Organisation and Thumb Sucking

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Hi! I'm relatively new here, but my names Ethan, I'm 18 and I'm a proud aspie! These past few weeks I've been thinking more about my autism and what I do and how it affects me as a person. I realized that my organisation is really bad, I'm so precise about everything, but when it comes to organizing it, I'm all over the place! I also realise whenever I'm on my own, or very occasionally in public, that I will suck my thumb. I would do it 24/7 if I could, but I was thinking, does anyone else do this? I'm thinking I do this as a stim, but I don't know, it just calms me down and I like doing it. I don't wanna feel the only person that does it. If anyone also has any tips to help me organise myself better then that would be amazing! Thank you guys x

From what you write, your thumb sucking sounds like a stim. I'm not trying to force you to change your ways, but replacing thumb sucking with another, more socially appropriate stim might be helpful. That way you could calm yourself down in public without being conspicuously 'weird'. Just a suggestion.

With your organisation, could you make it part of your routine to take some time to write a list or similar of the things you need to do? Having a calendar (physical or digital) where you list any appointments etc. might also be a good idea (if you don't already have one).

I was sucking my thumb right before I saw this this. Babies suck thumbs and pacifiers for a reason. It pacifies very effectively. Then when someone gets older doing it is supposed to be a huge no no.

As far as organization goes, I'm pretty bad at it myself.

I suck my thumb a lot as well. I don't do it in public though and I hide that I do it. I have a camelbak water bottle that has a very comfortable and soft bite valve. I suck on that in public.

I sucked my thumb until I was 10, but never in public after 5 or 6. I sometimes flick the same thumb back and forth as a stim now. I think it's okay to suck your thumb as long as it's not in public.

Organization has always been a problem for me but I've learned to get better as I've gotten older, not that I don't sometimes have problems with it now.

I've found that sucking one's thumb publicly isn't that much of a deal. Only occasionally will someone say something. Most people don't notice it and the rest usually look away. A few will even admit that they do so also, but secretly, sometimes even expressing a bit of jealousy regarding the fact that they haven't the nerve to do it. Like most things, there may be some theoretical concerns, but it usually is okay.

Hi! I'm relatively new here, but my names Ethan, I'm 18 and I'm a proud aspie! These past few weeks I've been thinking more about my autism and what I do and how it affects me as a person. I realized that my organisation is really bad, I'm so precise about everything, but when it comes to organizing it, I'm all over the place! I also realise whenever I'm on my own, or very occasionally in public, that I will suck my thumb. I would do it 24/7 if I could, but I was thinking, does anyone else do this? I'm thinking I do this as a stim, but I don't know, it just calms me down and I like doing it. I don't wanna feel the only person that does it. If anyone also has any tips to help me organise myself better then that would be amazing! Thank you guys x

When I was in gradeschool I was proud of the fact that I never sucked my thumb.

Later in life I became proud that I never took up the adult equivalent: smoking cigarettes.

But I am not supposed to brag, and I am supposed to say "Oh...its perfectly awright to suck your thumb as an adult". So ….it's perfectly awright to suck your thumb as an adult! Lol!

But having said that, if you want to quit, and you don't want to take up tobacco, then you can find other things for oral stimulation. If you're a guy you can take up having a tooth pick in your mouth all of the time (like that big tough Black dude in Hill Street Blues). Being able to pick your teeth at a moments notice is healthy. And if you're either gender you can always chew gum.

When I was young, I was a thumb sucker. This is a type of stimming. I think stimming provides comfort and is a way of relieving stress. My mom was constantly scolding me to stop this habit before I started school. So I must have been 5 or 6 when I stopped. She bought me a Davey Crockett western jacket with fringes. So I stopped thumb sucking and transitioned into chewing and sucking on the leather fringes of the jacket. After a couple years, I ate off all the fringes, mom threw the jacket away and I transitioned into biting my fingernails.

Not quite sure what you mean by organization. I make lists all the time. When I organize tasks under time management, I divide up tasks into a number of subtask. That allows me to multitask. It is like integration. If you break tasks down small enough, they are easy to switch from one small subtask to a completely different subtask. Therefore you can work two problems at the same time.

Then again maybe by organization you are referring to your filing system. I had a friend who was probably and Aspie. When he married and bought a house, he created for himself an office in one of the rooms of his house. In that room he had a large desk. The entire desk was covered with many large stacks and piles of papers, magazines, and files. These piles were two feet high and ready to fall over. There were also piles of paper on the floor. His office was a complete mess and need a good Spring-cleaning. But when I walked into his room, the first thing he said was don’t touch anything on my desk. In hindsight I now understand why. He had a quirky file system. He knew where everything was located on his desk. If something was moved, when he tried to retrieve it later, the fact that a critical piece of information was no longer where he put it would cause him great stress.