You know you've been stimming when...

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When I hear something off this "top 5" list...

1. "Don't be so nervous."
2. "Take that thing out of your mouth."
3. "Your shoe soles are gonna start wearing funny if you keep doing that."
4. "Can't they give you something for those muscle spasms?"
5. "Are you trying to learn sign language?"

I've never mentioned my stims here before, because... they suck.

I know I've been stimming when:
- the scabs all over my body are bleeding (again)
- my jaw aches from pressing my tongue against my teeth (somehow this calms my brain)
- I've been pacing back & forth so much it hurts to walk

For some reason I need such intense stimulation that it results in pain.

I was going to say "when you notice you're making the table shake!"

When other people around you wonder what that odd tapping noise is.

Oh... yeah... my less lovely stimms... when I am in a bad place self-harming stimms feel better.
The classic: head-banging, smacking yourself, throwing self against objects, biting own lips/tongue, drawing blood... etc.
Scratching intensely... stuff like that.

However, I would say I hate my twitching/spasming the most- those are super embarrassing.
I try to tone the twitching down to muscle contracting instead, but it doesn't feel as helpful.

When someone mimics a motion I'm doing with my hand and asks me what it is.

When I glance in a mirror and notice red spots on my face from where I've been picking.

When I realize that I have been rocking back and forth for some length of time.

Your hands are blistered from hand flapping, this happens to me fairly often

When you are in a tram or in a train and it is really crowded, and people are standing squeezed in the aisle and suddenly you realize that the seat next to you remains empty.

You're getting weird looks from people.

... when people see your back and shoulder scars and ask you whether you were in some terrible hunting accident involving being shot with buckshot and you reply "no, I just have marks from every mosquito bite I"ve ever had in my entire life (because I pick until I bleed/scab/pick/bleed/scab/pick/bleed/scab/pick/bleed/scab/pick and they scar)".

...when people give you a quick, inquisitive glance from face down, landing on your hands - and you realize, that your fingers are waving and your feet shuffling.
You answer by little chaplinesque smile and a shrug.....

Last edited by Jensen on 05 Nov 2015, 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

... one of your parents is staring at you because they think you're having some kind of seizure. You've actually been bouncing your legs enthusiastically underneath the table.

If you bounce up and down like a ball all over the place, even when you're standing.