Stimming

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I flap my hands when excited, which I do it more in private than in public. I also make gestures, which I do almost exclusively in private given the nature of some of them

I used to do stuff like that all the time I was little I still would if I didn't know how weird it would look for an adult to do that!

Pacing and holding sticks, leaves or cables. Usually a combination of the two.

In my late teens and twenties I used to smack my hands together so hard it would cause extreme pain and sometimes burst blood vessels. I did it so many times a day that my hands were completely red and swollen and I couldn't use my computer properly.

Now that I am 42 I found myself doing this still occasionally but I have transferred stimming to gritting my teeth so that NTs in public places don't stare at me and make me feel bad. But sometimes the more perceptive NTs can still see this.

Nowadays my stimming is quite prevalent which involves, scratching (everything), throat-clearing, humming after I clear my throat and rubbing my right thumb and index finger on my clothes (to wipe off imaginary germs). I've rubbed a hole clean through many of my clothes because of this one. The worst stim I have is suddenly I will get up and stamp my feet and pace around very angrily, gritting my teeth, sometimes yelling, thinking about past bullying I received as far back as when I was a child. I do this on a regular basis and I have no control over any of these which terrifies me.

I don't know if this counts but I often have a pen which I wave with quite a lot. I also sometimes tap on my hands or just "wiggle" my fingers if that makes sense and click my teeth.

I only find this happens in pockets , sometimes this can be a good thing as you can feel your skin underneath ( feel a bit weird admitting this ).

Thanks for the tip. I found the first marble for my new marble collection on the ground the other day

When was younger I was I very big rocker in public and private but know I save the rocking for home instead I rub my fingers together in public though sometimes I need a bigger stim to relax when I was in 10 gard I was pull into the ese office for masturbating doing the fcat test wasn't doing for sexual pleasure I was doing to calm down but still it was inappripiate I was warmed against not doing it again and thankfully I have.

I usually rub my thumb and index finger together. If I'm sitting with my elbows on a table/counter/chair, I'll rub the area on my face and neck that my hair grows. My right leg constantly shakes when I sit. Lately I've been rubbing, and generally playing with, my ring.

Does every aspie have to stim? If asperger's is a spectrum & everyone is supposedly different, then surely it's possible for aspies not to flap their hands, as if they're pretending to be Gulliver, from the children's programme, Fingerbobs? I have never tapped my face, hopped on one leg, spun round & round like a record, (baby), or done anything that stimulates me, but would look weird to an ordinary person. Why would anyone want to do something, that looks plain weird?

No, not all aspies stim. But the reason we do it, even though it looks weird, is because it feels good and comes naturally. And some of us don't care what others think, or at least not enough to stop. Or we do it only in private.

Nope.

In the criteria for restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, as manifested by at least two of the following

1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypies, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).

2. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns or verbal nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat food every day).

3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g, strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interest).

4. Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).

This is the only one I'm aware of. I bite my nails but I don't think that's a uniquely AS trait.

I do quite a few of these myself. I had never really put them together as stimming in any way. Thank you all for your posts.


FF

*Picking at scalp, skin, lips and fingernails
*Earlobe into ear canal (Disgustingly, can be as free earplugs.)
*Shaking leg before falling asleep
*Clicking noises (Only if it can be controlled.)
*Swaying side to side while curled up in a chair
*Spicy foods give a nice burning sensation in the throat
*And also hot drinks

I don't spin/spin objects, rock or hand flap. I do have other stims, but is hard to explain how they work.

@Save Ferrets: I was diagnosed using the DSM IV criteria.