Lack of information about AS?

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Ah I didn't make my point clearly. Even when you or I are in a room full of NTs, we're still isolated in a sense because we're not gaining positive feelings from social interaction. It's stressing us out, draining us rather than recharging us, so we turn to self soothing through other strategies.

So it makes sense that a socially isolated NT would also self sooth in this way, no? As in the above example of torture victims (drained through other means).

I think that it's important to make the distinction between stress induced behaviours/pacing/rocking and the natural curiosity of fiddling about.

When humans and apes aren't under pressure and are relaxed, they still fiddle with and manipulate objects with their hands.

Does the word 'stimming' actually distinguish between these two types of behaviours?
Stress induced vs Natural curiosity?

The 'stim toys': worry beads, stress balls, executive toys etc seem to be to do with fiddling about. I just wonder at what point natural curiosity becomes soothing? I just wonder what sort of instinct is driving the 'fiddling about' and why people seem to fiddle about with objects such as car keys, etc when they're stressed.

Does the natural behaviour just become more intense with the stress?

Stimming refers to 'Any repetitive motion or sound which serves to stimulate the neural network' stimming seems to be an issue that parents find hard to deal with and often fail to see the reason behind them. I stim constantly When I am bored, when I am deep in thought almost all the time. I am always bouncing my feet, or tapping with my fingers.
Some parents get very upset when their child "stims," either because it "looks funny" (e.g., when the child flaps their hands or their head or rocks) or because other children tease the stimming child. Repetitive behaviour are mostly I think to engage the senses Examples include humming, clapping, hand flapping, manipulating objects (such as ripping paper), or spinning sometimes it is a security issue to feel safe and in control. Rocking is a common form of stimming and many individuals with ASD do it rocking back a forth a few times helps refocus when I become overly sensitive to the world around me. It creates a single, separate, expected sensory familiarity, which is under complete control some may as I do jump from foot to foot, when anxious or stressed. Some autistic people have asserted that the stim serves as a way to channel all the pent up energy and surplus information accumulated from the day a way of being able to turn down the volume of mental traffic, and to be able to focus again. I do different things for many different reasons my stimming usually starts unconsciously but can also happen when stressed, relaxed, in pain, bored, etc. My stimming behaviours’ (finger flicking, blinking really fast, jumping from one foot to the other) and many more some triggered by stress some by sensory issues I get very upset when snapped back into the real world from stimming.
These were my way of keeping sane blocking out sounds, sights, and smells that grated at my very soul. As I got older I learnt to modify them into something more acceptable and less visible or at best save it for when I'm alone, although my stims are mostly finger stuff, rubbing clenching my jaw, scrunching my face some noises do still creep in..When I was younger, I flapped, spun, and jumped up and down just has my own children do now. And there is nothing I like better than spinning and flapping with my children lol

Although I remember another boy whose stim/fiddling was to build. He'd use anything available on his desk and it was fascinating to watch and see how high his stacks of weird buildings could go!