Similarities Between Stimming and Dancing

Post Reply New Topic

If you find yourself voluntarily stimming(rocking back and forth) listening to a favorite song because it adds to the musical experience. Does it stimulate the same kind of pleasure centers in the brain that one might get from dancing? If that's the case then stimming to the beat is really a subtle version of dancing to the beat because when you think about it both of them are an attempt to achieve the same purpose it adds to the musical experience.

Hmmm. That's a really interesting thought. I don't have an answer, but...I would think there might be something to it.

If nobody's watching, I don't even 'stim'. I just dance.

Well, actually that's only true if my hands are free and I'm not reading or watching anything, and I'm not feeling too lethargic.

I rock back and forth when I listen to music. I don't even realize I'm doing for a few minutes.

I guess you could say it is a form of dancing.

If you'll notice that when Jews are praying at the wailing wall they rock as well. I think they do it even when not at the wall.

For me, it's a stim. My most common form of stimming, at that.

I danced a lot as a kid, loved singing and dancing around for fun too and almost never stimmed (in the sense of common stims). So, uhm, maybe? Dancing makes me calm and focused and most importantly, it makes me happy, no matter what my mood is before I start dancing.

I spin a lot when I dance, it's the only time I ever spin. My son learned to spin mostly when dancing. We don't stim otherwise.

Hmm, maybe... Sometimes when I get really into playing the piano, I'll start rocking back and forth. I only catch myself doing it after a while (I think), so I consider it to be a stim, but it is sort of like dancing.

So what's the difference between stimming and rocking to music? Whether it's controllable or not??

What about blind people like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder? They rock while they are singing and I don't think they are Autistic.