REG: The Great Thread of "What's Your Stim?"

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Hi All:

As I'm sure we're all relatively aware stimming is almost inextricably linked to autism, if someone mentions stimming, the first thought that runs through most people who are aware's minds is "autism". in this thread I intend to answer the question "What's your stim?" and for fun, when is is most commonly deployed?

My stim of choice is rocking back and forth and when available clinging to my fiancee. Usual deployment scenarios include loud noise, bright/flashing lights, and screaming children.

Feel free to post below

Well, my number one stim might be either pacing or listening to the same song over and over, most of the time while rocking back and forth or shaking my leg. I don't just rock back and forth when listening to music, though, so that is one of my more common stims as well. I have always been a tactile sensory seeker, so I repetitively touch certain objects which feel nice (like my blanket). Another stim I have is echolalia, which is repeating what other people have said. It honestly depends on the situation, but I can stim whenever. I also stim more when I am happy or overloaded than when I am upset.

Thanks for posting this thread! It was fun to answer .

Rocking back and forth is the major one. Usually done when I am nervous, or if many people are talking at once.

When I am under stimulated I tend to vibrate my leg and/or drum on my knees.

When I am excited I tend to hand flap.

Saying, "Aw, how sweet," when I see a sweet cat video or picture.

I didn't realize this until a couple of day ago---but I, apparently, do some weird stuff with my hands and arms---wave them around sort of subtly. My boss asked me "is there a problem?" (in a friendly way). Then I realized what I was doing.

I do lots of punching walls, running my key along a gate, kicking cans, making Wolfman sounds on the subway, stuff like that. Some of my "stims" can be attributed, perhaps, to an undiagnosed ADHD sort of condition.

But I did have classic autism when I was very young, and I'm pretty Aspergian now.

another random stim i just recognized of mine is repeating sounds in the environment such as "ding dong" for the door bell, "bee doop bee doop" for a co-worker's calendar alerts, "da da ding" for an inbound text message, "weee oop" for a new email arriving in someone's inbox, various phone ring type noises etc.

Most of the sounds that trigger a response, have some sort of pattern like the calendar alert noise on iphone as of iOS 6. and it's intended as an alert to the person that some system or device requires their attention so it serves some communicative function because they acknowledge the dang alert because by about the 15th "ding ding" from my fiancees phone in a short period (some 15 seconds) because her friend won't stop texting her when we're supposed to be having a personal day together is driving me nucking futz.

None that I'm aware of ...? Talking to myself alot maybe (about literally anything; sometimes about what I've just learned, about what I'm doing, or just a made-up story). I don't know if that's a stim though as I do that all the time (unless there's lots of people around). Sometimes I make odd involuntary movements though they follow no particular pattern. Might be characteristics of Tourette's. Dunno.

Rocking twisting contorting.
Hands and arms legs making repetitive movements.
Humming and sound echolalia.
Chewing on shirt collar and other stuff.
Slapping head torso thighs when agitated.

I pull my hair out and then play with it and slide it along my mouth..
I like the feeling but my hair is very patchy and looks terrible. I can't stop and when someone else tells me to stop it will make me mad.. Anyone else have this?
At work I will play with my keys a lot (almost flapping them while doing so?)
Also ripping paper, stickers, or anything I can rip haha.. When my manager is talking to me I'll rip a bit of sticky tape off... I still don't know why I do it..
I am figuring myself out though still and in the process of waiting to get my assessment done..
How can you tell if something is a stim or just a bad habit?

I would say pacing would probably be my biggest stim when I'm nervous.

-Blurting out random words/sentences (Little baby muffin, I like bunnies etc.).
-Picking at scalp and nails
-Hitting fist against leg
-Earlobe into ear canal
-Tapping my foot to random beats
-Rubbing my face against fluffy blanket
-Echolalia

I've just been reading out these to my GF and she said I do a lot of what has already been mentioned although the only thing that I consciously notice is echolalia , I used to have this as my email notification and it used to drive my GF mad as everytime I got an email I would repeat it , she made me change in the end. I did it have it tied to my work account which got a lot of emails. It was a Homer Simpson quote and just thinking about has made me go and find it and listening it to today is just as pleasing as it was a decade ago. I think Homer really fired up my echolalia to a different level , everyday I'll either say it in my head or out loud "Save me Jebus"

Usually involves my hands or my feet. Tapping the arm of the armchair is something I do all the time, but my favourite one is linking my fingers and performing an elaborate pattern with my thumbs. Sometimes I don't think about the pattern, but sometimes I think... is that the right pattern, or do I do it this way?

When I was a teenager I used to chew my hair... not much chance of doing that now.

I can't even put my earlobe into my ear canal LOL