Addicted to stimming

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Do you do what people refer to as "stimming"? If so what do you do and how often? Does it get you aggitated if you can't do that particular thing for one reason or another? Heres some weird ones I have and some interesting observations I've made about them.

1.) I rub the underside of my hair because its smooth. No other objects can compare with the feeling of the underside of my hair. Ceramics come close but they're not as satisfying to rub. I noticed that when I get my head shaved and don't have enough hair to be able to do this the urge to do it goes away altogether but weirdly enough as soon as the hair has grown back I find myself doing it again. This is strange because when I have hair I have this extreme urge to rub the underside of it and if I intentionally refrain from doing it I get aggitated but once the hairs gone I don't do it and don't get aggitated about not doing it. I can trace this one back to when I was a little kid I used to sleep with my granny and I used to rub her nails because they were so smooth and I remember I couldn't sleep on my own or with my mother because her nails didn't feel the same.

2.) I wiggle a bone in my neck. Had this one when I was a kid but when I take amphetamines it comes back. On amphetamines its so extreme that I get swollen glands from doing it.

hehe I think all aspies stim!

i try to restrain myself during the daytime but like to rock myself to sleep and have this special stim where i rub my feet together as well whilst i'm trying to go to sleep!

the only way i can avoid stimming is to force myself to keep doing something else!

Never heard that term before, but yes, I do this.
I often sort of bounce myself off the wall ... gently of course, sort of a rocking motion.
Then there is the leg bouncing, or I will flex my foot in my shoe if I need to hide it.

When I sit down I shake my foot. Very weird but I don't always realise I'm doing it. I also love stroking my hair after I've washed and dried it because its so soft.
I also count my steps, or stairs I go up/down. This annoys me so much sometimes I try to do something like daydream or focus on my music to distract me and stop me counting.
Oh yeah and I hear certain phrases and I either rewrite them on my hand...or with an imaginary pen in m head. Some letters like 'a' also have to be written in 2 different ways...usual handwritten 'a' and typed 'a' SO ANNOYING.

Last edited by kissmyarrrtichoke on 23 Mar 2010, 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Try the underside of your hair. Its always smooth and soft. I rarely wash my hair and end up with thick greasy hair but the underside always stays smooth.

hehe yeah i forgot about that... i play with my hair relentlessly too and also like to play with my tongue-piercing...

(i neva dry my hair though because hair-dryer noise is ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH to me)!

I do this one too!

Picking nails until the skin comes off and it bleeds, picking skin until it bleeds, I constantly chin-rub (despite lack of facial hair), Constantly clasping my hands together rather irregularly, twiddling my pencil/pen very, very often, speaking in a high-pitched voice (very different to my low-pitched voice) in an attempt at humour and many more.

I do this too. I also used to bite my nails. I stopped that by keeping them trimmed short. But the picking of the skin around my nails is something I just can't stop. I pick at it until it bleeds and I don't usually notice I'm doing it. My fingers always have scabs on them, it's disgusting, but I can't stop. My partner gently holds my hand if he sees me doing it, but them I feel all weird in my tummy.

I also jiggle my foot or my legs, I'm never still. At work I fidget with anything that is on the counter in front of me. It must be annoying for my workmate. When I notice I'm fidgeting I go for a walk around the shop straightening all the cd racks.

Funny, addiction was how I saw it before I was diagnosed. I got really ashamed that no matter what I did I seemed to have to do this stuff at some point every day.

I actually stim a lot less now than I used to. I have stamina and motor problems that sometimes interfere. The weirdest thing? When it's my movement disorder keeping me from being able to do it, I actually feel it trying to happen. It's like feeling something alien send commands to my body through my head but without success. I never felt that when they happened but I bet it was because it was being drowned out by the movement itself.

I don't really know all of my stims. A lot of them are complex nonvoluntary (not on purpose but somewhat suppressible) hand movements that seem to help me process sounds and other parts of my surroundings. Rocking. Rubbing my head. And a bunch of other things. I never know what they are until they happen (or try to happen).

I chew the skin around my nails all the time - funny how common this seems to be. I never thought of it as a stim before now.

I've never thought of it like this before, but I tend to run my fingers through my hair when stressed.
I also rub my hair a lot after it has been shaved - mmm, stubbly...

How's it an addiction? "Addiction" is a word that means something harmful, or at least something that takes up enough time to interfere with your life. But stimming, generally, doesn't. You do it because it helps you think better, or because it feels good, or because it's just more natural than sitting still. To an uninvolved observer, me sitting there and stimming might look unproductive; but most likely I'm doing something like planning how to clean my kitchen, or how the parts of my computer program will fit together. I really think there's no good reason to suppress stimming. Redirect, maybe, if it happens to be some kind of stim that causes physical injury (repetitive-motion or directly), or if it's obvious and you want something more subtle; but if you have an "addiction" that's implying you're better off if you get rid of it. I've yet to talk to someone who really truly would be better off without stims. It's all "Well, it looks odd, and people keep telling me to sit still or making fun of me," and that's a problem that comes from people who don't get it, not something intrinsic.

I mess the back of my hair up, twist my wrists, hand flick, leg shake, rock my body, make my tooth make this clicking sound by flicking my tongue over it (that can end up hurting so I can't do it for very long).

Sometimes my own Aspergers causes similar such problems. For example, I am fully awake, I begin walking forward to my next lesson, it feels as if I'm getting drowsy and I start walking more-or-less in this peculiar pattern uncontrollably (tilting/swaying my body side-to-side while walking, walking rather basically for a few seconds)... This only happens very rarely, but it is terrible when it does happen because it feels as if I'm losing all sense of control and/or refinement in my movement. I keep thinking "Oh no, walk straight, darn it!" but to no avail. It's this time that I often approach the nearest door to hold it open (supporting myself on it) and wait until I see in clarity again. Due to this, I find myself strangely enough with an obsession for holding doors open.

I am, ofcourse, naturally assuming you're speaking of something similar.

I chew my nails, chew the skin around my nails, bounce my knee, flex my fingers around each other (this one especially when I'm nervous/sad--my fingers start to hurt), aaand pick at my scalp until it feels like I'm digging into my brain. And, yeah, if someone mentions it and I try to stop, I get a little sick in my stomach and start flexingflexingflexing my hands.