Can the word "stimming" apply to individuals without ASD?

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If a "stimming"-type movement is done for purposes of soothing and calming, and is at least somewhat involuntary, then it's "stimming," no matter if the person is autistic or not.

Kraftie, do you mean sub-conciously? I have involuntary movements, and I promise you that they aren't stimming.

Right. Some involuntary movements aren't stimming.

But if the movements are provoked by stress, and they help calm you down, they're probably stimming.

The "purpose" of stimming is to lessen sensory overload, usually, and to calm/soothe a person.

Tics are involuntary, and cause distress.

Stims are at least somewhat involuntary, though there might be a voluntary element to some of them. And the "purpose" is to soothe and calm.

Like you said.

I get what you mean. Like a lot of the time I don't say to myself, "Ok I'm in a noisy cafeteria, I'll start rocking and humming." I just do it, and a lot of the time I have found myself doing it subconsciously. Tics are a lot different than that!

I believe tics and stims are somewhat related, actually.

I believe both are caused by sensory overstimulation.

I believe tics are wholly involuntary; whereas stims could have a voluntary element to them.

I'm "repeating myself," I suppose.

But I'm sort of hashing out the differences in my mind.

No I say, NO! Stimming is OUR word!!

Damn, there are quite a few new replies here now.

So, what I’ve gathered is that stimming is something that is done to lower anxiety levels (often for sensory overload), and that rocking from side to side is common. Does this apply to emotional meltdowns? Say someone feels suddenly sad or stressed and they start panicking and flapping their hands, and they have to retreat somewhere quiet and private and start crying and rocking on the floor, would any of that behaviour be considered stimming?

I’ve had times where I’ve started swaying and rocking when feeling overwhelmed, but I am usually conscious to remove myself from the situation before I reach that point because I don’t like others seeing me do that. These behaviours are often fairly conscious, so I am able to curb this urge until I am in private.

It’s also got me wondering about “tics” and what I’ve considered to be “tics” of my own, which might not be, idk. I’ve had some weird ones, like I used to say “bleach” to myself whenever I saw food I don’t like. But I’ve stopped doing that recently, I guess that’s more just a habit. I often act quite differently around others to how I act when I’m not being watched, I let some of the more weirder stuff out when I’m alone or around family.

There are levels, stuff I’d do in public, stuff I’d do only around close family, and stuff I’d only do around myself. Same with checking stuff, I make sure to only do this in a subtler manner when I’m around others, but when I’m alone I let my guard down and just check stuff like I normally would.