Stimming

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At home I stim a lot. I mainly flap my hands and pace up and down the room.
However, I have learnt to control my stims, though the feeling of restraining them is not very comfortable. In public, when I need to stim, I resort to wringing my hands slightly under the table, or picking my skin.

When in private I shake my arm leg etc but in public I tend to have involuntary eye twitches

I don't stim and never have. If talking to yourself can be counted as stimming, then I stim. Otherwise, I don't. I don't flap my hands, I don't twirl around & I don't tap my fingers.

Based on the fact I don't stim, how can I call myself autistic?

I've been wondering about this myself. I do bounce/shake my legs, but isn't that very common among NT's as well? Almost all the Aspies I know and that is starting to be very many now, I never see them stim, the most common stim (if that is what it is) among the Aspies I know is the bouncing/shaking of the legs.

My conclusion so far is it's not as common as one get the impression of when reading about AS traits or reading on the forums. If it is common Aspies hide it well when out in public or just shake/bounce their legs which is very common anyways among all people.

But this is just my own observations and by no means scientific at all I just go to a lot of Aspie meetups and have some good friends with AS.

Lots of hand-rubbing/flapping/wiggling, and touching my face.
Biting my lips and other mouth-tics.
I'm trying to find something to compensate for leg shaking/bouncing. Since I live in a caravan the whole thing is shaking when I do it and upsets the dog and boyfriend.
Recently got myself a small fabric bag filled with glass marbles. Fiddling with it is freakin' fantastic! Calms me down in seconds.

Ever since a child, I did what my family described as "flying" for want of a better word. Nowadays I only do it in private and when looking at something which I find fascinating. It's a kind of arm flapping and is somehow very satisfying. It happens quite often.

I also tend to shake my lower legs when sitting down, in public or private. Assorted "nervous" type movements which help me focus.

I do that too. Never thought it was a stim. I thought everyone must do it.

Oo marbles, what a great idea!
I was collecting stones for a while to get a collection to fiddle with to try to replace skin picking habit. But then got a kitten- I don't want him to swallow one. So trying to think of something else. He could swallow and choke on a marble too though I guess :/

Marbles changed my life! Maybe not in the most significant way, but they help soooo much.
I keep them in a little iridescent fabric bag, and the marbles themselves aren't actually the main thing. It's the marbles IN the bag. In combination with that material, fiddling with it is just heaven.

I wouldn't worry about the kitten. I've never seen one that was interested in eating a rock, and I can't imagine they'd be too interested in swallowing a marble either. But I assume it would be a lot of fun for a kitten to play with.

I haven't been diagnosed so can't call it a stim , I do have a keyboard easily within reach but still use the OSK occasionally , can't say why ?

I'm pretty much constantly stimming in some way, although I try to tone it down or at least switch to less obvious stims in public, because it draws attention to me that I don't want. My most common stims are rocking, flapping my hand (most of my hand stims are only with my left, for some reason), rapidly hitting my chest, squeezing my collarbone, whispering nonsense, kind of jerking my head while making a snarling noise, and there are a couple hand things I do that are harder to describe. One is kind of a hand flick, and the other is something I do with my thumb, that feels kind of like I'm popping it in and out of place. I also will make kind of a "wave" motion with my hand sometimes. When I'm standing, I will also kind of bounce. I realized when I was at camp this past summer that when I'm very stressed/overloaded and trying to avoid having a meltdown in front of everyone, I'll pace.

Usually I would just bite my nails, or put on a lot of deodorant/aftershave on, which means I would be able to smell it when I'm going through my day, an olfactory stim, both are common and socially acceptable; many people bite their nails and the deodorant thing is completely sly. Other times, I may rub my facial hair, which once again, many people do.

I'm a big stimmer. People comment on my stims all the time and most of them don't know that I'm autistic.

When I'm anxious/nervous I rock back and forth, flap my hands, twirl my fingers, scrath my eyes or arms, pick my skin, hit my head with my palms and sometimes hide in a small place like in toilet or under table.

When I'm happy or excited I rock either back and forth or side to side, jump up and down, flap my hands, clap my hands, pace, shake my legs or hit them constantly to the floor if I'm seated.

When I'm focusing I scratch my scalp furiously.

When I need stimulation I use a soft object like a fuzzy cloth or my cat and I rub my face on it or touch it with my bare feet. I also love a back rub/scratch and a really firm massage, in a way that most people would think it's too painful.

I rub my feet together and wiggle my toes when I'm drifting into sleep. I also clench my jaw and grit my teeth, like, all the time.

I do this too. But I think mine serves a purpose. Helping me read by showing me where to focus. If I don't do that I can't read efficiently if at all.

I hadn't even heard of the term until a few weeks ago and thought it was not something I did but then noticed when I was in public in a shop that on my right hand I was touching my fingers with my thumb repeatedly.

Didn't even realize this was a sort of stim, but I do it all the time. My teachers always used to complain about me sitting under a table or hiding in my locker(I was quite small).
Little did they know they should better have let me

Me too. I don't count it as a stim, but it's definitely a sensory thing for me.