Help coming up with alternative stim ideas?

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So, when I can't so much jump up and down and flap my hands (say, when I'm driving or sitting in class), I have an alternate stim I use. Unfortunately, that's eating hard candy. It's a great stim...I can move it around in my mouth, chew on it, etc, without anyone being any the wiser. Except it's terrible for my teeth having all that sugar in them all the time. And after reading about what sugar alcohols do to your intestines, I really don't want to just swap to sugarless candy.

Does anyone know any low sugar (without sugar alcohols!) candy or have some non terrible for your teeth alternatives ideas for this stim of mine? Help is appreciated!

Gum?

Cut the end off of a chewy toy and chew on it, move it around your mouth etc. like candy?

Alas, chewing a lot is an issue for me. I have jaw problems. So I need something that only needs minimal chewing, like hard candy which you only chew after you've sucked on it a long time.

Could you substitute ice chips sometimes?

My main habit is to bounce my leg. Specifically, my ankle is doing all the work, my toes stay on the floor, the most noticeable movement is my knee bouncing. This has its limits of course. The main thing you have to worry about is causing unwanted visual or vestibular stimulation to other people, e.g. wiggling furniture that they are sharing with you.

I like to press my hands together as hard as possible in front of my chest. When driving, if you can spare a free hand, push hard on the ceiling.

There might be something from Stimtastic that you like, though I think putting any jewelry in your mouth will get you weird looks in class. It'd work while driving through.

I agree with Cyllya: stimtastic has a lot of cool stuff, and the thing that comes to mind for me which might help you is their beaded chewy necklaces. They have a string of chewy marble-sized beads that you can get in various colours. If you remove all the beads save one, or separate one out, you could put that in your mouth and rattle it around without the risk of swallowing and choking on it, because it's attached to a lanyard.

What about getting your tongue pierced? I dated a girl who had an oral fixation and she said her tongue piercing helped stimulate it.

I don't know if it'd be too subtle for you but I stim constantly, as in non stop unless I'm eating, talking and possibly sleeping, with my tongue - the backs of my front lower teeth are rough and I rub my tongue along that. No one is any the wiser. Even toyed with the idea of getting a gold tooth in there like a pirate to annoy with my tongue.

I really love this idea.

The tongue piercing thing would be awesome, except it's a bit scary and painful sounding.

I may look into the stim website, too. Long car trips it'd be nice for.

In the meanwhile, I have purchased some breath mints. They don't actually have sugar, and they take a decent amount of time to melt. I just need to be careful and not, you know, eat the entire thing. With the whole tooth stimming and stim website, that may just be enough. Here's hoping!

I actually could use some help too, my stims as a child were falling to the floor and bashing my head into walls and i was hurting myself often so i had to stop. but now my psychologist says i should start stimming again. i always chew on things and i got myself a teething toy-which works well but i need something more...any ideas?

What kinds of stimming do you find most effective? Tactile, oral, visual, gross motor? I'm a very tactile person myself, and have a whole host of squishy, rubbery toys to play and fidget with. My favourite is the spaghetti ball
(http://www.officeplayground.com/Spaghet ... -P223.aspx); it feels amazing, and I play with it all the time when I'm out and about. They have a larger "mondo" version as well, which I want, but haven't bought yet, because I'm afraid it'll be too big to take with me in public.

For visual stimming, there are a lot of toys out there which flash bright colours, like light-up bouncy balls and keychains. I love things like that, but can't play with them too often, or when I'm out and about, because I get really distracted by them. I bring them as close to my eyes as possible (which looks weird, and is a lot harder to hide than a ball of spaghetti strands under a table), and get "stuck", at which point it's really hard to tear myself away from the lights.

OH MAN I LOVE RUBBER STRETCHY TOYS!! ! i used to collect them as a kid, it was a sensory thing for me as a kid, i had all these Rubber Wrestlers, Rubber frogs, monkeys, spiders, snakes, and anything else you can think of, ill buy myself one tomorrow.

Glad to be of help The officeplayground site I sourced above has a lot of rubber stretchy toys like that, I've bought things from them several times. In fact, I have a stretchy rubber shark and a light-up gooey fluid-filled starfish on the way from them right now.

One thing I should mention, when I got my spaghetti ball, it was a little greasy to the touch, but it's nothing a rinse with soap and water, and a dusting with flour or talcum powder won't fix.

I usually get them at my local dollar store

Back in the Eighties there was a police drama on TV called "Hill Street Blues". One of the characters was a big burly Black undercover cop who dressed in civilian street clothes, and always had a toothpick in his mouth.
It looked kinda cool ( kinda like a cigarette). So maybe a tooth pick is the answer (either chew it, or actually use it to pick your teeth).

My stimming habits tend to be destructive unfortunately. I tend to like picking at things like the rubber feet on my laptop, and I used to mark up my computer desk fidgeting with knives and lighters as well. Aside from a few minor cuts on my hands, I've never really hurt myself this way though. I've also destroyed a good number of pens by taking them apart and chewing on them, often times unconsciously. Can anyone relate to this?

I really fidgeting with small mechanical objects, things that have a lot of pieces and moving parts. Having some practical use is a good thing too.