Most common stim

Post Reply New Topic

Pacing, fist clenching, pulling my fingers, drumming.

I always thought it was anxiety.

I had never heard of stimming until I came to this forum and I'm still not sure if I understand what it is. But reading about others' habits I do a lot of the same.

The biggest one, is I touch my face, especially my lips. Like I will trace my fingers in a pattern across my lips, or just trace the outline of my lips. Sometimes I touch an object to my lips. I will also trace patterns on objects with my fingertips.

I rock a lot, usually just slightly so it is barely noticable. Also move my hips in a rhythmic pattern, which is something I remember doing as a child and wondering why I was doing that.

Is nail biting a stim? I also chew little bits of skin off my fingertips. Also cracking my knuckles, not just fingers but toes too. I bite the inside of my mouth or sometimes chew the skin off my lips.

One of my most common stims is something physically impossible for most people to do: I twist my right arm behind my back and up in weird stretch.

I also have my hand over my stomach a lot. People ask me if I'm feeling ok, I say yes, I just keep my had there because I don't know what to do with it.

My most common one is grinding my right fist into the palm of my left hand every time I learn something new and I love to do it but I've started getting rheumatism in my hands from doing it so often. I have callous all over my hands from it too. When I'm in college I don't wanna look weird by stimming but trying to suppress it is really stressful and ruins the whole process of learning for me so I've come up with ways to do it surreptitiously in the middle of the class. Instead of grinding my fist into my palm, I just clench my fists. Not as satisfying but its not a bad substitute.

I don't know, I have so many.

Just now I thought "Hey, I don't seem to be stimming," and then realized I was tugging on my hair over and over again. I remember in a car the other day I caught myself rubbing the speaker grill in a car door, and earlier that day I was touching everything I walked by (counters, walls, doors, windows, etc). I do have consistent patterns (like flapping, especially when excited/happy, or rocking to deal with anxiety), but I do find myself a bit bemused when I catch myself really stimming because I am not sure I could have planned all that motion out.

I actually thought my constant stimming was constant fidgeting, which I attributed to anxiety and ADHD last year. Before that, I mostly just tried to stop it when I was doing things like job interviews. That was one of my criticisms when I took a class on resumes and interviews, was that I was always moving when I should have been sitting still.

I think if I had to pick one for the most common, I'd go with rocking, simply because I am aware of it the most often.

MY STIMS:

Tapping/Drumming
Rocking
Swaying
Closing my eyes and opening them again (blinking rapidly) this happens when I'm stressed
Hand Flapping (I flap just as badly as when I was younger)
Lip Biting (Doesn't cause me any harm)
Finger Biting (Doesn't cause me any harm)
Cheek Biting (Sometimes I bite too hard and draw blood, especially if I'm stressed)
Feet tapping
Bouncing one leg up and down
Hair Twisting
Judders (I randomly shake violently for no reason and sometimes make a weird noise along with it)
Twitching

As you can see by my list, I stim quite alot. I almost stim like a low functioning autistic. This is also associated with my OCD though, I regularly have to explain to people what stimming is, because people often see it and think I have more severe problems. Stimming used to get me picked on in secondary school, however since I left school people seem to be more understanding.

I make a lot of noise when I'm alone-- I can control it in public, but when I'm with friends or not completely focused, I make squeaky noises or repeat words I've just heard.

I also have a tendency to wrap small strings or elastic bands around my fingers, tying them all together. Does anyone else do this too?

I hand-flap in private, but I do this thing where I smack my hands against my thighs in excitement in public. I swing sometimes, usually when I'm tired. I bite the insides of my cheeks and I sometimes like to keep my eyes open and stare at nothing in particular until they start to hurt.

I had many many more stims when I was little, most of them mentioned here-- pacing (at lunchtime while the other kids played I'd run to and fro across the playground over and over and over until the bell rang), more frequent flapping, more fidgeting with fingers and pieces of string, a lot more noises, I'd "write" words on my left hand and arm using my right index finger, nail biting and probably more that I can't remember.

When I sit I shake my leg fast, usually my right leg or both legs. It's very hard for me to avoid doing that when I'm sitting. I do it most of the time. I also sometimes rock back and forth or shake my right hand when I'm sitting, but that's something I can stop doing more easily if I have to.

When I'm lying down I rock, either back and forth or side to side. I also often shake my leg in bed.

When I stand I tend to pace while I'm thinking or talking and I can't stand still. Sometimes I'll jump up and down a few times or run a very short distance (just a few steps).

I recently started making some sounds too sometimes, mostly animal sounds.

Most often I'm flapping, ranges from a casual clicky flap for excitement about ideas to full on arm flapping.
I wrap things round my fingers and thumbs.
I vocalize a lot.