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

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OK, this is an old thread... I know.

Out of the numerous stims I engage in, my two favorite ones would have to be placing heavy objects on myself and running my fingers on cold metal objects.

I rock back and forth, or I move my legs up and down, or wiggle my toes/feet when I'm laying down. If I'm at the right angle, I also like to tense my leg muscles.

I also like locking my fingers up, like if you straighten your fingers stiffly, but the tip bent, I do this a lot. I also have a double jointed thumb and I click that in and out sometimes.

I also pull out my eyelashes (someone above reminded me I do this) and I pick at my skin, but I'm not sure if that's a stim.

I love finding seats that twist round. I rock side to side on them.

I don't really know any other "stims" that I have to be honest. If I notice/think of any, I'll come back and post again.

I think my favorite stim would be rubbing my scarfy or my snuggly against me cheek. Sometimes it's playing with my Axel plushie or just rocking myself. To be honest, I never really thought of my stimming since I often do different things to calm myself. I'm usually only fidgeting or rubbing my fingers together or just about anything that can preoccupy me.

Other times I think it's playing a video game like Pokemon on my DS because the movement of my fingers on the keys tend to stimulate me. I don't really know what 'actual' stimming is but for me it's something that keeps me moving so that I'm not sitting there staring at the screen and becoming overwhelmed.

When I'm excited I squeal and flap my arms a bit. There are even times when I shake my hands down at my sides. I can't name all of the things I do though because some of them are really hard to explain.

I don't know if it's a good or bad thing... (Heh, I guess awareness is always a positive)

Since I started paying attention, it's kind of disconcerting the sheer VOLUME of things I do that fall readily under the sensory stimming category. Visual, tactile, auditory, vestibular. Name it.

The rift I'm becoming more aware of now is -- Hard to explain, really. Innately, it's like I want to just dismissively consider, "What? Doesn't everyone do that/think that/feel that way/like that/etc?" Intellectual awareness manages to coexist with that impression, saying, "Noooooooooo."

It's like I've said before, "I -understand- it, I just don't 'get' it."

Drumming/Tapping
Tooth grinding
Rocking
Bouncing
Touching cold things
Looking up at tall things and getting dizzy
Spinning (Preferably in chairs... looks less crazy and more just 'eccentric/childish')
Joint popping
Cheek chewing
Pen caps *gnaw*
Singing/Humming the song phrase of the day -- Over and over and over
Light touch (Particularly the back of my neck)
Sniffing things
Twirling things
Clicking things (Once drove a boss crazy in a meeting -- Had a handful of 3.5" disks, and was sliding my hand along them and letting the guard click shut. Just a cascade of clicks, over and over again. In retrospect, I'm impressed that he didn't just slap me. That's annoying.)

And that's just a quick reflection.

I don't stim. Sometimes I fidget, like I wiggle my fingers or something. But the point of stimming is stimulation and I definitely always need to be stimulated. I usually do it by reading. I carry books and a smartphone with me everywhere and if I get a spare split second I'll read about my latest obsession. My obsession changes every couple of weeks or so. Stimstimstim, readreadread, learnlearnlearn, obsessobsessobsess, stimstimstim.

I don't know though. Does that count? Obsessiveness and stimming always seems related or even interchangeable to me. Does anyone else feel that way?

As a kid I stimmed by making a weird loud noise. I haven't done it in years. I don't think I even could anymore if I tried.

If Im happy is hand flapping if Im alone its rocking if Im standing its jumping.

Well there is a few. Used to make my hands go limp and flap them around all the time. looking back at all the times i used to do this in public, people most likely assumed i was ret*d. still find myself doing it sometimes but not in public. usually when i feel my hands get restless, i like taking a pencil / pen and spinning it through my fingers. and i like throwing things up in the air and catching them.

Well, I have learned to hide my obvious signs of autism, but its taken decades to do it on my own.
My favorite stim? Just manipulating rubberbands ( of the right texture ONLY) in my hands, in or out of my pockets. I spent 20% of my day doing this. Sometimes much more..
Helps me focus.

Sincerely,
Matthew

Shaking legs in my bed before sleeping. I can't sleep without doing this, it is a kind of ritual.

I just realized that I play with hair elastics. I always have one or two of them with me and I play with them constantly. I wonder if that's a stim for me.

I do this too. I hide a lot of my stims and sometimes revert to playing with my Axel plush or running my fingers over my scarfy when it's over my neck. I do fidgets that people don't stare at me for. XD

My main stim would be grinding my back teeth together. I generally do it because I like the feeling of my teeth rubbing together. My other stim would be randomly making a clicking noise with my mouth, though I've been trying to cut down on that because it sometimes annoys people around me.

I share your stims, actually, but my favourite stim has to be... well, it's weird.

I take my thumb and my forefinger and squeeze my bottom lip till it folds above the fingers, then I hold it there with my teeth and let it unroll. It sounds strange, but there are so many things I like about it.

Such as, I like the smell. It's a "me" smell, not quite my breath but a familiar smell. It's really useful if there are foul smells around me because it distracts me. Also I like the feeling and the sound of the unrolling. Prrrrrrrrrp!

I also never really liked washing my hands when I was little, but since this stim developed—since when I'm smelling I'm also smelling my hand, and no one wants to smell dirty hands—I have started actually becoming way more hygienic. So this stim has proved to be good for me, too.

I do a lot of the stims mentioned her like rocking side to side when I'm standing, rocking back and forth when sitting, flapping my arms when I'm over excited, even for no reason, Drumming fingers, tapping or clicking pen, fiddling with things, Chewing or sucking on pencil, toothpick or other object, Biting nails, Clicking teeth or tongue, Biting, peeling or picking cuticle or fingertip, Picking nose, skin or scabs, peeling skin flakes (I don't pick my nose unless I have to... >_> <_< >_>), Pulling hairs from head, face or body (usually just one strand or a few...heh...), Rubbing hands, arms or thighs, Twisting hands/fingers, Wiggling, fingers, toes or feet, Pacing (I do this when I'm waiting for something and will walk around in different directions too. Sometimes curl my arms over my shoulders), Talking to oneself (I talk to invisible friends and sometimes my mom hears me asks who I'm talking to), Smelling objects (I smell my clothes, Axel plushie, Scarfy, blankey or snuggly because sometimes the smells they have are soothing)

I think that's all. XD That's still a lot. O_O I do them mostly at home though but the chewing or sucking of things like pen or my stylus, I do in public. I also rock my self side by side while standing a lot, especially when my dad goes to the VA for appointments and I go with him. That place is a sensory overload waiting to happen with veterans talking to you and...yeah. I usually bring my phone with me and my headphones to block those things out though.

Most of the time when I stim, it's either because I'm releasing tension that has built up inside of me. I also do it when I'm thinking so i can keep my focus and other times when I'm just trying to calm myself or something. The one I do the most at home is rocking back and forth.

my first one is hard to describe, but that's how I always manage to ruin my tops.
I find the seam on the hem or at the collar of a shirt, tee shirt etc I place it under the top of my nail on my index and press against it by putting my thumb on the other side of the fabric. I then keep sliding my index back and forth over the seam. Unless I make sure I get out of a shirt as soon as I get home, in a few weeks there are holes where I do that.
my other one is that I am doing something with my tongue and jaw but it is impossible to describe accurately. it involves moving my tongue to the side, and open and close my jaw and that makes a sound and a sensation. other family members are doing the same and in my family they call it "chewing their tongue".
my third one is rocking back and forth.
when I am going through extremely hard times and I am feeling full of despair, I scratch the middle of my forehead to the point where I bleed, but this is very rare.
apart from that I grind my teeth, bite my nails, run my fingers through my hair and move my feet in circles. sometimes I do the seam thing, the tongue biting, the rocking back and forth and the moving my feet in circles all at the same time.

I love to hand flap, rock back and forth, touch leaves/branches, feel walls with cracks and such. Usually I just suck it up and do it in private though. My favorite when possible though is moving my hand back in forth in water...heavenly texture and why I love swimming