Tics

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I hadn't thought of breath holding as a tic/stim. I do it a lot. I also have internal tics which are words or phrases. I do them more the more tense I am. When life is really stressful the tics drive me mad with their frequency and intensity. Drinking alcohol seems to help but I don't want to drink as much as I do.

Tics usually vary from person to person.
I knew one kid in high school who had tics. I asked him about it, but I never told him I had them too. He would scrunch his nose or blink a lot.
I shrug my shoulders, blink, or jerk my neck but I never scrunch my nose.
Apparently some things on Wikipedia are true...

Not really.

Stims are more voluntary. You might have to do them to feel comfortable, but they're still more voluntary than a tic. Stimming is a coping mechanism, ticcing isn't.

I have tourettes syndrom, so I've always had lots of tics, although the vocal ones are pretty small now. I was having a really bad one at the end of the semester where I had to stretch ny beck from side to side all the time. SO annoying! But now that one's not so bad anymore. Now I mainly have to scrunch up all my muscles, even the ones in my face, its really annoying too.

As for the stim vs. tic thing, the impression that I've always had is that a tic is something you have to do, even if you dont want to, and its really annoying usually, while a stim is usually more enjoyable, and to calm you down or something...

I use to tighten my upper lip all the time. My wife complained everytime I did it, so she complained a million times a day. Then I got a moustache and hid it all away. No complaining and my wife think its all gone.