Stimming?

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Hey everyone,

Im very new to the site and New to discovering i'm an Aspie and that all these little things i do is called stimming.

what do you do to stim?

Heres a small list of mine...


I rock to sleep, also occasionally find myself rocking when im alone and very content.
Flick fingers as im walking
Twiddle the bottom of my hair and push it against each finger in a pattern of four (the patten of four only comes out when i am so into the stimming because it feels good)

i gather the ends of my hair and i press it against paper to get the crunchy sound... this tends to be against other textures that gain the same sound.. even my finger nails and teeth too.

i scratch, rub feet fast against each other or carper.

Wiggle foot vigorously when legs are crossed and im in an in-depth conversation

pinch the bottom lip between to fingers and then bite it
tap fingers when expressing myself
put my hair into my ears


Wow ive never written them down before... apparently i do a lot more than i thought

Rock back and forth and side to side. Both sitting and standing.
Flap my hands.
Tap stuff with my fingers.
Slap my thigh
Rub stuff, either thigh, arms, tables, or whatever really.
Make grunts or diffrent noises.
Sit with one foot on top of the other, rather hard.
Walking in circles, a lot.
Chewing. Pencils, my beard, my tshirts. Don't think I have any tshirts without holes in them.
Just general repetative movement with arms and legs.
Walk on my toes sometimes.

Covers most of them. When I started my diagnosis process I started to notice I was stimming a lot more than I had previously realized.

Stimming is a repetitive whole body movement, done to soothe autistic anxieties.

Rocking, swaying, toe-walking, hand flapping are stims.

Hair twirling and nail biting are fidgiting and even neurotypical people do that. They may be expressions of anxiety, but they aren't physically soothing.

Perhaps they are not correctly stated as stimming but to say they are not pysically soothing is incorrect.

I am very soothed by the small 'fidgets' I do and hearing the sound of my hair crush against paper can help prevent a meltdown in social situations.

It doesn't say anywhere stims have to be full-body movements, but they could be.

rocking back and forth.
swaying side to side if standing
doing a slow version of "The Twist" if standing
jogging my knee if i'm sitting
shaking my ankles back and forth, if i'm sitting
twirling, twisting, or pulling my hair
If sounds count, humming the same two notes repeatedly (only in severe distress)

There seems to be a pretty common debate here over what is or isn't an autistic stim. It's my thinking and understanding that 'stimming' is simply a shorthand term for 'self-stimulating behavior.' In this regard stimming is present across several different mental disorders, but also present in otherwise 'normal' populations.

I also disagree with the notion that a stim has to be pleasurable. I think people stim for a wide variety of reasons including pleasure, boredom, emotional regulation, sensory bombardment, etc.

That aside, to answer the OP's question here's my list:

- Pacing when concentrating intently or nervous
- Finger-twisting and hand/forearm rubbing when nervous/bored
- Skin-picking when nervous, bored
- Hitting myself or headbanging rarely before a bad meltdown. Usually if it's gotten to this point the meltdown is inevitable
- Playing/fidgeting with facial hair when in deep thought, nervous, or bored. I'll include biting this hair when it's grown long enough.
- I used to 'hum' when eating
- Rubbing my neck or running my fingers through my hair when stressed
- When seated I will cross one foot over the other and 'vibrate' the dangling foot
- 'Bouncing' my leg when bored or nervous
- A vocal stim where I make a creaking/clicking sound out of the corner of my mouth (If you've seen The Grudge or heard a Geiger counter it's kinda like that) when content
- Popping knuckles, cracking neck, and shrugging shoulders in a pseudo-ritualistic pattern as more of a nervous habit
- Fidgeting with anything capable of making a popping or clicking noise as a pleasurable, soothing activity

There's probably more, but these are most of mine.

Take a look at this video. this is a good example of what stimming is like.

I don't stim too much nowadays but I used to rock side to side & back & forth in my chair.

I've rocked back and forth ever since I was little and I still do it now, I'm 24 years old I also have other repetitive stims but I've rocked the most, especially when listening to music, I listen to music a lot ever since I was little and rockedo back and forth to it all the time even now I still do it.

Spinning things is an autistic stim that's not a whole body movement. I thought that was my most autistic stim. But I just discovered a very autistic stim I do which I hadn't realized was autistic or a stim. When I get hyper I rub my hands together. I just saw a YouTube video with an autistic guy constantly stimming. He was rocking and rubbing his hands.

Something I've started doing recently is putting my fingernails in my mouth and not biting them, but kind of scraping my teeth along them.

When I'm sitting, I'm usually rocking back and forth at least a little. I do it sometimes when standing too, but not as much. We have a recliner that rocks, and I love sitting in it and rocking gently.

I do something where I sort of flick my wrist. For some reason, most of my hand and wrist stims, including this one, are with only my left hand.

When I'm really excited, I involuntarily flap my left hand.

When I'm really frustrated, especially when I'm trying to communicate and am having trouble being understood, I make a fist with my left hand and pound the air with it.

When I'm lying down, I'll raise just the lower part of my left arm, tense my hand, and slowly lower it, repeating the movement over and over.

I do something where I'll touch the back of each tooth or the spaces between teeth with my tongue.

If I'm in the right mood (happy and with a good bit of energy), I bounce on my feet.

Other times when I'm in the right mood (and no one else is around - if they are, I get too nervous to do it), I hum a short, repetitive tune (like "Up on the Housetop" or "Campton Races") or a couple lines of a song.

At night I have to have my feet in a specific position to keep from rubbing them against each other and stuff - this one is really annoying because it keeps me awake until I find the right position.

And any small item near me will probably be fiddled with.

Anything an autistic does for autistic self stimulation is stimming.

Lip biting, feet banging together, blinking ( worst one as i feel disorientated after a while ) passers by prob think im crazy.

Stimming is not much fun although more livable than my general anxiety.

If only it could be just turned off what a better life i would have.

Is it not normal for children to do that now and then? I know I had my own ways of what I used to call "Being silly" as it is what my parents called it... But I had my mad moments like that and it would relieve stress and put one in a better mood etc. It is something that was not pre planned but I would somehow decided to have a mad moment and do it. But it is natural. Our dog used to suddenly decide to have a mad moment and race around at full pelt around the room. A few minutes later she would then stop and go back to being normal but less stressed. A few dogs we have had had those moments. Cats sould have the same. They would suddenly decide to tear across the room and madly climb the curtains etc...

Throughout my life, one still after the next I have really worked hard to stop doing them after one person or the next would tell me off for doing them... People like teachers or one of my works managers or co workers... Or if at home my Dad if he thought I was being silly... My Dads Mum was one who was very concious about what other people thought about her, so maybe this transferred a littlw to my Dad... But to be fair, my Dad would only stop me if it was something which would be a little embarissing for me to do in a public place. I will also say that none of my parents or family thought of the possibility that we could be on the autistic spectrum. My Mums Mum was very likely to be but doctors didn't have autism/aspergers to go by in those days so she was classed as having a nurvus disposition. Even later in life she was stimming with her voice in a way to calm herself. It is something I didn't understand as I would more likely physically stim in "Hidden ways" (As more visible stims I would have been told off for so many times... And stopping onesself from stimming... Oh that's hard. One of the hardest things I have ever done to break stimms!) And my Mum had a few hidden stims too, and I believe my Mum and her sister were on the spectrum too. My Aunt was like Aunt Silvie from the film Housekeeping (1987). Actually my Mum was too! Though my Dad, Aunt and Grandmother have all passed away, my Mum and I were debating that my Dad was also on the spectrum too, but he would be in a different way. He was a person who was always right. (And to be honest, most of the time he was too!) He was prone to having tempers almost without a reason behind them. He was one who... Well. I will give an example. When my parents were married and he had started a job as a carpenter for the local athority (We call them councils in the UK) my Mum would pack him sandwiches for his lunch, but the only thing she could find that he liked was black current jam sandwiches. It was funny. For 30 years every day his lunch consisted of black current jam sandwiches. As funds were tight, growing up we as kiddies and my Mum had to also have black current jam too! But anyway. It was hillarious. He had ill health so had to stop work a few months before he was going to retire as the pension was such that it was designed that they could retire at 60 rather then 65 (He was one of the oldest of that side of the family and he did not reach official pension age of 65... Actually only one person in that side of the family would have officially retired at official pension age and he was an uncle to my Dad). But going back to my Dad and his sandwiches. Just before he left work due to ill health, he asked my Mum for something else in his sandwiches!

I move a lot... My doctor thought it was my medication causing it but I did some things before medication like biting my fingernails, but I have anxiety too.

I catch myself hand flapping and other wired gestures when I talk to someone excitedly.