome to the WrongPlanet.

Hello, and welcome greetings to the Wrong Planet neighborhood, curiousgirl.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome CuriousGirl...