Stimming. What does it feel like to you?

Post Reply New Topic

@ediself I soooo understand the cheek biting and even more so the pressing the fingernails together. I do this every 0.2 seconds along with almost ever area on my body. I feel the urge to press, or stretch. When I say stretch I don't mean a yawn stretching my bones type stretch. Its hard to explain, but I can't NOT do it. Otherwise I'd probably go insane. I also get lost in picking my lip. Completely zone out. While other people are getting distracted by facebook and checking emails, I get distracted by pressing my fingernails and picking my lip. It always takes me extra time to do things because I have to do these other things first. Not saying there a bad thing though because when I'm in my stimming moments everything goes away many people don't have that luxury. It just sucks sometimes when after the stimming is over hours later I've missed a good 2 hours I could have been typing a research paper, or working on my people skills.

Itmakes me feel relaxed or happy usually.

It feels comforting.

Like an oasis in a burning desert. Very relieving.

I stim pretty constantly throughout the day, and I didn't know it was unusual until recently, so to me it feels like a natural thing to do.

Yehh I have alot of "mouth stims" I love the sensation of my moustache bristles against my underlip and I grind my teeth almost constantly. If I cant do these things they occupy the forefront of my vision until they become all encompassing and I must.find.a.way to do them. Oddly enough I dont stim nearly as much in public but whenever im focussed on anything away I go. I think I stim as a way to enable me to focus more than to combat sensory overload

It calms me down. If I'm stressed, I start stimming to take the focus off of it. If I don't stim, I get really, really anxious, and my stress gets worse.

When I was younger I only felt "right" with my hands curled up under my chin. After I got over that, I started curling my right hand into a fist and bouncing it off my thigh and also standing on tip-toes, especially when I was nervous or talking with someone. Recently nothing in the world feels "right" unless I am doing something with my hands. This means I either clasp my hands and twirl my fingers, take my pens apart and put them back together in class, or pet my fingers against something like the desk, my shirt sleeves or my hair. When I need to be quiet and reasonably still in class, but can't not do anything, I get out one of my containers of Silly Putty (yes, along with pens, pencils and notepaper, I keep Silly Putty in my backpack) and twist, squish and twirl my fingers in it until I feel "right" again. (I have found that this is also an excellent coping technique for those of you out there who feel the need to stim with hands in class.) When I am alone or need to think I also rock forwards and backwards (my family does not know I do this lol ).
I also have to use cotton sheets and pillowcases, not polyester or nylon, because I can't sleep otherwise. The plastic-based ones whisper in my ear all night and they have a "square" and "cold" feeling, whereas the cotton ones have a "round" and "warm" feeling. I can't explain it further than that. (This second thing is probably closer to sensory issues, but I was just curious if any of you have similar preferences.

Flapping and rocking both help me release pent up energy; excitement, anxiety, frustration and anger all wind me up to the point where I feel like I'm going to explode, so before reaching full-blown meltdown mode, I stim, and it works like a pressure valve to draw out the excess energy before it can ignite.

Makes me feel like a million bucks, baybeh.





PS - And I don't CARE who sees me do it. I've been laughed at plenty of times. They're just jealous.