Jaw clinching and teeth grinding

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Something I've done since I was a kid was grind my teeth and clinch my jaw. The tooth grinding isn't the kind that anyone within ten feet can hear. It's fairly light and quiet. The jaw clinching isn't hard, either. I'll never had TMJ problems. Both are a stim for me. Unfortunately, these stims have left me with chipped, broken, worn-down teeth. Is this an autism thing that others can relate to?

I clench my jaw when I'm anxious. I don't even realize I'm doing it until my jaw hurts or I get a headache. I also have a stim of tapping my top and bottom teeth together quickly, kind of like chewing.

I used to do that. It was caused by stress.

My son does this in his sleep so badly they're putting stainless steel caps on his back molars. At the age of 13 he's already worn them down quite a bit. He wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night and crawls into bed with me. The teeth grinding always wakes me up. He sounds like two bricks rubbing together.

People have told me that i do it in my sleep. Usually it's a sign of stress and/or anxiety.

I do this as well and my teeth have definitely paid the price. No cavities, but my canines are essentially the same size as my other teeth. They don't hang down lower anymore.

I'm gonna try to get one of those plastic mouth guards for when I sleep. If that doesn't work, then I might need to get my teeth capped eventually. Well, either way, it kinda sucks. I wish I knew why I did this.

Somehow "anxiety" doesn't quite cut it, as most of the time I'm not thinking of anything stressful while asleep! At least I don't feel anxious.

I'm doing that again. I'm also stressed out at the moment. Stress causes it for me.

I've trained myself to chew my tongue instead, which is not so bad for the teeth. Do you have starlings for pets? I would like to learn more.

I chewed on things as a stim, and clenched my jaw and grinded my teeth. It gave me TMJ and now chewing on things for too long makes my jaw hurt and I developed a fear of grinding my teeth.