ALL ABOUT STIMMING

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I was just thinking about Temple Grandin and her Hugbox in her HBO Biopic and it got me thinking. Oddly enough, there doesn't seem to be a lot of info about stimming on the internet. If any of you could answer this, or share personal stories, I'd be much obliged!

The longer, the better.

How do you stim?
Do you stim in multiple ways?
How does it make you feel? Does it calm you down, or do you feel mostly the same?

does stimming include rocking (like back and forwards)?

If so, I recently had this realisation.
I had a session with my therapist, as a part of my diagnostic trial, and she said that I probably did not have it, as apparently most high functioning aspie's don't. (correct her if she's wrong please) My mum was also present and said, well actually she does. Apparently I rock left to right when standing and back and forward while sitting, mostly while deep in thought/in my own world. I said no I don't, I've never noticed. So she said she would tell me when it happened.
5 min. later, the terapost said, you're doing it now... and I was pretty shocked, cause I had NEVER noticed it before. pretty weird and creepy if you ask me.

Yep!

Stimming also includes rocking... Look here

And i do it also... Or sometimes licking my underlip, repeatedly, when consentrated.

[Edit]
Didn't know that crossing legs, and arms, could be stimming... If so, i do it all the time!! ! - Just can't relax sitting on a chair ect. without crossing my legs!
And, do i have to talk to persons, i'm not familiar with, i (nearly always) cross my arms! And also, if the situation get tense, in day to day interaction, no matter with whom.
If not rocking, i'we been told i do a lot of (small) nodding, nearly not wisible, but its there. specially when listening to others talking, or listening to music/tv...

Last edited by Hauge on 21 May 2011, 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

(Sorry, my comprehension of questions is pretty off today for some reason, so if I answer a question wrong just tell me.)

How do you stim?
Do you stim in multiple ways?
How does it make you feel? Does it calm you down, or do you feel mostly the same?

I happen to stim in a lot of ways (used to be only knee bobbing, but now rocking, flapping, softly hitting myself or inanimate objects such as walls, stiffening my muscles and curling my right hand towards my chest, and, lastly, stiffening the muscles in the front of my neck and pushing my head up).

I have a degree of awareness when I am doing my stims, especially the ones that involving hitting. They calm me down for about a second or two, or even more if the source of what is making me hyper/agitated is removed from me as well.

The stims I do include rocking back and forth, pacing, fidgeting with my fingers tapping tables, crossing my legs, and spinning around in circles. So I have multiple stims. Stimming helps me concentrate on the task at hand, and they also calm me down if I'm having a rough day.

I first heard the term "stimming" about six months ago when I was set up with a Regional Brokerage and assigned a Personal Agent to help me with everyday living skills. It seems probable that Bicycle Guitaring is a form of stimming. Since the early 1980s I have ridden tens of thousands of miles "no hands" on a ten-speed bicycle while playing guitar AT THE SAME TIME, writing hundreds of songs a few dozen of which (the older ones) are available for free on the official web site of The Bicycling Guitarist.

When a boy, I rode my first bicycle in tight circles many hours on the back patio of my parents' house, then as a teenager went on many day trips (30 to 50 miles) on a ten speed. After I turned 18 years old, I started playing guitar. Somehow in my early twenties I discovered I could combine bicycle riding and guitar playing, and I have done it ever since (weather permitting).

It is the only peace I have found in this life so far, giving temporary relief from some of the physical and psychological stresses of my neurology. For me, it is a meditation in motion. I've ridden the past thirty years all on the same bicycle (the Minstrel Cycle), the past twenty years with the same guitar (a 1979 Silver Anniversary Fender Stratocaster).

I've had a web site online since 1997. I am locally famous in the towns I have lived, and have some fans from all over the world. The Bicycle Museum of America wants to display my bicycle after I die, and I have made arrangements for them to get it. For all that, there is very little recorded of me yet, especially photographs or videos, and the audio recordings from the past aren't very high quality. Also, I play guitar and sing much better now than anything of me yet recorded or posted anywhere. The following clip from 2005 is so far as I know the only video on the internet that shows me doing what I do, and it is only 46 seconds long (and I've been doing this thirty years and twenty-five thousand miles). There is at least one other short video clip from a news story a few years back, but that news story clip is no longer online:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-2h0kw5ank[/youtube]

In the WrongPlanet chat room a couple months ago, Alex (founder of WrongPlanet and great guy) said he'd like to film me. doing what I do. That would be awesome. The past couple months I've had a leg muscle injury where I can't raise my leg up high enough to even get onto my bicycle, and causes pain in that leg when going up hills. Still, once on the bicycle and on flat terrain I can still ride and play for an hour or two, especially if I know it is being recorded for posterity. I am fifty years old and do not know how much longer I will be around or able to do this. Please hurry, Alex! Maybe if a few more people were to suggest this to him (hint hint) it might happen this year. I can only ride outdoors when it isn't cold or wet weather, but could ride indoors anytime in circles or figure eights if the room is at least as wide as a residential street (such as a gym, auditorium or cafeteria).

Last edited by TheBicyclingGuitarist on 22 May 2011, 7:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

OMG - that's awesome! I envy your mad multitasking skills. As well as the balance! I used to be able to ride sans hands when I was a kid after several summers of practice. Just all kinds of awesome!

I wasn't aware it was stimming until recently. It is all subconscious. When in a social situation I become hyper vigilant about everything I do and I can curb my stims then but it does lead to an outbreak of them once home and allowed to drop my guard.

Foot bouncing, leg bouncing.
Hair twirling, finger combing, braiding, running hair over my lips - this is most prevalent when nervous, highly engrossed or bored.
Swaying when forced to stand still - like in lines
Rocking when extremely emotional
Chewing on lower lip

I'm much more aware of doing it now than I have been in the past. I'm unsure if it all stims or if it is hyperactivity as in ADHD but probably a combo of both. The hair twirling is almost OCD at times - once I start I have to keep doing it. I don't just braid one little section, I have to braid my whole head, undo it and rebraid it all over again.

And I just combed through the ends of my hair as I reread this before posting... lol.

Thanks draelynn. I can't braid hair. I don't think of what I do as multitasking; I am doing one thing: bicycle guitaring! If I had to think about what I was doing or how to do it, I'd fall over for sure. I just do it and it happens. I sometimes say that I am "riding the guitar while playing the bicycle," and in some ways that is an accurate description of what I do.

In some ways it is multitasking. I am getting transportation from point A to point B, exercise, publicity. guitar, vocal and songwriting practice, fresh air, scenery etc. I'm living in the moment, letting music flow through me yet aware of all around me (traffic etc.) It is very Zen. Most importantly though, my body is distracted by keeping me balanced so I am not so overwhelmed by sensory input (it's like my body goes on autopilot), and my mind is on the music so it's not racing a hundred directions at once at light speed. This would not work on a stationary bike. I also do not know if I could do this on any other bicycle besides the "Minstrel Cycle" or with any other guitar unless it is a Strat or Strat-copy.

The bicycle is in first gear all the time (even though all ten gears are functional) so I don't go too fast. When going down hills, I sometimes stop playing long enough to apply the brakes as needed. I rode a twenty minute trip two weeks ago, and another twenty minute trip last week, and both times my leg hurt. Normally with good weather like I've had lately I would ride a lot longer and much more frequently. I hope my leg muscle heals soon (doc said it could take months). Both recent trips involved my trying to lift my leg up from the ground to get onto the bicycle, and pedaling up a hill to get home. If I step onto the bicycle from a curb and ride on flat terrain, I'm sure I could ride an hour or two just fine.

Last edited by TheBicyclingGuitarist on 21 May 2011, 7:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Sweet. Do any of you swing on a swingset?

Swordfish210 and draelynn, you say you stim without realizing it. Do you ever mean to do it?

Wow, bicycling guitarist, that is just amazing. I hope you get filmed by Alex, cause it's pretty cool!

As for my stimming, I had never ever thought about it untill it got pointed out, now I sometimes notice it and try to stop it, but it's hard. I do do other things repeatedly, especially if I'm under duress, like cleaning my glasses, or putting them higher on my nose. I also have to touch my face in a particular manner (looks like itching, but no itch), usually after dinner. These things I notice, but I had never noticed the rocking before. Makes me wonder what else I do...

1. I bounce my leg a lot.

2. I rock when I'm sitting.

3. When I'm standing I keep shifting my weight from side to side, or just swaying.

4. I tap my fingers on my desk, etc.

5. I constantly crack my joints; my knuckles, wrists, neck, back, knees and toes. I've tried to stop but I can't.

6. I grind and tap my teeth together, it's odd.

7. Sometimes I rub my eyes, it feels good for some reason.

8. I don't know if this is stimming, but I pick at my face a lot.

9. I don't do this one anymore, but I used to always jingle coins or my keys in my pocket, it would annoy some people.

Well, those are mine!

I do like swings, but when I was a kid, I used to get in trouble for winding them around and then letting them spin loose with me on them.

I have recently caught myself repeatedly touching each of my fingertips with my thumbs while talking to someone. My hands were all the way up near shoulder height too. The person probably thought I was weird. Now I wonder how often I do that without my realizing it. I knew I did it. I just didn't know I did it that obviously.

I stim without realizing, too. I can control my stimming if I think about it, but once I stop I start unconsciously stimming. I usually don't bother to stop it, although I do sometimes redirect it.

I sometimes start stimming deliberately. I've found some (like rocking) help a lot with anxiety.

''

Do I actively choose to do it? Not that I'm aware of.

When I finally realize I'm doing it I do decide to stop myself or not. It does very much feel like a compulsion. I can stop myself but not without effort. When I'm home I really see no reason to put that sort of stress or restriction on myself.

@Zen - I used to LOVE spinning on the swing set. I had one in my backyard as a kid and I would spin the chain so tight they'd bunch up on themselves so when I'd spin there would be a 'thunk' in the middle of the spin as the knots untwisted. I'd do that for hours. I'd also explore the physics of it - holding my legs out, pull them in, try all sorts of things to see how it affected the spin.

the only thing I do... my a.mother called it 'fidgeting'... so I don't know if it's a stim or not, actually... but I leg bounce like mad, and it drives people crazy when I do it, even the dog sometimes gets irritated because it moves the floorboards or whatever. I've always done that. Also, a thing with my ankle.... trying to describe it, I guess it would be "foot flapping"? LOL, but jiggling my ankle so fast the foot kinda flaps-- you know, with legs crossed, and ankle off the floor, just.. like, shaking the ankle really fast. It's mostly when I have to be sitting down and/or paying attention to something it comes out in fidgets. Which is apparently annoying to other people, although I don't really see why, since it's quiet, but apparently it still is annoying. whatever. I don't know >strictly speaking< if that counts as stims or not.