Rocking - who and when?

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I have two questions:

1) are there any other groups of people besides those with ASD who frequently engage in rocking/stim behaviors?

2) are most of your triggers emotional or are they more physical/sensory?

the rocking thing I do is one of the main reasons I suspect I have heretofore undiagnosed aspergers and I almost always do it in response to some kind of anxiety. I get bothered by things like light and sound more than a lot of people do, but the only times I find myself rocking back and forth I'm trying to deal with some sort of psychological stress (or very occasionally I'm just really absorbed in some thought or bit of writing.)

I'm just wondering if I'm interpreting this the wrong way because if I wasn't doing it myself, I'd say that physical stimming makes more sense in response to a physical stresser than an emotional one.

I'm not an extreme 'rocker', but I have found myself doing it subtly when I've been really upset in the past. So mainly for me it's an emotional thing, although I've found myself doing it faintly without being aware of it at other times too. I don't know if it's therefore even an AS thing with me or if that's something most people might do, because it's not really overt.

im a rocker too. can be when im excited or stressed or listening to music

I rock often while sitting calmly and happily at my desk. For me, rocking is not a physical response to emotional stress or anxiety. It is just on by default. Almost all of my stimming is on by default, and not in response to my emotional state. It doesn't even have a clear sensory cause, or any other cause or trigger, because it is always on. I do it in public too. I don't care about looking weird.

Amongst the general population, anxious stimming seems to be the most common kind of stimming and distinct from the baseline stimming that autistic people do a lot. Autistic people also do anxious stimming, of course. I know that my stimming gets faster when I am anxious. I've been watching a medical show this weekend, and the families of the patients are all stimming while waiting for the surgeries to end. And the camera focuses on their stimming to show that they are eggstremely anxious. I didn't see anyone rocking though, but I have seen a person rocking on another show about people with OCD. This person was rocking in a very anxious manner, with a tortured look on her face, because she felt anxious from OCD. She looked like she was in pain. I don't look like that when I rock. I look happy, because rocking feels good.

I have seen footage of Chinese babies in orphanages rocking, having been strapped in to their seats (due to overcrowding).

I wiggle or flap, not rock. I know an undiagnosed rocker so I'll be interested in any information.

I agree with btbnnyr. It's just a default, regardless of mood or emotional state. It's just energy, pattern, and rhythm that is always on.

I don't know if I always did it, but I do know that I have started doing it since I started researching AS. Mostly I find myself doing it while sitting cross legged in bed on my computer.

Without some kind of rhythmic movement, I can't even think and I become conscious of my breathing. It's like charging my batteries.

Yep. People with intellectual disabilities do that. So do people who have "stereotypic movement disorder" (which is just a fancy name for somebody who has the habit of stimming but no other symptoms). People with Tourette's might have rocking as a tic. Some medications increase restlessness. Catatonia and movement disorders can result in repetitive movement too. And NT toddlers and younger will tend to stim just because they are still wiring their sensory systems together. ADHD people may stim because they feel restless. Very distressed NTs will stim sometimes to try to calm themselves (for example someone who has just lost a loved one may rock and hug themselves trying to deal with their grief). So stimming is quite common. It's just more pronounced and persistent in autistics.

Cognitive. It's easier to think when I'm rocking. My stims are a lot like a cat's twitching tail--they represent not my physical or emotional state, but simply the level of mental and physical arousal. So if I'm paying close attention, thinking hard, anxious, happy, or experiencing anything intense, I tend to stim.

Fronto-Temporal love dementia, schizophrenia, brain damage, stereotypic movement disorder. Few things I thought of.

Same here! But only when Im alone.

hmm. I definitely have the "always on" thing with my finger movements/stim toys (enough that good friends have admitted I can be kind of annoying sometimes because the toy I keep with me is always clicking, no matter where we are or what we're doing) but I only notice the thrum/pulse thing that I rock to in certain situations.

I rock and I am not autisitic. Though it is more often swaying side to side than rocking back and forth. I do have ADD (not the hyperactivity though). I find rocking/swaying helps me think sometimes when I get stuck. So does pacing. I have a lot of other "stims" I enjoy doing, like rubbing my feet together and swishing my fingers back and forth against one another. But I do not have to do it and do not have any negative consequences if I don't do it. I just like doing it. I don't know if it is related to my ADD or if it is just something I like.