Has Stimming Ever Gotten You Into Trouble?

Post Reply New Topic

My eyes tend to wander and fix on small details or patterns. I've been accused of staring many, many times.

Yeah, I do that to. People will catch me staring and glare

My only exposure to a person knowingly with an Asperger's diagnosis (I can think of many now who I would not be the least bit surprised if they were, not that that matters) for the longest time was a guy in my highschool and junior high too I think? whose stim looked like he was masturbating. I didn't believe that he was actually masturbating, for who would ever commit such a huge social faux-pas!, but I couldn't quite get the idea from my mind once one of my friends told me that's what he did. :-(
Rocks in front pants pockets and then fiddling with them could be construed as the same thing if you're a man...

I used to break necklaces fiddling with them so much, (I still do fiddle with them if I wear them now too, but I don't wear any jewellery much), I'd doodle on the phonebook and sometimes the actual phone when on the phone and my mom got angry with that (makes sense), I'd lose rings playing with them too much, and even now if I find a pencil in my hands I can't help but twist it which invariably ends up with it falling on the floor all the time.

At some point I started moving my fingers, toes and sometimes my entire lower leg when feeling really...something. (Not just distressed, a very specific feeling of distressed). No problems there. My husband knows I'm upset when I start doing that sometimes before I even realize I'm upset about something.

No, not yet.[i]

Point.. set.. match..

At work, my leg jumping has gotten me some dirty looks from co-workers when we are all sitting at a conference table and I am causing the table to shake.

Sometimes I have to draw (some may say doodle) during a meeting when I become agitated but speaking is not appropriate. That can get me strange looks as though others think I am goofing off, when actually I am so overly-engaged in the proceeding that I have to draw to bleed-off nervous energy so that I can keep quiet.

I used to play with my hands in pockets too. I was always worried that people would assume that I was playing with myself. It was impossible for me to control though. My hands are permanently in my pockets and I fidget so there's the unfortunate combination.