What would happen if you couldn't Stimm?

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My entire life I've been able to Stimm on an hourly basis. I wonder, though, if for some reasons I was simply unable to do it anymore, how I would react.

Do any of you have stories of when you couldn't stimm and how you reacted?

I become exhausted easily and usually if I get a chance to stim, I will stim more excessively.

For me not stimming causes me to lash out. Anger builds up inside me and the slightest poke makes me explode. It's because the anxiety/frustration/overstimulation i feel, which would normally be soothed and kept in check by stimming, instead just feeds on itself and grows and grows and then erupts in an attempt at self-defense. It was so powerful that it felt uncontrollable, sometimes it felt like a blackout.

I used to suppress my stimming and needless to say I had real anger issues. I had unconsciously made up the rule (through negative reinforcement growing up) that stimming is not okay, and because of that would suppress it except in the most extreme circumstances, when it was so bad that not stimming was NOT an option.

Anyways, my therapist told me it's okay (in most circumstances) to stim if I need to to express myself and get the bad out. I rock, rub my head, tear at clothing seams with my nails, and bounce a lot, but I'm a lot happier and much much calmer now.

As with everything else in life though, my experiences are probably not the same as most other people's.

stimming does not work like this for me. it is not an activity in which i participate it an unconscious happening. usually when i am in a tight spot.

I find with myself that I do it mostly when I start feeling panic or anxiety or stress. Its like it helps balance my surge of adrenaline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oep4mRpmrkQ&NR=1

I hate when I am not allowed to stim. My stimming is basically brushing my hair against my face. My dad constantly yells at me for doing this, thus making me do it more. several members of my family have threatened to shave my head so that i won't be able to stim. I don't think i could deal with that.

I feel like I may faint.

I get told to stop rocking sometimes by my aspie flatmate when we're watching DVDs. It annoys him that the sofa is wobbling. So I normally end up making silly skreechy animal noises instead to get rid of the tension. For some reason, he doesn't mind that!

Oh my. I had a feeling something like these things would happen but I wasn't sure. I am NT and my daughter has autism. Back when she was in kindergarten or 1st grade (don't remember exactly) her doctor wanted me to make her stop stimming. He had the theory that if I could get her to stop, the time taken up by stimming would be redirected into productive activities like exercise (playing on playground equipment instead of stimming there), coloring, making crafts and so on. I had a feeling it wouldn't work like that but couldn't find anything written down to show him. I just had a feeling that something bad would happen if I followed his plan. So I made no attempt to stop her from stimming and just made vague redirects when he brought it up at appointments. He eventually dropped it. Now I feel vindicated in making the right decision because apparently there really would have been bad consequences for her if I'd followed his plan.

Does constant small twiddles count as stimming?

I stopped stimming when I got my first job. I took up sweating like a pig. My shirt was sopping wet all down to my waist before I even left the house.

Well, I've stopped all day before like when I'm in a social situation.. and usually I get all gross and sweaty. And my legs might start going all, you know, twitchy. That restless leg thing. I don't consider that stimming though, when you twitch because of that, because to not would be like not flinching when someone is jabbing you in the funny bone.