Sorry, I keep hearing 'stimming' alot

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And don't fully understand what it means. Never heard it mentioned in my psychology classes or anything...

Is it just things you physically do to relax yourself while having anxiety? I know that some of the stuff I do is to touch my chin/ face, mess with my fingers/ hands, and chew on the front top area of my shirt. Oh and constantly pacing back and forth many times in circles. Most of this stuff i'll do without ever thinking about it, just trying to make sure here, is this what that is or not because I don't fully understand...

Stimming is short for Stereotypic movement. Which is generally associated with autistics. They are also known as ticks. Which leads me to think maybe my Grandfather was autistic. For example rocking, tapping your foot, Flapping your hands..

I think it's short for self-stimulation. (I always feel like "self-stimulation" is a euphemism for something )

Although everybody causes stimulation to their own nerves for comfort or to modulate sensory input, you generally only see the term stimming used when it involves unusual activities or unusual frequency.

There is non-repetitive stimming, but only repetitive actions count toward the autism diagnostic criteria.

A deliberate plan to do certain stimming activities on a regular basis (e.g. as therapy) is called a sensory diet.

Mostly rocking back and forth for me. And kind of humming/growling sometimes. Which must get on my family's nerves but they would never admit it.

I'm a fellow circle-pacer. If I'm particularly agitated, it will be on tip-toes, slowly bringing the posture lower until I have "wound-down" and can put my heels back on the floor. And it is always anti-clockwise (not sure why that is, maybe my left leg is just shorter!).

When I can't do that, I like to scrunch up my toes until it hurts, do circles with my wrists or ankles, or press my arms tight against my sides so that my elbows are jabbing into my torso. I always get shoes that are a bit too big specifically so that I have room to scrunch my toes - it's a good stim that I can use in company without it being noticed!

And when I have a beard (most of the time), I simply cannot leave it alone - it was the first thing that the person who did my autism evaluation noticed about me!

Ezra's mention of humming interests me too. I only do that on a very specific occasion - when there is a machine or something else in the room that is also humming (like mains hum or a motor running). I like to try and get the pitch of my hum so that it's just a little detuned from the surrounding noise, generating beat frequencies. I like playing with that kind of sound in my music software too, so I think it's more the detuning that I get off on rather than just the humming as a stim - I wouldn't do that any other time (unless when I was too young to remember).