Stimming tip! (worth a read, I think)

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Do you constanty need to be doing things with your hands?
I do.
For a while as a child I had a little counter that I would click until 999 every day. Drove my parents crazy.
As I went to school I started to play with pens. So much so that in a test, they threatened to rip up my paper due to disruptive behaviour. Drove my teachers crazy.
Since then I've started something very damaging. I scratch all the skin off my fingers until I bleed. Lots. Not nice.
But I've now found something better, less painful and not quite as annoying to other people.

Packets of sugar from cafes.

Squeeze a little packet between your thumb and fingers. Rub them together as if you are doing the hand gesture for "money". Feel the granules roll against your fingers. Over time, watch the packet wrinkle and fade. Very satisfying I find...

Another thing you can do is get those little packets of saltines and crush them in the packet into powder.

Ah yeah, that'd feel amazing, I'll try that one

Very cool ideas.

It wasn't until recently that I was introduced to the term "stimming" but I have been doing it practically since I was a baby. Only in my house what I did was referred to as "flicking." Used to be G.I. Joe figures or my pacifier (sp?). It later involved into playing with string and kleenex. Nowadays when I am home, I "flick" a string that I cut constantly. Cut the string from the bigger roll, find the midsection on the string so you have two sides (then I will oftentimes put tape on the midsection where the string folds into two sides.... this is done primarily b/c I peel back string on both sides of the flickey (string) as it eventually meets at the top. I do this incessantly! Also fun to wet the string every few hours.

Used to flick with kleenex (minus the wetting it part) but eventually even I couldn't stand the mess it would make with little bits of kleenex all over the place.

I do similar when a hair bobble breaks, or if I pull the elastic out of my socks

AAAAuuugh! It hurts just hearing about it.

Take up smoking instead. It's less self-destructive.

Pipe smoking - it's a very relaxing ritual, filling the bowl just so (if you pack it too tight, it won't light), toasting & tamping, you have something beautiful and aesthetic to hold in your hands, once you find which tobacco blends you like, it's a wonderful aroma - like incense - and since you don't inhale, you needn't worry about health risks. I read a study once that the mortality rate among pipe smokers was actually 2 per cent lower than for people who'd never smoked at all. I believe it. It's a form of meditation for me. And it gives you something cool to collect - hand carved briar and Meerschaum pipes are as varied as snowflakes and soothing to play with and look at. If people look at you funny, tell them you're a Hobbit.

Of course you won't, but it really is a cool stim and an interesting hobby.

My most common stim is a hands-in-pockets Stevie Wonder (lemniscate) sway. Over the years I've developed a bad habit of rubbing the seam of my right pants pocket between my first two fingers, which eventually of course, leaves me with a big frickin' hole in my pocket. I ruin more pairs of jeans that way.

I don't care about what you do for a hobby, but telling people this is misleading.

Although pipe smoking is the safest form of smoking, it does not come without health risks. It bring an increased risk of various forms of cancer, as well as heart attack and stroke. Even though you may not directly inhale the smoke, it makes contact with the inside of your mouth, and you inhale some of the secondary smoke.

http://www.seattlepipeclub.org/content. ... e_id=17020

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/heartdi ... ing-risks/

I know I was a hillbilly granny in a past life, because I took up the habit of smoking a corn cob pipe in my thirties and LOVED it. I didn't even have to have anything in it I would just puff away. I scared myself how much I loved it. Of course, the image really conflicted with my image of myself, so I made myself stop it, but . . . wow, even thinking about it now I wonder. . .

oh, cripes. . .now, here I go again.

Try Borkum Riff, you will get more compliments from the public about the Wonderful odor,
than you will complaints about second hand Smoke by far.
Tip, most drug stores carry the Large Can



Original Blend
A natural tobacco, strong but soft to smoke
with a neutral light aroma, Borkum Riff Original
is a specially selected and processed Virginia and
Burley tobacco flavoured with the lightest touch of vanilla.
It is carefully prepared and offers unique smoking pleasure.

OP:

I peel glue off my hands. White glue... Elmer's... the stuff we used in grade school. Spread a thin layer on palm, wait for it to dry, carefully peel it off. Very nice.

It might be worth a try, anyway. It's certainly not harmful.

I used to do the same thing with rubber cement. My dad used to have to hide it from me, the smell, the feel of it painting on my hands, then drying it and peeling it off. . . it is harmful, though, stick with the milk based Elmer's.

Oh yes I do the sugar thing when ever im in a resterant untill the paper rips and I start a new one. As I kid I loved putting PVA glue on my hands so I could sit there and peel it off. If there is a tea light candel I will get tottally pre-occupied by it. I will allways make a wax finger by coating my finger several times in it. Beer mats, card tower. If there is a fire I will find interesting things to throw into it. Alot of people stopped doing these types of things as a kid but I dont seem to care whether its socially acceptable or not. So I must come of looking pretty wierd.

hahaha yeh those packets of sugar are awesome. It's great to hear other people appreciate all these sorts of things.

melting crayons on the heating element in the basement. It would drip on my fingers and I would eat it off, fascinated for hours.

(And Prang watercolors ORANGE, there must have been something in the Orange back in the 50's that they have taken out these days, because I would snatch other student's watercolor boxes and pop out their orange color and hoard them in my desk to lick on during class. And yes, it left me with an ORANGE mouth and tongue and lips and face and fingers, but something in the taste ( some mineral?) I just craved with all my little lifeforce.)

what a great tip thanks! unfortunely ill prob eat the package of salt or sugar before playin with it in my fingers lol, but im def a person who needs soemthing in my hands at all times, if not i bite and will jus chew my hand until it bleeds, or ill be touching everything, like light switches, buttons of all kinds, openin and closing doors, trying to grab random ppls hands to make them clap lol, so i keep my rubber keyboard or my phone with silicone cover on it to keep my hands occupied helps a lot. Either way thanks, im going to recommend this to my autism specialist cuz he deals with a lot of autism patients that might benefit from this, thanks hehe

I'll have to try the sugar packet thing next time I'm at a restaurant. I like holding the package by one (short) end and shaking it (what people do to get the sugar down).

One way I stim is by playing with things I hold. I play with almost everything I hold/