Gaining stereotypical stims

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Same here. Sometimes I don't even realize I'm doing it. It feels good, so I don't try and stop myself.

I used to nod my head from one side to the other from a very early age. I was never aware I was doing it which made it even more frustrating when I was teased for endlessly through school but I managed to stop that...or so I thought. Im 30 now and having just recently discovered I am likely AS, I asked my wife if she ever saw me do it and in one devastating look I realised I have been doing it all along - I just still cant tell im doing it unless im paying attention to it. I also rock when at the computer and more recently have started tapping my finger a lot. I think what Im going through, suddenly realising that I have AS is probably either making the stims worse or making me much more observant of them.

Stim? is that what you call them in english, tics doing actions you dont have control over ?.

Stimming is technically voluntary, although it may be an irresistible urge at times.... but it's a conscious act to help relieve anxiety or release general emotional energy, or just for self-comfort.

Tics are involuntary and are often more difficult to suppress when we consciously try to suppress them (e.g. Tourette's).

I would classify hand-flapping as an auxiliary stim for me. It's not one of my main stims, because I don't do it for hours eberryday, but I am purrrty sure that I do it eberryday. It's like wait for webpage to load, hand-flap a little. Go for stroll in yard, hand-flap a little. Go for walk in neighborhood, hand-flap a few times per block. The blocks in my neighborhood are long. Drive car on freeway, hand-flap a little. This one, I should probably cut out of my hand-flapping routine.

I had to think about this for a couple days. I wasn't aware of any stim-like movements I made. Now paying attention, I only have one. Hand flapping in specific context. I'll hand flap when I yawn, but only if I know no one can see me do it. I'll also hand flap if I drop something accidentally. That's all.

I never hand flapped but after reading about it I decided to try it to see how it felt. What I discovered was I do not like the way it feels when I am doing it but immediately after I stop I experience a sense of calm.

One of the stereotypical stimming behaviors that I gained was rocking back-and-forth while sitting down. I actually started doing that months before I was even diagnosed with autism.