Stimming? Twitching?

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I'm not exactly sure what stimming means, although I bet that my habits of pacing back and forth and rocking back and forth all the time would qualify.

How about flipping objects in your hand? No one understands how it is that I flip pens in my hand, and most people are taken aback when they see it, and most people are horrified when they see that I do it with objects that should be too long like yardsticks, or objects that are dangerous, like carving knives and fishing rods.

How about it? I want to understand this. I know that both the pacing all the time and the rocking all the time make NTs think I'm crazy, but what of the rest?

Stimming is any behavior you do to calm down. All you said is a stim.

I do this windmill thing with my arm. I also flap my hands the most.

@pensieve:

Thanks! The windmill stuff I don't do. Pacing the floor? Flipping pens? Crawling at walls? I do those. I like that I live in a place with thirteen-foot-high brick walls. I can imagine seeing one of those awful signs from Berlin every time I look at it. When I leave it's "YOU ARE LEAVING THE (HYPOTHETICAL STATE OF ELLIOT)," but if I ever let anyone else in here (which is exceedingly rare), I can dream that they see the sign that's in my head. "YOU ARE ENTERING THE (HYPOTHETICAL STATE OF ELLIOT). CARRYING WEAPONS IS FORBIDDEN. OBEY ALL TRAFFIC LAWS."

Is this normal or healthy? I have no idea. With going to law school and having my girlfriend break up with me the day after finals, I don't know if anything I think is just AS or a reaction to circumstances or what the law school wants. It's always got to be in a fictitious state, that's for sure, and my hypotheticals are always in the State of Elliot, which applies all common law rules except when I decide it doesn't.

Don't ever go to law school, and PLEASE help me figure this out.

Quietly,
DJC

I rock back and forth too, especially when stressed. I also do things with my knuckles. Don't worry too much about the stimming

Don't people use stims to stimulate too? I can't pass peeling paint without having a go at it. I love the tiny sounds. I also love to crunch ice with my feet. I've been cracking the top knuckle of my left pinky continually for over a month now pop pop pop. The finish is peeling off my back bumper now and I wonder what people think of my intense focus on scraping away the bubbles. It really thrills me for some reason.

Yes, I suppose it releases something in me. Maybe it's like redirecting the psychological pressure into a tangible form. When I was really really stressed and angry I used to like to take a handful of silverware and throw it in the aluminum kitchen sink. The sound was both stimulating and also a great pressure valve.

@Aimless: In Chicago, I used to live in an apartment that had lead-based paint covering the bathroom and I liked knocking it off the medicine cabinet because it flaked in such interesting ways. Of course, this was at a time I was completing my thesis so I needed to do something to relieve the stress.