what stims do u do?

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Banging the back of my hands on wooden surfaces.

I have a whole lot of stims

Repeating certain sounds and nonsense words, chewing the inside of my mouth, hunching down in a squat/curling up in a ball, tapping my teeth together in a rhythm, singing certain songs over and over, pacing around my room, playing with fidget toys, holding stuffed animals, rarely I'll flap my hands if I'm very stressed out

The one I do most often and have the hardest time keeping myself from doing is "trilling" (kind of like a dove cooing sound that I make in my throat)

I clench my teeth a lot. I don't know if that's a stim but I wish I didn't do it.

Playing/smoothing my hair with my hands is very soothing.

I'll rock while standing, especially if I'm waiting for something. And I'll rock in my chair while watching tv.

Flapping is the biggest one for me, along with sort of scrunching my hands like I'm repeatedly squishing something really fast. Recently I've been shaking my head too

EVERYONE stims. Whether they are Neurotypical or not. People will all do different things like:

Nail-biting
Cracking knuckles
lip biting
hair twirling
drum their fingers on a table top
bite on pens
chew gum
pop bubble wrap

and so on...those are just some examples of some very common stimming behaviors

Does constantly working on your hobbies count because if it is, that's my way of stimming.

I used to fiddle with my hair a lot. It was longer, but also had a lot of split ends.

I nail bite long time ago. It lasted until sometime at college.

Also fiddling with my fingers. Yet I don't anymore.


Half of my self soothing is daydreaming. The rest is screen time.

I used to have plenty of special interests.
But... It came to a point that I'm even more trapped in a very dysregulated body more than ever, add being a damnable adult.

It's like...
Sleeping in class to avoid sneezing for several hours straight, avoiding all the sensory stress and from talking to anyone; which I did through my school life.

Maybe it just became this expensive way of self soothing through consuming snacks of specific textures and flavors... Or maladaptive daydreaming and self talking.
Yet that may also mean an entirely different problems altogether than just stimming and self soothing.

I'd rock, tip toe, flap my hands, jump around, spin, make a makeshift dice with a star inside and rattle it, play with any pen, peel whatever I can peel off, bounce my legs off the chair... Even kick, toss stuff, headbang, crush someone with a bear hug...

... Only and only if I feel and 'remembered' to do it. It's not like I ever actively tried to hide, deny or suppress any expressions of stimming (or being odd overall) in my part.

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I love hand flapping, and I used to call it hand dancing since I didn’t realize I’m autistic until about a year or so ago. Love spinning, although I don’t do it as much now. One time I spun so hard, when my sister opened a door, I smacked against it and broke my foot. Not a good time. I love singing and could do it for hours on end, which drives my family crazy. To be fair though, my brother likes to make a bunch of horse noises for hours on end. Me singing can’t be nearly as bad as that right? Or maybe it is, lol. I don’t have a piano anymore, but I love to make random little melodies as well. Those are the immediate ones I can think of.

I have always had a rocking chair (even when I was a child).

For me it's almost aerobic. I swing my arms forward and backward while flicking my index and middle finger against each other, and rocking from side to side. I also move my legs like a frog under the sheets before I get exhausted and fall asleep.

I mask most of this when in public, but as I've aged I've started to care less and will slightly rock from side to side in front of people. When folks comment on it I just say "I rock!"

I vocal stim a lot. "Potato" is a favorite, to the point that my coworkers and sister (she works at the same place) were talking about how I have a "signature word".