Reasons for some specific stims

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Usually I hum the last song that I listened to. Just a few bars of it over and over.

I don't stim when I am focused on doing something.

It is bad idear to interrupt me when I am not stimming.

I have always toe walked, but not for emotional reasons, and not because of physical issues either. I don't remember, but I suspect it may have started due to tactile issues; perhaps it became more of a subconscious comfort thing from there.

Other things, such as lip biting, tapping, hair twirling... for me, those are a response to social anxiety or over stimulation, and I don't do them as randomly or without notice as I do with toe walking. I also flap hands/wiggle fingers when over stimulated, and I do these things somewhat intentionally because they reduce the amount of anxiety I feel inside.

If you think it doesn't relieve stress, try going an entire day without doing it at all.

Just because the rocking and swaying is "normal" for you (it is for me, too) doesn't mean its not acting as a relief valve for stress. IMHO Autism is a condition of constant stress. When you live your life constantly unsure of yourself - how you're supposed to behave or react in any given social interaction, whether with one person or twenty; when you are constantly being told that whatever it is you're doing, you're doing it wrong; when you are in constant danger of misunderstanding or misinterpreting or even being totally oblivious to some remark or unspoken signal and ending up looking like a fool - if that is your everyday life 24/7, you're going to live in a state of anxiety that is far higher than that of a normal human being, even if you don't realize it - because you've gotten so used to feeling that way, that you're not even aware that others live in a much more relaxed state than you do.

Someone was asking in another thread the other day how we appear to 'normal' people, since we can't ever really see ourselves the way others see us. Janissy, who lives around several Aspies, but is not one herself gave a very good answer, but the key to it all was summed up in one word: "stressed."

That was kind of an epiphany for me, although I was already aware that I live in a state of tension much higher than that of any NT person. I suddenly realized why I hate the way I look in almost any photograph that's ever been taken of me. Its because I always look preoccupied, unhappy and slightly angry, even if my mood was completely neutral at the time the photo was snapped. Its the look of STRESS. The face of a human being waiting for something bad to happen at any moment, without ever quite knowing what its going to be.

Each autistic person is different, and different persons stim for different reasons.

What you describe as your reality does not match my reality.

Eberryone tells me I always look happy. Right now, I am really enjoying what I am doing, so I am always happy.

That stim, and spinning, is related to hunting questions, and thus we don't expect an emotional reason. At least for spinning an object, "for pleasure" works quite well, which is not an emotion.



Thanks. I'll try hair twirling and over stimulation, as bored doesn't give reasonable results. There already is an acceptable connection between lib biting and being anxious.

Last edited by rdos on 28 Jul 2013, 3:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not everybody is constantly stressed. I'm rarely or never stressed, and I do a few stims myself, and so can be quite sure these are not related to stress. Finger tapping and bouncing leg comes to mind that I do regularly for no obvious reason.

Not so. I have consistent relations for a majority of the stims I research now, and have ideas to improve on those that are not acceptable.

A few of the remaining ones:

- Talking to yourself. Results from 2006 indicated thinking or excited. Thinking has some relevance. "When hyperfocused" is worse. More suggestions wanted

- Cracking joints. Results from 2006 indicated bored or for pleasure. Bored has some relevance, but there should be better alternatives.

- Pulling hair. Results from 2006 indicated bored or "other reason". Bored doesn't give satisfying results. The question is what "other reasons" might be.

- Sticking tongue out. Results from 2006 indicated thinking or for fun. Happy and concentrated had some relevance. Thinking also has some relevance. Better alternatives wanted

- Tapping ears. This is quite unusual. Results from 2006 indicated thinking or anxious. Nervous or anxious had some relevance and so did anxious on it's own.

- Biting yourself. When upset isn't satisfactory. Maybe overstimulated would work here too?

So you think that all autistic people do the same stim for the same reason?

Something like that would be insanely hard to research, and to be honest and the basic principle for stimming could essentially have the same origin in everyone, but you have to go down about a million layers to get to the core of the behavior.

one person could consciously pull/twist hair and say "I mainly do this when I am afraid", while another person does the exact same thing but says it is because they feel compelled to do it.

You would then have to determine if the compulsion is a direct result of anxiety.

And then there is the question if compulsive behavior can become part of someone's daily routine in such a way the person does not notice the anxiety triggers the behavior, and if someone could create a mental dependency to stimming very much like addictive behavior, and maybe then being bored triggers the same behavioral patterns as being stressed after a while (this is just a wild idea though but my brain just creates ideas like that ).

There is also the principle of being aware of stressful factors in your life, and how long they subconsciously influence your behavior during a cooling down period, you may not realize that you are stimming because you are stressed, because the event that caused the stress is too far away for you to grasp, and to be consciously worried about it, yet your behavior still is a result of that stress, but at the moment you stim it only translates to you as being bored.

So what I mean to say is that I agree that you cannot simply draw conclusions without truly having researched every single aspect of the behavior and its origins, these results can be different for any person.

EXCEEDINGLY WELL SAID!! !! !

How the f**k can you be rarely or never stressed?!?!?!?

My life is intractably stressful.

My question is sincere.

Please explain.

Because I live in a family with only Aspies, and because I have decoded most of NTs way of communicating and have automated it. I'm working with my special interest (the OS I started in 1988), and thus have few issues at work as well. In addition to that, pressure usually puts my in hyperfocus-mode rather than getting stressed and shutting down.

Why make it so complex? The only thing that is needed is that people agree on a single explanation for a lot of stims to a high degree (say at least 2/3 agree while 1/3 disagree). Give this to a large sample of people (a few 1,000s), and you are done. The chance for such good agreement by chance in a large sample is minimal.

The hard thing is to come up with the correct explanation.

Oh, I envy you.

I am very glad that your life is good in this way. May it always be.

May I ask the name of your OS?

Thanks. :)