Is this kind of stimming common? Or at least, not unique?

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One of the cool things about visiting Wrong Planet is getting to see that you're quite not as unique as you'd once thought: no matter how obscure your special interest or how bizarre your favorite stim, you can usually find at least one fellow weirdo on these boards who is some kind of kindred spirit. But in all the years I've been casually lurking around here and in other autism forums I've never seen anybody who stims the way I do, which seems odd to me because what I do is so specific.

When I was about four, for some long forgotten reason I decided to uncoil the tip of one of my mother's metal shirt hangers. Being four and autistic, once I had finished I started to twirl the hanger's hook back and forth as fast as I could. I couldn't really explain why I liked doing it, but I did- whenever I had to abruptly stop I would feel stressed. The hanger (and its many successors) became my primary form of entertainment, something that I would look forward to coming home to all day. I was always ashamed of what I did and tried to hide it from my parents, but eventually they were clever enough to catch on. Surprisingly, they didn't seem very upset about my insanity, they didn't even really mind it if I did it in the open; they just wished I wouldn't ruin all of their poor hangers. "Couldn't I find something else to play with?". So I was forced to adapt and discovered that I could achieve the same effect with lots of objects: sticks would work, not nearly as well as the hangers, but if they were long and could flop back and forth quickly, they got the job done. Gloves worked even better: you just had to fold most of the fingers down so that only two or three were left and then flop it up and down like crazy. In desperate straits, I could fold newspapers, towels, or socks into flopping machines and gain a little stress relief. As long as an object had some kind of firm handle to grasp onto and had a flexible end that could rapidly move back and forth, it worked. The best thing I ever found for the purpose was one of those old flyswatters with the metal handle and the plastic, floppy end: that thing would drive me into ecstasy every time.

I did "this" just about everyday I could until middle school. I never stopped being embarrassed by it and made numerous attempts to quit. During my religious phase in 7th grade, I swore on the Holy Bible itself that I would stop forever; that lasted about a month. My parents mostly ignored it, but once when I was about 10 my step-dad became frustrated when I ruined one of his belts by overstimming and asked me point-blank why I did it. I couldn't really give him an answer: I honestly didn't know. If he'd asked me when I was older and had some time to think about the question, I might had said something like this:

When I start doing my thing, I enter a kind of trance in which no sensory information reaches my brain. I've noticed that I if flop the object in question behind my back or in the dark, it has no effect. It has to be where I can see it, and its rapid oscillation seems to distract my eyes from everything else in the room. Now, this is the really important and bizarre bit: if I just flop the thing up and down, it also has no effect. I have to start thinking about something I'm interested in, one of my obsessions, and only then does the hanger/glove/swatter become active. When I enter this kind of trance, my thoughts become......hyper-autistic. I not only think about the things I'm interested in, but I do so in a extremely mechanical, mathematical way. I might start thinking about the progression of the Allied armies in Europe, listing off the names of the battles and their dates. I like thinking about any kind of numerical progression: in the 1790 American census, the population of the United States was just under four million, but 1800 it was about 5.3 million, by 1810 7.2 million...... I sometimes re-enact the plots of movies or books, but I always become bogged down in trying to rationalize them: how many students, exactly attend Hogwarts? Definitely much less a thousand, but what does that say about the ratio of Wizards to Muggles in Britain? There's 60 million people in the UK, so that means a ratio of at least 60,000 to 1...... My obsessions in general seem to act as stress relief and for some reason this kind of stimming amplifies their effect.

I can't really say stimming makes me happy, but for some reason I am compelled to keep doing it; it's like an addiction. It seems to temporarily shut off something unpleasant in my brain and whenever I've had a stressful day the urge to do it becomes strong. I was able to quit entirely for about 3 years in high school, but the stresses of college forced a relapse and now I do it a few times a week, when I feel the situation merits it.

Now, for the purpose of this post: is there anybody on here who does anything like this? Anything kinda similar? I'm basically just wondering if 1. This is totally common, but I just keep missing it on the boards 2. It's something that a lot of autists WOULD do, but they just don't stumble on it or 3. I have a brain that is uniquely attuned to the magical power of hanger flopping. Wrong Planet, Wikipedia, and Google Scholar have answered a lot of the questions I've had about my autism over the years, but this is the Big One for me and it's still a mystery.

Well, to answer your question in general terms, yes, a lot of autistics get pleasure out of sensory stimulation the likes of which you describe (ie tactile and visual) which is why some autistic children spend hours spinning the wheels on their toy cars or staring up at fans (I for one used to spend long periods of time following a single fan blade round and round in circles with my eyes, less because it felt good, and more because I couldn't pull myself away from it). In more specific terms however, I have never heard of anyone doing what you do with coat hangers, gloves and the like, but that doesn't mean you're weird or different (at least not from other autistics), it just means you have a unique way of performing an autistically normal behaviour, ie stimming. And while I'm here, welcome to WP, I'm glad you could join us

I found your post very interesting. I think the rhythm of stimming can definitely block out the outside world and is in sync with the rhythm of your thoughts, like it's somehow connected to your brain, if that makes any sense. That's what it feels like to me, I know that trance feeling.

For what it's worth, I used to uncoil coat hangers as a child too. I don't remember if I twirled them about but I might have.

I used to love whipping back and forth any long slightly springy thing. Willow branches were great, found a few other random things that worked. I loved the whoosh of the stick cutting through the air. Was pretty typical to see me wandering around the neighborhood, just whipping a stick back and forth and being lost in my own head.

I don't know if anyone is going to have an exact match with yours, but it sounds in the "normal" range of stimming behavior.

What a lovely, articulate post.

I have a pack of those glow-stick type of bracelets. I am suddenly compelled to go open them and play them. BRB

For that matter, I wonder if I can find my "catgirl destructo-ball". A rubber ball with a stretchy cord and wrist tether. Very satisfying stim to throw and catch it.

I highly recommend the glow-stick type things. Mine are only about 6 inches long (supposed to be bracelets) so they don't wave back and forth all that dramatically. I do know they make longer (necklace sized) ones. Personally, I'm going to see how many bracelet-sized ones I can light up and link together, AND wave around before they fly off into oblivion. Thanks for the inspiration. Ooooh Pretty!

And for some mysterious reason, sales of glow stick accessories spiked for 24 hours in late august.

/me heads to ebay to order some.

Yes! I loved uncoiling coat hangers - I have some nasty arthritis now, so it is now I don't have the strength and my joints are too tender. Have you ever tried dowsing rods made out of coat hangers? You cut them L shaped at right angles and hold them by the shortest part at chest level as you walk. Whether there is anything to it or not, it's a neat sensation.

Do they still sell those hollow plastic tube-things that make a 'whooo whhooo' sound when you whip them around? They look like a giant version of the ribbed part of a straw where it bends?

One thing I loved and love, given the chance - is to spin fan blades - like from little electric motors - just big enough to accept a finger. Ha - and I am old enough to have had the joy of a disabled dial phone - perfect resistance.

I can't wear watches - well, I can - but I break them. I flick the clasp open and closed until it's hooped - if it has one of those folding clasps. I pick at leather watches with buckles and push the nose of the strap back forth until it breaks. I don't like the feel of those bands with the stretchy metal - I work them to breaking point but I am more likely not to have a watch with that kind of a strap to begin with. Actually, those ones I am more likely to hold off my wrist and fiddle with rather than have it pinch and pluck my skin.

Good thoughts - LM

I have never heard of the clothes hanger thing, but the visual and tactile aspects are very common in the Autism and Asperger's community from what I have noticed. I would definitely agree with you on the fact that here on WP, you aren't as unusual as others outside the site (or even yourself) may think. I have heard of stimming being used quite often to crowd out unpleasant thoughts or stimuli, though for me, it's more often a matter of receiving desired input. Personally, I prefer stimming with specific metal objects (My AK-47, Dragunov, ammo boxes and ammunition) and occasionally soft fur (rabbit, kittens and cats) when in a setting where using my specific stimming items is not appropriate. As for the addiction aspect, I have to concur to an extent. Normally, it's for either input or calming down, but if it's done for too long a duration, it can degenerate into an endless cycle of unproductive "fixing."

I have one of those, except mine I think is called a bungee ball. I used to stim to rubber balls being bounced around and grabbed with my hand and slammed on the floor (my mother was "impressed" and yelled at us to go play with them outside-- meh)

Yes! @ the person who whips sticks around, I did that all the time as a kid (especially silver maple sticks that make that whipping "whoosh" sound so well).

Most of my stimming these days involve drumming on things and spinning back and forth in my chair.

I was only very recently diagnosed with Asperger's (in my mid 20's), so I am only now starting to learn about stimming, and it is fun and kind of surreal to read about things other people do that I do too and always thought was just me being me.

I definitely love waving things too. I never used coat hangers, but when I was a kid I would take a stick and swish it back and forth in the yard. I loved the sound it made, and I could spend hours whacking a tall patch of grass with a stick while thinking about other things. I also used to love playing with my jump rope. I didn't jump, I just held one end and twirled and waved it out in front of me and watched the undulating patterns I could make. I also had a baby blanket that I liked to spin in a very specific pattern above my head.

I still like to play with yo-yos. I lost my last one, so I haven't for a while. But I could spend hours shooting it out in front of me and feeling it reel back in. I don't know many tricks, but I love the rhythm of it, and I can kind of check out and let my mind go off on tangents when I'm yo-yoing. Nowadays I mostly just pace or tap my fingers when I'm thinking or anxious.

I totally forgot how I used to do this. We didn't use the fan all that often, but I remember lying down on the floor in the kitchen and watching the fan blades spin. I'd try to follow one. Clothes dryers can be equally as amusing.