Do NTs stim?

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11 Apr 2014, 1:06 pm

^ LOL

What about the classic "Eeek! A mouse!" response of jumping up on the table and hand-flapping on tippy-toes....or hand-flapping in response to looking at something you find really, really gross or gory.....could those be ordinary NT responses?

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RobKarmic
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11 Apr 2014, 1:42 pm

Is it just me or do people not understand that most people with aspergers have completely different symptoms

everyone in this thread sounds like the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy

EmeraldGreen
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11 Apr 2014, 1:46 pm

You didn't answer my question. :lol:

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Rocket123
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11 Apr 2014, 2:18 pm

Rascal77s wrote:

Yes, they stim, but they call it texting on a cell phone.

This is hilarious. But is this really an "everyday fidgety habit" or simply an obsession or something else?

RobKarmic wrote:

everyone in this thread sounds like the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy

I've never heard of that one before (had to google it).

LoveforLoki
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11 Apr 2014, 3:32 pm

Willard wrote:

Wags wrote:

Yes, but not to the extent we do. There's lots of normal stims everyone has such as twirling hair, tapping fingers.. but we are more prone more advanced stims. Such as chewing on things, complex body movements, making odd facial expressions, enjoying deep pressure, etc.

NO. The above described are NOT autistic stims.

Autistic Stims originate from SENSORY HYPERSTIMULATION and a stim is a REPETITIVE BODY MOTION that diffuses anxiety - ROCKING, SWAYING, HAND FLAPPING, ETC.

If it is not physically soothing, it's not a true autistic stim.

Twirling hair, nail-biting and puny meaningless gestures like that are NOT AUTISTIC STIMS. They are fidgety habits - they may be caused by some level of anxiety, but not to the extent of autistic INTENSE WORLD constant hyperstimulation. They have more in common with self harm habits than with autism.

It is mindless confusion over obvious things like this that convince me there are a great many misdiagnoses where HF/AS are concerned. If you truly suffered from autism, this would be a no-brainer.

I humbly disagree, there is a spectrum, ASD, meaning that there are levels of autistic traits. For instance my non-verbal son stims very obviously by hand flapping, hopping, spinning, opening his mouth in an frozen way, slapping his belly, and making sounds. But me, I hide my stims which are far more mild than his and my biggest stim is rubbing my hair repetitively on my upper lip quite often, for very long periods of time, it used to be in conjunction with sucking my thumb until I was 12 years old. It is more common in females to have mild stims like thumb sucking into older ages than most children and picking at themselves. Just as there is a spectrum of different traits there is a spectrum of stims. I also pick at myself and rock sometimes but mostly when I am distressed or overwhelmed.

Also my mother (rest her soul) had paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (schizoaffective disorder), she also stimmed with her fingers and her mouth. and by picking at herself.

Note:
I like these blog posts because they talk about the differences between males and females and how it is often that females have much different and often much milder symptoms than men including stims.

Link 1:
Flying under the radar: Girls and Women with Aspergers Syndrome

Link 2:
First Signs of Asperger Syndrome in Young Girls Pre-school

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11 Apr 2014, 5:13 pm

Some NTS with anxiety, stress and Sensory issues do. my sister does and she has severe social and general Anxiety but no autism

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12 Apr 2014, 10:01 pm

EmeraldGreen wrote:

Eeek!

Mammy Two shoes Missed the mouse. :lol:

Classic Tom and Jerry.

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12 Apr 2014, 10:34 pm

EmeraldGreen wrote:

You didn't answer my question. :lol:

The answer is YES they do. NTs can also have routines and specific interests they are passionate about and some have sensory sensitivities.

The difference is mainly in degree but there tend to also be qualitative differences. An autistic person might stim to a point where it severely impairs them in daily functioning. Normally the stim would be something like rocking, hand-flapping , twirling a string in front of their eyes, staring at a ceiling fan or spinning rather than hair twirling or finger drumming, the qualitative differences. However, if someone twirled their hair all day everyday, refused to do anything else and/or it distracted them from doing anything productive ect. it could have clinical significance (related to autism or something else-there is also stereotypic movement disorder). LINK
That doesn't happen as often though , it is usually the weird stims that autistic people present with as a symptom and that interfere with their functioning.

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12 Apr 2014, 11:36 pm

Rocket123 wrote:

Rascal77s wrote:

Yes, they stim, but they call it texting on a cell phone.

This is hilarious. But is this really an "everyday fidgety habit" or simply an obsession or something else?

That I can't say, but I can say that they do this the point where they (I have actually witnessed this multiple times) literally walk into each other and get into car accidents because they are texting on cell phone. It would seem to me that at least some of them can't help it just like some people can help flapping their arms or rocking.

Kind of on a side note, the texting phenomenon really illustrates the obsessive need for socialization of human beings. They are literally willing to risk killing themselves and/or another person in a car accident in order to connect with another person socially right NOW. Perhaps some people can't stand being alone? I don't know.

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13 Apr 2014, 8:13 am

Willard wrote:

[Autistic Stims originate from SENSORY HYPERSTIMULATION and a stim is a REPETITIVE BODY MOTION that diffuses anxiety - ROCKING, SWAYING, HAND FLAPPING, ETC.

If it is not physically soothing, it's not a true autistic stim.

Please define physically soothing.... a little non-autistic girl, who touches her eyelashes the same way over and over, when she is sitting still reading.
A non autistic man may click his pen or quietly, rythmically tap his foot.
It is physically soothing to both of them, because it reduces the bodily stress from sitting still.

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EmeraldGreen
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13 Apr 2014, 10:14 am

RichardJ wrote:

Mammy Two shoes Missed the mouse. :lol:

Classic Tom and Jerry.

Most of what I know about human behavior, relationships, family, sex, romance, conflict resolution, body language, music, art, etc. I probably learned from watching Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, Star Trek, The Brady Bunch, and The Partridge Family. :lol:

daydreamer84 wrote:

So even rocking, swaying, and hand-flapping could relate to something normal and hard wired in all humans, but that expresses itself differently on the autistic spectrum...due to different thresholds the individual with ASD may or may not have before he or she needs to self-soothe, maybe.

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Last edited by EmeraldGreen on 13 Apr 2014, 11:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

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13 Apr 2014, 10:40 am

I have seen an autistic guy bouncing his legs and I saw an NT woman doing the same. I have seen pencil tapping from both and pen clicking, I have seen NT kids chewing on a pencil and I knew a girl in my 3rd grade class who always chewed on her necklace. I have seen NTs drum their fingers and NTs also pace but usually they do that when they are upset (like someone is in the hospital) or nervous.

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13 Apr 2014, 11:45 am

League_Girl wrote:

Somewhere in the world there is an autistic person and an NT person procrastinating on doing their taxes. Through different processes, they both get it done by April 15th....

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The_Walrus
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13 Apr 2014, 11:55 am

Willard wrote:

Wags wrote:

NO. The above described are NOT autistic stims.

Autistic Stims originate from SENSORY HYPERSTIMULATION

... or hypostimulation. Some autistic people stim just so they can feel anything at all.

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13 Apr 2014, 1:30 pm

EmeraldGreen wrote:

The autistic type stims can occur in normal people too, yes. Actually, typically developing kids often flap their hands and may rock when they're very young. They don't do it constantly though and they don't do it instead of doing other things. They probably wouldn't ignore someone calling their name while they're doing it etc. They also usually stop at a certain age though some NTs continue ( they'd probably figure out that it's socially inappropriate to do in public though). A good indication of it being something clinical, either a sign of autism (if the kid meets the other criteria) or something else would be many professionals; teachers, anyone who assesses the child etc and the parents consistently noticing and noting on reports "strange behaviours", describing the stims and being concerned about these stims.

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14 Apr 2014, 7:20 am

Until recently, I would have said 'no'.
but a few weeks ago, I was standing around talking with a group of people, and my friend (who is definitely NT) suddenly went quiet and was running their fingers along the small spiky leaves of an overhanging tree.
The rest of the group (afaik NT except myself) tried it out of curiosity, but couldn't see why you would do it, as we all got scratched by the leaves. I don't know if that counts as 'stim-ing', but it got me wondering this exact question.

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