Examples of "stimming" behavior in HFA/Asperger's?

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The main Stim I have is that my left leg moves up and down quite quickly and quite violently. When I was a lot younger I used to jump and hum a lot. The doctor used to say " the bees are back" whenever I hummed. I a family member notices my leg thing they will usually tap my leg and I will notice. I also occasionally get facial tics, when these tics happen a family member will say tic tic.

scalp picking
rocking for comfort, bouncing when very happy
echolalia/palilalia
cheek biting
scratching when stressed

Does putting on foreign accents count as "stimming"? I often find that I have either a southern US or British accent without even being aware of it. Under stress, it can be hard to change back to my default midwestern accent. And I do find it soothing when I do.

These are mine:

Hand wringing
Knee bobbing
Rocking myself to sleep
Staring at a campfire

although am not high functioning,am always stimming in one way or another,being on long term diazepam four times a day and halperidol twice a day they have also lowered the intensity of the stimming.
#rocking back/forth or side to side constantly,whether stood up or sat down.
#hand biting.
#head banging.
#punching the wall.
#verbal noises.
#fluttering hands in front of face.
#banging hands together at the heel of the palm and rubbing them together in a circle motion.
#chewing the items of clothing being worn.
#chewing plastic or wood.
#chewing the wooden stirring sticks from costa.
#flapping fast or slow.
#banging fists together and twisting arms side to side.
#slapping side of head.
#picking nose.
#stroking the fibre optic 'string' lights in our sensory room.
#shaking hands with people very fast and swinging them side to side.
#lining up items.
#mopping.

I never knew this type of behaviour were traits of aspergers. I saw "stimming" and thought it meant people with Aspergers using stimulants. I read on then thought "I do that!" I thought i was just a bit weird. Ive picked my scalp since i can remember, i also stroke my face,tap my feet fast,sometimes to a rythmic patterns,sometimes randomly. I poke my eyes before bed,get these weird anxiety feelings in my eyes so i have to pome my eyes. I also stroke my face gently and ask the girlfriend to stroke my face as it calms me down. I have a putty rubber that ive started pulling and putting back together constantly. I also stroke my face in my sleep, the girl friend has caught me doing it when she stays over. "You were stroking your face again in your sleep"

Do these count? I've twirled my hair since I first grew it; actually used to pull it out when I was a little kid and ended up with a bald spot on my head. I also cross my fingers and toes really tightly whenever I'm distracted, and I've been doing that since I was a little kid, too, resulting in some callouses. I like the stretchy feeling. I also do this weird fidgety thing with the skin between my thumb and index finger, and have a huge callous as a result. Sometimes I rock back and forth or side to side when I'm bored or overly excited or stressed, sometimes I spin in circles when I'm bored, and when my mind wanders I make weird noises, like car noises or animal noises.

Trembling (sometimes)
Rocking back and forth and side to side when very happy or excited--my mom calls it the Stevie Wonder dance lol
Head nodding
Hand clenching/unclenching
Hitting my hand against my leg
Walking with toes curled
Leg bobbing
Assorted slight body contortions

My permanent stims ("habits") I can remember since late childhood/teen years are:
Pacing and messing up my hair when worried.
Thinking aloud, often repeating a word from the radio or the last words I said.
Putting things in line, or stacking them according to size or color.
Repetitive/rocking motion (knee, hand, or body)
Biting pencils and other things to pieces.
Waving/wringing hands or fingertwirling.
Finding pleasure in looking at spinning things.
Fingers all over my face. (Frankly, I don´t see many adults doing that).

The rest is variations over the same.

By the way Imweird said something about a T. Rex arm... Would that be: elbow bent, slack/bent wrist?
I´ve always wondered why my left arm seems to like that position.

Oh yeah, I do those (or close, anyway), too. I completely forgot about that. I pace or walk in circles when I stress, I talk to myself constantly, and I repeat one word like "no, no, no" and shake my head vigorously when I hear things that upset me. I also hold both my arms like little t-rexes pretty often (I must have missed Imweird's post!).

Walking on heels. Picking nose. Snapping finger joints.

I kind of have issues with the idea that it does not count as stimming unless it interferes with your life.

It kind of ties into the idea of AS as a mental disorder rather than a nerodiversity issue. If your symptoms don't totally [insert swear words here] your life, you might not be able to get an official dx.

I have spent much of my life pretending that I did not have this. That includes pretending to be normal and being in denial. Well maybe not quite normal. The closest I can come is an eccentric person without mental issues.

So part of my therapy/self help book binge/self improvement whatever included trying to cure myself of my "bad habits." And that included stims. They still came out sometimes, but I got rid of a lot of them. My subconscious was hard at work though. It let a few slip through under the disguise of stretching my back and learning to dance.

So right now I am in the odd position of trying to stim more. Because I get stressed a lot and I think I messed up and took away one of the natural ways for me to reduce stress. So I have been experimenting with trying different movement to see which ones feel good.

So my old favorites
swaying - This might be the same as rocking. The one stim I was not able to "cure" myself of. I tried to stop myself from doing this but now I am doing it a little more.
belly dance hips - there are lots of fun variations for this
the twist - this is the old dance move from the 1960s
back stretching - side to side, twisting, undulations
shoulder stretches - slow up and down movements, arm circles
listening to a song more than once in row
an affirmation MP3 that has some repeated words
I also like the weight of my fat cat laying on top of me. I think I read before that having a weight on your can be a stim.

I am experimenting with some new ones. So far my favorite has been tapping my thumb and fingers together.

I am debating getting some kind of basic music program so I can create some looped music. I wonder if google play will let me make a play list that is the same song repeated over and over. I think the repeated music/affirmations is a good stim to do in public because if I am wearing headphones no one can tell.

Stimming can fulfill the "repetitive actions" diagnostic criteria, but I wouldn't say stimming is necessarily repetitive. It's anything you do to stimulate your own nerves or cause sensory input in yourself. The term is normally only used for when people do it with unsual frequency and/or unusual activities, but technically everybody stims.

Yes, but there are certain stims, that are more characteristic for people with autism - like the one LadyLuna mentions: Enjoyment of pressure. It´s stabilizing and is, as such, a stim.

I flap my forearms front to back in unison not unlike a fist pumping while moving my hands at the wrist like I'm shaking them or moving my fingers in a rapid flutter. I always do this in private, many times each day. I've done this for years as long as I can remember into my childhood, and I always knew it was strange behavior and always seek privacy when I have the urge. I also do this when I'm on difficult conference calls...so happy they are not video conference calls. Sometimes I go to the office bathroom just for stimming...then I'll flush the toilet and wash my hands so my coworkers hear normal sounds.

My fingernail is constantly fiddling with the edge og my tablet-pc, while I'm reading. Holding a pencil at the middle with two fingers and swinging it back and forth, is also a relaxing thing I do - in public.

I only handflap, hum and pace when I'm pushed way beyond what I can handle mentally (like triggering my phobia or a meltdown).