Stimming and watching movies, etc.

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Tears of Joy!! !! !! I have been doing this in secret for YEARS!! !! !! It is so embarrassing to be caught because I know other people dont do it. Or I thought other people didn't do it. This is what I do! I run around or pace with my music on and have adventures- make up stories, live in my own world. It wasn't odd when I was a kid- not to me, but after I was still doing it as an adult I figured it was not exactly a mainstream pass-time. I love doing it too. Sometimes I get caught even now- my mother thinks I am a terrible dancer because I have my headphones in. I guess I should admit this to her now.

The only stimming I do while watching a movie is my mind will often wander away. I get really bored and distracted with watching movies or TV shows. I can have a whole different movie going on in my head. When I was younger I'd often raise my arm upward and my mum would always pretend I was putting my hand up to ask a question. But I just felt more comfortable doing that.
When I read though and I'm finding it hard to focus I'll shake my leg or rock from side to side. I do that alot when I can stay focused on forum posts.
During the middle of the day when I'm bored I can pace the house and backyard. Was that like the OP walking around during a movie?

Psst, it's called fixed fantasy and a lot of people with an ASD do it. I've been doing it since I was 5...hmm since I started school, curious..then I stopped in my late teens but started again in my 20's. I'm never the main character though. Oh I can be somtimes but when it's like a movie in my head I create my own characters.

I think watching Lion King and Titan A.E. themselves are stims.

Hello I believe I may have undiagnosed aspergers. I was reading through this thread and noticed that when I'm excited about a movie show or YouTube video, I have like a spas attack and shake all over and make noises lol

Yes, I start stimming too, but my stims are things like leg bouncing and rocking, so I don't have to stop the movie. Other things trigger it too, such as my psychology class I find very very fascinating, and I might start stimming in there, like last class where I twirled a pen in my hand for half an hour without stopping (my stims involve finger movements too). You think my extremities would get tired, but they don't.

Actually, no. When I'm watching a DVD or video, I have to get comfortable and ''cosy'' to watch it, to enable myself to ''get lost'' in the film and forget my surroundings. I can only feel like this when being kept still.

When I'm watching a TV show or movie I find entertaining, I run all around the room the TV is in so I can still see the screen. Then during the commercials (if it's a TV show I'm watching) I spin in circles until the show comes back on (after which I'll go back to running around the TV). While I also take ADHD meds, they don't stop the stimming completely - I just don't run around or spin as often as I do without them.

If it's sad or suspenseful, I rock. If it's happy and exciting, I spin. I do this with music too.

I stim a lot when I'm watching an exciting sports game or occasionally a very exciting movie.

On a side note, I was just wondering if stretching is considered a stim. I've noticed I've been stretching a lot lately and it feels like stimming.

I tend to pause if it gets embarrassing or something I really wanted to happen in a movie happens. Then I may proceed to walk around the apartment thinking about what might happen next and what just happened. Somtimes I even get super excited and bounce up and down in the chair.

It doesn't happen with every movie I watch even how awesome it might be, mainly just melodramas and even then it doesn't happen every time. I can watch my favorite movies such as The Graduate and A Clockwork Orange without feeling the need to pause it to walk around.

I have never thought about it as stimming before and I hadn't thought much about it before now.

Two days ago I even began bouncing in my chair of excitement because I found a drama movie with all the melodrama that I like. I don't know how weird it looks, or whether I look like an excited kid when doing it.

I KNOW I stim when watching exciting movies.
I been told so by my Mother in the past; and by my Wife within the last year.
So, yes.

movies have never moved me to stimming, but if i have a memory of a personal triumph or a very angry moment, i will rub my hands together like someone would if they are trying to warm up their hands. i do get emotional about movies and cry. i'm kind of amazed a movie never inspired me enough to cause stimming.

if something is funny, it rarely makes me laugh. i sit through a funny movie like a dead person. i enjoy the movie though. if someone tells a good joke, i'll say, "ha, ha." to let them know i appreciate it. there are supposed to be all sorts of physical and emotional benefits of laughing. i miss out on them all.

Stretching can totally be a stim. I used to be good about doing it in private, but I've started doing it in public without even realizing it recently and people always look at me like I'm a total freak. lol

Movies , like TV, both of which i watch rarely for reasons of needing to actually do things outside the lounge , are something i will usually lock into and cannot be raised externally without a physical nudge.

other times, usually when with somebody, i will analyse the film and pick out all the plot holes, obvious (to me) continuity errors and detail many of the technical aspects of the film..


I have a partner who will testify to how much "joy" that is

Bill