Do you have a favorite stim? And why do you do it?

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(this is my first post I hope I'm doing it right)

I've had a lot of stims throughout life, or things that could be stims I guess.
When I was a toddler through elementary school my favorite one was spinning most definitely. I'd spin all day if I could. I also loved to put things in my mouth and would chew on any toy, especially my dalmation dog I carried around in kindegarden. When I was a toddler I chewed on my hands mostly. But anything worked, my hair, stuffed animals, toys, bottles. I also flapped my hands when I was little but eventually I was made to stop doing that one because my mom didn't want me to do that one. Now a days, my most favorite one is what I call 'circling' with my lighter that I carry everywhere with me. I can't put it down, ever, even when my dad yells at me for dropping it all the time and then getting upset about not being able to reach it, like when we are in the car. But I hold my lighter upsidedown and circle the end of it with my fingers. I also circle cell phones, remotes, pens, silverware, anything that can be. I do that one almost near constantly and when I cant have an object I just circle my own fingers. I still flap sometimes but only when my dad cant see me. In the car when I am waiting because I dont go into stores, I like to take all of the objects in the car and in my bag and line them up on the dashboard. It makes me calm when I am nervous. I also chew my lips and tongue, grind my teeth in beats, I grab my hands together and rub them when Im with people I don't know, and when I am waiting standing up I rock back and forth on my feet. Only when I am really upset and crying do I rock back and forth while sitting down. To go to sleep at night, I do rock in my bed to calm down. I dont know I guess I have a lot of them, if thats what they are. SOrry if this is too long, its my first post. I had no idea what to post before this.

Fingering/twirling, knotting rubberbands. All day long. LOL But I can do this in my pocket so it is not all that noticeable. And the bands must have the right texture & thickness.
Also, combing my hair & scratching my scalp.
When I was a kid, it was any string or sock that felt right. I'd run aound & shake them.
Helps me relax, or at least tune out distracting sights/sounds/smells.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I don't "stim".

I do the usual motor mannerisms of ASDs, but I don't do them for fun, nor do I have much of a say over them.

My latest stim is doing handstands. However, my ingrained stim, one i've been doing since i was little, is twirling my hair. I don't know if the latter is actually a stim or if its just a habit.

Swinging in my hammock while my left leg / foot is going in circles clockwise is both my favourite and my oldest stim. Been doing it since I was 3 or possibly earlier.

I tend to flip and twirl things in the air. I also like to make random animal sounds. I've actually freaked people out with my cat and goose sounds because they're pretty realistic.

I stim a lot, which was a surprise cos I didn't know what it was til recently.

Swinging on a swing til my legs are jelly is my favourite, but I can't do it often cos I hate the cold and wind and swings are always in exposed places. Great when my kids were young, I could never understand why I was expected to chat with other mums instead of swinging, got some odd looks, but there is no contest which I would rather do!

When I walk my arms want to rise up and fly, the faster I walk, the more they want to rise. I do it in work, no-one seems to have noticed, but it helps me not get so stressed if I feel free like that.

Leg (or foot) goes radidly up & down when I'm sitting waiting.
I bounce up & down when I'm happy.
I love singing, it absorbs me totally & I won't break off mid-line if the kids ask me something, they know to wait til I'm taking a breath, then I can answer.
My sister & I twirl our hair in time with each other, without realising, until someone points it out.

I didn't realise this was unusual, most people in my family do it, spinning, bouncing, finger cracking, tickling your own arms, rocking while watching tv, legs going, etc.

Doodling is another understated stim, its really hard to know what is a stim and what is not, I count doodling and singing because they feel the same as shaking my feet etc the difference is in where its appropriate to do each one.

After my son broke his third bed bouncing we bought him a trampoline, he can do backward somersaults for an hour hardly stopping. If his drumming on the table annoys me I tell him to do it in the air instead so its quiet, is that hand flapping? He says "I've just got to move my arms". I thought all kids were like that!

My mum was big on stimming too, hole in the carpet from spinning on the spot, so I guess we have a long history of acceptance

Stimming is as natural as a dog wagging its tail.

My very favourite one is to shut myself in the kitchen each day making dinner, put on loud music and move to the music the whole time I'm making dinner, singing a bit too. I hate it if my husband comes home early and interupts me doing this because I only do it alone, the rest of the world disappears for that time. The kids mostly don't bother interupting, they know I'm in "nobody home" mode and I want to be there until we eat.
It does muck up my ability to cook properly though
Other times I move to the music in my head

I pluck my eyebrows, sometimes my eyelashes, or both.

I pullout mascara clumps too, but wouldn't have thought of that as stimming.
If thats stimming then so is touching something in the opposite direction from how you accidently touched it in the first place, if I don't, it feels like I left myself attached to the thing I accidently touched, like I need to unhook my aura. But I don't believe in auras!
I would think of that sort of thing as mild OCD rather than stimming.

What is the defination of stimming?

I looked up stimming but the explanation wasn't clear enough for me :/ Its apparently something to stimulate senses, and if so then i never do that, i think, is cracking my spine shoulders and wrists a stim?

I'm not sure if it's a stim either. I can't stand my skin to have rough places on it. (bumps, scabs, ingrown hairs, rough places) I will either pick it off, file the skin down or scratch it until it is even with the surrounding skin. I really wish I didn't do this, because I still get pimples and it's really hard for them to heal when I'm constantly picking them. I think skin picking is fairly common among us, though.

I always thought this:

Stimming is exhibition of an otherwise normal behaviour that is abnormal in intensity or in the circumstances it is displayed in. Such as repetitive movement, noise, looking at lights e.c.t. It causes the brain to release certain chemicals that are calming (I can give more detail if you want)

Animals stim. Such as crib biting and wind sucking in horses, tail biting in pigs and pacing in polar bears. In animals it usually arises out of fysiological and phsychological discomfort with external conditions that they cannot control. Such as standing in a stable 24 hours a day, or being unable to fullfill a natural need to gnaw or being tied up. There is a lot of information about animal stimming (except it's not called that. In horses it's called stable vices) so you can look it up easily.

Stimming is also soemtimes seen in blind or deaf children and children growing up in poor conditions such as Romanian orphanages. In these cases the brain starts out normal, and external conditions (such as lack of visual stimulation or being left in a cot all day) cause it to become abnormal. With intervention and improvement of conditions, this can usually be reversed.

I always thought that in autism, the brain processes information abnormally to start with, therefore stimming is caused by a faulty sensory system rather than enviromental cues, which is why it usually more permanent feature.

Of course I do not know if the above is correct, it is merely a combination of what I have been taught and what I have observed and deducted.

Also please note, I use 'abnormal' not negatively, but simply to distinguish from the normal brain configuration.

Stims:

-Drawing a figure of 8 on my right palm
-Bouncing legs up and down rapidly
-Chewing my cheek
-Tapping
-Nail Biting (Nasty habit, I know, but I wash my hands about 8-12 times a day or something like that.)
-Rocking
-Swaying
-Blinking rhythmically
-Hand Flapping (usually when I'm under severe stress.)