Why only hand flapping or rocking as stimming?

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I'm fascinated. Please tell us what "wolf biting" means. I'm picturing you going out into the woods, finding wolves, and attacking them. Somehow I think you mean something else.

I'm not sure (other folks please comment). My understanding is that stims are "self-stimulating", so these would be repetitive motions that we do to calm ourselves or expend emotional energy, like excitement. It sounds like it has a similar use, though--to be comforting. I wonder if the repetitive motion is part of what is comforting, in addition to soothing touch.

I didn't flap or rock much before I was diagnosed. I would catch myself doing it and think, "Oh my God! That looks really nuts, I'd better stop." I did other stims that were less obvious: hair twirling, knee bobbing, foot tapping, swaying back and forth when standing. When I got diagnosed, I decided to let myself rock or flap a bit (in private), just to see how it was. I was surprised at how soothing the rocking was. It just seemed to let tension out of my muscles. I've experimented with different stims, and found that stims involving the torso are the most relaxing: rocking, swaying from side to side, or twisting my hips. The hand flapping is only an impulse if I am very upset, or happily excited, like "oh boy oh boy oh boy!"

Okay thank you! He does hand flap when he's really excited about something and I know that can be very typical. I am new to all of this and didn't realize there's an entire vocabulary that goes along with it. I guess since I am performing the action for him that it probably wouldn't count, it's just something nobody else really sees with other kids.

I think what it really comes down to is, not what you are doing but why you are doing it. Simming is not the action, stimming is why the action takes place. Why do we stim? Sensory issues due to autism.

If doctors realized other things could be stems i would have been diagnosed a lot sooner. Back when I was a kid i sucked my thumb way past the "typical" age. I chewed on my shirts constantly. To the point I wouldn't even realize I was doing so. I would pick at my skin. As I got a little older I started pulling out my hair. At that point I was given an antidepressant for anxiety. Didn't stop these "issues" completely but when I look back i. sometimes wonder if being on meds at such an early age contributed to my more complicated issues now. Since now they say that med shouldn't given to teens and I wasnt even a teen yet.

I think it depends on the doctor who is doing the evaluation, because my doctor never said the word "stim" in his diagnosis narrative but he wrote that I "engage in repetitive, non-functional movements (e.g. picking skin, foot tapping, clenching teeth)". I didn't even realized I did the teeth clenching thing until I read that.. nor did I realize the foot tapping counted. The picking is undeniable, it's an ever-present thing when my hands aren't other-wise occupied.

But anyway, I think his characterization of "repetitive, non-functional movements" was referring to the same exact thing we call "stims" (EDITED to add: yes, it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypy ). But they're not tics, I know that. I have one of those as well and it's entirely different - I have no control over it and can't even predict when it's coming, and I rather wish it wouldn't (eyebrow twitch when under severe stress).