You Think You're Stimming?

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EXACTLY.

I actually find this thread to be offensive. So you're saying there's basically only one type of stimming? A TRUE type of stimming? Are you kidding me?

Well excuse you, just because I don't flail my arms around THAT wildly and have movements THAT dramatic doesn't mean I don't have stims.

That video was indeed beautiful, but that is extreme autism, and as you work down the spectrum you are going to find multiple different kinds of stimming at different levels of intensity. It is a SPECTRUM after all.

As I know myself best, I will use myself as an example to compare and contrast to the first video link. She has severe autism, and I have high-functioning Asperger's.

• She rocks back and forth. So do I.
• She shakes her hands and moves her arms wildly to interact with her surroundings. I too occasionally have uncontrollable hand flapping, and I wave my hands in a seemingly random and strange way, but in reality there is purpose behind it.
• "I smell things." I have a stim where I compulsively fold in my bottom lip and smell the mixed scents of my mouth and hands.
• "I listen to things." I have a couple little ticks where I will tap things or hold a bus transfer in my hand and flick it back and forth, and while those may not seem like "stims" to you under your rather narrow-minded concept, I do it for the pleasing feel and sound.
• "I feel things." My sister taught me how to face-paint recently and there's a very soft brush she uses, and I couldn't help but continuously run it over my face till she took it from me. I also tend to rub my face on my dog if he's been recently trimmed.
• "I look at things." This is something we all do, the "autism stare" as I like to call it.

But I also have other little things, like the "craning neck" thing you were talking about. But you know how that happens for me? I get a small "tick" in the back of my neck and it drives me insane if I don't swivel my head around.

Do. NOT. Downplay. Other peoples' stims. You do not know what goes on in their head and you do not get to say what is "true" stimming and what is not! It is a spectrum, and you need to respect that.

I have to admit that I do not understand what stimming is. But I also suspect most people don’t truly know either. I am constantly questioning everything about it. The reason I keep questioning it is because what the movements look like in their final form tells me nothing about the cause, the sensations, the emotions, etc. In the case of stimming the cause seems like it should be more important than the result. There needs to be a database of specifics:

- voluntary vs involuntary vs both
- conscious vs unconscious vs both
- external stimuli vs internal stimuli vs both
- positive stimuli vs negative stimuli vs both
- alleviates something physical vs alleviating something mental vs both
- good feeling afterwards vs indifference vs both
- influenced by the physical nature of the nervous system vs influenced by the mind vs both
- influenced by something co-morbid vs a natural trait / symptom of autism vs both
- healthy results vs unhealthy results vs both

- the list could probably go on and on because stimming is extremely complex

Until the mind/neurology/psychology/medicine/etc behind stimming is understood (which I have serious doubts will happen anytime soon) I don’t think people can really say anything specific beyond: stimming appears to be a highly heterogeneous thing.

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Very well put! Not one case of Autism or Asperger's is going to be identical to the other. Some of us have different stims, some being worse than the other. Some may have different types and levels of sensory issue. Like she said, it's a spectrum. The woman in this video is a lot more severe than most of us on this forum (I'm not saying there are no low functioning Autistics on this forum, I know there are. Just putting that out there before someone jumps on my butt for saying that.) so the symptoms she presents will be much more amplified. We still have stims but may have less of them or the severity of said stims will be less.
And I know what my nervous ticks are and what my stims are. When I'm nervous, yes, I'll rub my hands and twirl my hair. But if I'm eating something really good, I'll start rocking back and fourth and waving my hands. If I'm cold I'll walk on my tip toes. If I'm in pain, I'll do sign language type movements. I'll listen to the same song I love over and over and walk in circles around my room with my ipod swinging it around and shaking the cord. I know the difference between my stims and nervous ticks quite well, and I doubt my stims are typical of ADHD. I think those of us who stim can tell the difference.
Speaking of sensory issues the humming mixed with the noises of the things she did was agony to my ears no matter how low the volume was. But regardless of that, yes, the video was beautiful and shows Autism in a good light. I'm glad it has over a million hits so people can see what Autism can be like and how people with it can think.

Thank you for the link to the video. She sounds like she is very in touch with her environment... I have know spectrum people who hum with various things such as lawnmowers, hairdryers (myself including).

I've read about NTs socially acceptable stims being twirling hair or tapping fingers or legs.
Yet compared to verbal stimming, and the hand flapping.

It's hard to imagine very "mildest of the mild" Aspergers actually having severe stims as they haven't been noticed severely stimming (the ones they known)
I have heard that is why it is being removed from the spectrum is due to it being mild according to some doctor, qoute "the mildest of the mild"
I guess those at the highest range of functioning may not stim at all. Yet the aspergers i know are definitely aspergers yet i haven't noticed them stimming ever and one i have known since we were 12.

Compared to the "severity" of lower functioning Autistic children, it seems trite sometimes when obviously higher functioning individuals with "aspergers" claim they have a ton of typical stimming traits that are more typical of more "severe" cases of Autism.
Please don't flame me for my lack of proper wording i mean no offense.

FYI Stimmming can be auditory, and need not last for more than 1 or 2 seconds, after I yawn I tend to make 1 or 2 quick auditory sounds with my mouth, this is a stimm. t may only last for 1 or 2 seconds,, and it might not be with my hands, but it is still a stimm.

FYI all stimms are voluntary, there are no involuntary stimms, just people who lack impulse control.

I love it too. I can close my eyes and feel a soft brush over my face again and again. But... calling it 'stimming'? Wouldn't it be overusing this word?

It annoys me when people refer to things like pacing and drumming fingers as "stimming". Seems like nothing but a way to pathologize a pretty normal behavior.

For that matter, I rock back and forth a little when trying to concentrate sometimes, and once my husband said "oh no! You're stimming! Something's wrong!" and I was royally pissed. I don't like that label in general, even when it might be accurate. It implies something sick, shameful, almost dirty. I guess I am convinced that NTs have their own types of "stimming" which are ignored because they're common, while whatever autistic people do must be some bizarre, incomprehensible, bad thing in need of a creepy sounding label.

What makes it trite?

Do you mean they don't really stim or do you mean they shouldn't be diagnosed with AS?

Accidental double post.

Last edited by Verdandi on 31 Mar 2013, 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

False.

Me too, my stims are weird and noticeable. I can do them mostly only in private now but as a kid I did them constantly in school and everywhere and it was a big problem.

I have that and it's called verbal stimming however it's not so short range necessarily.

The girl in the video is interacting with the environment. Everything has its own noise or "music"

I really doubt she's faking it. I don't know anyone's targeted her like that (as they've also targeted Donna Williams), but the whole thing (people trying to prove she's faking) does seem like the most extensive concern troll attempt I've seen.

I do not think this is true. I don't even notice many of my stims until I've been doing them for a time.

Aiii not again i refuse to get in an argument with Verdandi.... thats why i put i mean no offense.

I am speaking of cases in which how do i word this without insulting the world... some people do not have aspergers although they just identify with the disorder for various reasons and thus they take on some traits such as stimming possibly after having read up about it possible hypocondriac affect maybe?

I'm not aspergers i can't speak for all of them. Yet i'm referring to those who are going on self diagnosis due to fad status.

The only way to explain this is bluntly as above please don't harbor angst against me for it.

In reference to children who have more severe cases of Autism, that someone without a diagnosis or self diagnosis of aspergers may stim due to picking up the traits for fad reasons. Now there's no way to tell i suppose.

I don't know if they stim or not, do you? We aren't in their households so it's anyone's guess.
There has been numerous doctors say that Aspergers are the "mildest of the mild" which is why they are removing the diagnosis for the DSM-V. Some may stim some may not.

It's not my problem, let the doctors weed them out after May. May the true perserve to the spectrum!

I'm not trying to argue with you and I do not have angst. I am trying to understand what you are saying.

And I do. I don't see any point arguing over this because we already did that once and it went terribly. I am sorry about that.