Stimming questions...

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Stimming happens for a variety of reasons personal to the individual, though most commonly it's due to one of three things; excitement, anxiety, or boredom. All the behaviours you mentioned would count as stimming in one form or another, (tactile, auditory, etc), and for the most part, they only stop when either; you're out of the environment that induces the stimming, or you actively train yourself not to do it, as with breaking any other habit.

I tend to stim when I am nervous, anxious stressed or when I am very happy or hyper.

I rock rhythmically from side to side and hum a staccato song to myself. I mostly do it when anxious or nervous or in an uncomfortable social situation.

I fortunately do it only when I'm excited (like when a wonderful idea comes to my mind) and when I'm alone.

I usually jump (just jumping around a room). It usually happens once an hour or so.
Although I'm afraid that if I have a boyfriend or somebody else living with me I may not be able to do it anymore. I'm sometimes worried about it!! !

When I'm around people I may just stand up from my chair (which is normal) or i may jump up a little while in my bed.
Or I may start walking real fast from excitement. I once walked this fast around the neighbourhood for several hours. I get excited really frequently.

Is it considered stimming?

Or I may just stand up at work and like talk to people while standing about all the exciting ideas I have (really out loud for everybody to hear), or I may walk up to people which I'm excited about and just look at them and then walk away. I really would like to jump also, but I don't do it around people.

When I'm nervous I just scratch a little which is pretty normal. But I try to control it or position my hand in such a way that I would scratch the neck a little under my hair (not noticeable).

I'm even thinking that maybe it is a normal NT behaviour that I have? (because I'm not sure yet if I'm AS).

*deleted*
this message was inapropriate

Last edited by Eesti on 14 Jun 2012, 10:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I think it is. But I know when I do it, I don't realize it when I start doing it and when I do realize, I just keep doing it or try to stop. The only times I try to stop is when I do stims that are irritating to me, but even if I try to stop, I start doing it again a few minutes later. I mostly stim when I am bored, stressed, or excited about something.

To the OP, all the behaviors you described are very common stims for people with ASDs. My stim of choice was always a variant of hand-flaping with a sock or object.
These days, its rubberbands, not so obvious & I can do it at work.
Pacing can be, I certainly have done it before.
If you know its a stim, it still is one if you are doing it.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I guess I do stim alot then. But in a very controled way. I dont do it around other people normally. Some times I do but when I notice it I can stop myself. I enjoy doing it when Im alone.

Sometimes I find it difficult to distinguish stims from tics, but the most obvious stim is rocking. Especially when I'm tired/ anxious or just bored, I'll sit on the floor and do that for over an hour at a time. When I'm excited, or just hyper, I'll run around the house with this burst of energy that just has to be released then and there, regardless of who is around. My tics are a lot more subconscious, I often don't realize I'm doing it, or sometimes my legs/ arms/ shoulders/ neck will jerk and it can be quite unpleasant sometimes.
When stimming, I definitely do it for comfort or just to release energy.

I do all of my stims while I am alone too. But sometimes I start doing them while I am not alone, and then I realize I am stimming and try to stop. I sometimes try to do stims that are not very noticeable while I am around other people.

Don't people stim when they're nervous? I mean people without autism.

I have also discovered that if I am using my hands then I don't stim as much. When my hands are not occupied, I am constantly stimming all the time.

I stim all the time whether I'm anxious or not. My most noticeable stims are probably rocking from side to side if I sit still too long and I do this weird thing where I flip my cell phone around and around in my hand. I have tons of others though.

I "stim" because I can't help it.

I generally set aside time in the privacy of my home for stimming, but when the need to stim occurs is generally while working on a large-scale project, during intense periods of work, changes in routine/schedule, preparing to sleep, or when my mind freezes up. When I was attending University, I had the need to stim while working on reports, preparing for giving a presentation or studying for exams. The list of behaviors you mentioned can be viewed as stimming (and often are associated as such), though they do not describe all (I'm a tactile and sometimes visual stimmer). Personally, I wouldn't stop them unless they presented a risk to the individual (SIB) or were extremely inappropriate in public.

I like to have various objects with different textures nearby, but I've always found cold metal objects to be of most comfort. I've found myself running my fingers along the surface of my AK 47, feeling the raised portions of the gun or running bullets along my skin or pressing them against my skin...