Extreme stimming from music

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Perhaps we could open an Autistic Night Club!!

hhhm
when I think of an autie night club I think mozart playing softly in the background and a single disco ball while everyone rocks.

I love the music I listen to, but I'm almost catatonic when I listen to it, even when it's something high energy (which is actually most of what I listen to) that I'm really into. I certainly stim while listening to it, but it's a less noticeable stimming, as I simply twitch a pencil in my hands over and over. I also tend to do weird motions with my hands, which I qualify as stimming, but others might not. I also of course nod my head when I listen to music, but that's it. I just sit there. And this would seem very odd for someone like me who likes Metal and dance music. To someone watching, they may think I'm bored, but that's really not the case. Anybody else like this?

I do the air-drumming when I listen to certain music. Sometimes I don't even realise I'm doing it.

I started to flap more when listening to my ipod on my walks. Lately it's been a hand shake and I only do it once I get into the town area.
Today I was listening to my ipod on my trampoline and I was hand flapping and jumping up and down, changing between hand to hand.
I get so into my music, especially Anberlin. I was just thinking today they're the only band I can actually jump up and down to and sing along to when I see them live.

I call it dancing, apparently I'm good at it.

Doesn't sound so bad

I wouldn't mind having sensory overload due to clubbing. I think the clubbing experience will be worth it, anyway. I haven't had a sensory overload in a while, mainly because I have been able to successfully shield myself in areas of relatively high sensory exposure.

Besides, if I go into a club, I'll probably use earplugs, anyway. I have developed clever ways to hide my methods of protection.

Yah, lol, sounds pretty sweet actually

This actually sounds really nice hahaha. My kind of night club

I use guitar playing as one of my main stims. I use a technique where I grip the pick very close to the end that hits the strings, so that the index fingernail actually touches the strings. I seem to get more control over the sound that way. I've done it so much that my fingernail has worn down and it's painful and won't grown back until I stop....but I can't stop. And I can't train myself to hold the pick differently. If I stick a bit of plaster over my finger end, there's a hole worn in the plaster after 5 minutes of playing, and my finger gets so sticky that the pick doesn't feel right any more.

Hey everyone, I need your comments, knowledge, and insights.

My background: I'm an ABA therapist for a 7-year-old boy with high functioning autism. He is verbal. I am also a part-time shadow/aide for him at school, and one of the many parts of my job is redirecting stims. He mostly hand-flaps, makes this grunting/moaning noise, and paces.

The other day he was really having a hard time concentrating on anything because he was stimming so much (there was a lot of sensory noise at the time, and it was kind of disorganized chaos in the classroom), and I asked him why he was stimming so much. He said "Because there's music in my brain!" He has repeated this over a few days when different people ask him the same question, so I don't think it's just because he had a song stuck in his head at the time. I asked him what kind of music, like fast music or slow music, and he said "All of them! Fast music and slow music and just-right music."

This really intrigues me since I am really into music. He doesn't know enough about music yet to identify genres (classical, rock, country, etc) or instruments, so I can't ask him about that. But I was curious if any of you had ever experienced hearing music in your mind while you stim, or anything like that? If so, what kind of music?

yeh definitely sometimes but not often for prolonged periods of time. i can often control how multiple instruments sound allowing quite complex music. it is like i am composing it but without conscious control over the precise notes. i think certain feelings manifest the feeling of the music. It could all be an illusion though. it is very fickle and i cannot control it but it usually only happens when i am in bed so i think it is somewhat different to your kid.

music is widely seen as a very important tool for autistics as it is another form of expression. for me personally it is incredibly therapeutic. if i am feeling sad i will play it out on the guitar and realise, "hey i just made my thoughts into music"

i'm curious as to why you want to stop him stimming? do you mean you want to stop the cause of it or stifle it? beyond social acceptance there is no harm and actually stimming is very beneficial and allows us to regain calm and control through stimulation.

I have a very hard time controlling my body around certain types of music and am sometimes dancing even if I'm the only one in the room dancing and if I absolutely can't dance I have to rock, stomp or something. Old-Time fiddle music is my favorite(it's a personal obsession of mine) and punk/folk punk bands are good too.

Thanks for your input on the music, that's really interesting! So that only happens when you stim, or can you do that at other times as well? Does the kind of music you create influence what kind of stimming you do?

We stop his stimming at school because often when he is stimming he can't pay attention to anything else and then he can't learn, and therefore can't succeed in school. I know a lot of you probably have learned to be able to stim and pay attention to other important things at the same time, but as young as he is, he has not learned this skill yet.

Success in school is important to us because it means that he can learn all the skills necessary to succeed in the workplace someday, so that it might be possible for him to live on his own as an independent man one day.

Also, a big goal of his mother's is for him to be socially accepted and have friends and everything, and the reaction of most kids his age to his stimming is just to look at him weird and avoid him, especially when combined with other socially unacceptable behaviors (lack of respect for personal space, inability to carry on an appropriate conversation, etc).

We do try to provide him with as much socially acceptable sensory input as possible (stress balls, pushing down on his desk, tight hugs now and then, chances to get up and move around, etc), but sometimes in a classroom setting during instruction, if he is allowed to get up and pace and hand flap and do his noise in the back of the room, he will miss everything as well as distract the other kids from learning.

Hey, I just noticed something you said. You said stimming allows you to regain calm and control. This boy sometimes has tantrums in the classroom so that we have to take him out of the classroom to regain control.

Right now we have other methods of helping him gain control, but in the hallway during class where there will be relatively little social reaction to his stimming and he won't be learning anyway, do you think it would help him get over whatever's upsetting him if we told him he could stim during those times?

i don't ever get it when i'm stimming unless it is a very deliberate attempt to create a melody or something very crude. there is a term for what i experience and it is not really related to autism and often occurs just before sleep. i think this is different. stimming outside the class may help. i personally find i stim when i am happy,anxious,sad or under stimulated but still having to pay attention. ( ie a easy lecture or something) to be honest i'm no expert on it and i think different people have different reasons to stim. hopefully someone else will have mpre useful information