Stimming and watching movies, etc.

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I can't believe that, during all my years of being a member of these forums, I've never thought to ask this question...

Do you ever get a strong urge to stim while watching an entertaining movie or TV show, or even while reading a good book?

I remember when I was a child and I would watch cartoons or movies with my family, I would always find excuses to get up and move around because of feeling stimulated by the things I was watching. As an adult, I own many DVDs but have never seen many of them due to the fact that it takes me forever to watch them, because I have to keep hitting pause so I can go stim. As sad as it is to admit, it's taken me almost 5 days to watch the 2 and 1/4 hour movie Van Helsing because it's so action-packed and visually stimulating that it keeps making me want to stim. I've also felt the strong urge to stim while reading the book Interview with the Vampire, which is why I started reading it months ago but I'm only a little over halfway done.

I feel very envious of people who can sit and focus on the TV or books for hours and not want to get up; I'd be very happy if I could be that way. My psychiatrist has said numerous times that he thinks I have ADD and has offered to put me on medication for it, but I don't want it because I'm already taking 3 medications for other psychiatric problems.

However, I've come up with a solution: I plan on buying an iPod Nano, so that I could move around more freely while watching my shows at the same time.

I do. Mostly when watching my nature program called Wild Nature which is about Europe.

I do this a lot. Whenever I used to watch my favorite TV shows or cartoons I would get the urge to flap my hands. My mom's ex-boyfriend taped me doing it once because he thought it was weird. He later sat me down and said, "I want you to look at yourself. Watch the things that you do and tell me if you think that's normal." Needless to say I really didn't like him. I would also pace a lot during watching those shows and in general, not be able to sit still.

Today I still do it, but only with my favorite shows and books. I have to get really really excited for it to happen. Particularly with Desperate Houswives, Harry Potter, and 30 Rock.

Have you been spying on me, IdahoRose? I dare say, you've described me to a T. Whenever a commercial comes on when I'm watching my shows, I am up and running around the house. It's the same thing with music videos and occasionally books. I can control it at school, but the second I'm home, I have to run around for up to twenty minutes (Once it was over forty-five). On a positive note, I'm in pretty decent shape.

When I was on medication for ADHD, I still did this, so it's not so much an attention thing as it is a stimulation thing. Medication might work for you, though.

dustintorch - God, isn't it irritating when people do that? My mom videotaped me once while I was at the computer watching a music video, (simultaneously imagining a plot for a book I wanted to write. Honestly, why is it that some people think that we're in another world when we're stimming? All I'm doing is thinking. Is it really such a foreign concept for some people?) Anyway, she showed me playing with my hands and twirling my fingers and whatever it is I do with the other parts of my body when I'm thinking. It was kind of weird, I'll admit, but it's not like I was bothering anyone. I don't want you to get the idea that my mom's a pesky parent. She's a good person, so when I asked her not to do that anymore, she never did, and she certainly didn't ask me if I thought it was 'normal'.

Gweezle

May I interrupt your thread long enough to ask what stimming is? I keep seeing that word here, but this is the only place I've ever seen it, and I don't know what it means. Maybe it's something I do myself without having a name for it. Thank you.

Stimming is a repetitive movement that people on the autistic spectrum do when they feel overly stimulated by something. The stims that most people are familiar with are hand-flapping and rocking, but it can be any type of movement.

For me, stimming is usually going outside and running while listening to music, but when it's nighttime or the weather's bad, I also pace back and forth while tapping my shoulder with my left hand.

You have basically described me as well. It may take me days to watch movies. I feel I need to pause the movie, get up, walk around, hit myself, flap arms, run, make noises, whenever I get exited. I'll often get exited over war movies but now I get exited over things I can relate to, like when I watch a movie about aspies. : ) When I read books or listen to music I also get like this.

I was considering putting together a montage of all the moments I was caught on tape stimming. Maybe, maybe not.

Wow, I can't believe there's someone else out there who feels the need to run while watching their favorite shows! That makes me feel better. I run for at least 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes. As I said in another post, I go outside to run, but if I can't do that, I pace.

Thank you for explaining. I am often bouncing my knee up and down without noticing, sometimes both of them. I have to remember not to do it in mixed company or at work meetings lest somebody point it out. Does that fall under the same category?

I would ask you how you "feel" when you do that. Everyone moves their legs when they are sitting still for a long time so that the blood flow will keep your legs from falling asleep, (my doctor told me.) Stimming is very different. Stimming for me isn't like a tick...that is...stimming is something I do to deal with the overwhelming excitement from movies, music, books. It makes me feel great and while I do it I have adventures in my head. I replay things I saw in movies in my head. Basically whenever I'm exited I start doing it. It's makes my life better.

I get really excited and hyped up if it's something I really like.

Yup, I do that. Like I'll be watching Top Gear and start flapping my hands while watching it, imagining I've got the car they're driving or something

'Tis fun!

I find it hard to just sit and watch a movie, I get restless and have to find something else to do while I'm watching the movie.
For Example, right now I'm watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but messing around on the computer while half watching it, sometimes I end up cleaning around while watching movies.

I'm happy that yet another person does the same things I do when I get entertained.

I think it would be interesting if you showed us what you look like while stimming. In fact, I was thinking about doing the same thing. You don't have you if you'd be uncomfortable with it, though.

I would really like to, the trouble is a lot of the stimming I did growing up looked more normal. For example. The first stimming I did was rocking on a rocking hoarse. A lot of kids do this so it would appear normal even though I know I was stimming. The more strange things I did like swing from branches and hit the ground with sticks were never taped because I always made sure I was alone. Those would have been better examples of the "weird" stimming.

I also make sure I'm alone for certain ones.

I love thrashing my head from side to side in S-curves, but I rarely let anyone see me do that, though sometimes I do it by accident.