Do older people who have aspergers stim as often?

Post Reply New Topic

Mostly to those 30+ who likely lived without knowledge of aspergers.

Do you stim very often? Or have you learned to supress that urge?

I just wonder this because younger people probably are not discouraged as much as older people might have been.

I'm not sure "as much as young people" is very meaningful if you don't have a particular thing for them to compare to.

For the first choice "I stim as much as young people with aspergers" assumes you know or have known people with aspergers. Also I would have thought most of the 30+ people have probably spent much of their lives unaware of what stimming and aspergers was.

I stim much less than when I was younger. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I (eventually) did know that people would find it weird, or at best, annoying. At age 11 or so I consciously turned finger wriggling into finger tapping. And in high school I re-directed that into my toes. I was lucky in that my parents never made anything of it (including some intense and frequent hand-flapping around age 3-5), but they were always weirdly blind to a lot of odd behaviors, probably because they both have ASD traits themselves.

Now, I have health problems that lower my energy level a lot, which lowers the nervous-energy/pressure to do it. OTOH, I have also relaxed a lot about it so some of the old ones have come back (a little).

So nowadays it's things like rhythmically clicking the mouse for no reason, occasionally pounding my computer chair's armrests, and sometimes the fingers-in-front-of-the-eye thing. And some others that I'm probably forgetting. All pretty subtle stuff.

I stim a lot, and rather obviously. I've always been like this, at least as far as I can recall. I don't hold much of it back, but I don't know how obvious a lot of it is. I mean some of it is pretty obvious but I don't do it all the time (like flapping).

I am not sure that I stim as much as I did as a child - there were a lot of stims I did all the time that I no longer do.

(Disclaimer: I'm not diagnosed with anything)

Real hard core hand-flapping and other repetitive hand movements I used to do only in childhood and teenage years, to the point of exhaustion sometimes.

In adult life it became limited to not more than 30 minutes at a time as and when I wanted to switch off and have some harmless fun.

In later life it has become briefer and more marginal (5 minutes a few times a day maybe).

As far as I`'m aware I only do it to go into my private world.

I probably stim as much now as any other time in my life.

_________________
An Asperger's man who has Autism Spectrum Disorder level 1- mild, with a sprinkling of Synesthesia.

I'm not sure I've ever done anything one could call stimming.

When I was a kid I sort of peeled at my fingernails a lot, with the nails on the other hand, until they were down to the quick. I never did bite my nails. I just _had_ to do it, for no reason that I know. I just stopped doing it as an adult. I never did anything obvious, like rocking or hand-flapping. I may have spun in circles a few times, for the dizzy feeling, but I think probably all little children do that. I didn't do it much, or feel that I needed to do it.

sorry meant to add an (Other? Explain) option but though i typed it in i must not have hit the ok button on it.

I stim all the time. I love to stim. I am a big proponent of stimming.

As an older autistic, I can say yes I do.

It's true I didn't know what a stim was during most of my life. The best I can recall I've always had stims. Visual - spinning objects, hand(s) before the eyes, seeing cartoon-like characters in random patterns; smells - some objects with fancy smells like new books, my own body; repetitive movements - jumping on the bed and spinning as a kid, although fidgety stuff isn't my primary way of stimming, it annoys me when I see others doing it so I suppressed it in myself; touch - objects in my mouth, fingers/hands at my lips/brows/eyes, biting hair on hands, nose picking, touching myself (oh gees...).

My father and sister fidget like hell sometimes. I think the way I stim the most has changed but my need to do hasn't. I guess my overall need to stim is reduced by doing physical exercise like cycling and swimming.

I never knew there was something called "stimming" until I started studying Aspergers & autism. However, I probably do stim...not sure what else to call it. I can go for a dry spell for awhile, & then I start in again. Sometimes it's out of boredom or frustration. I never know exactly what triggers it. But I crack my jaw (loudly apparently), & when I start I have trouble stopping. Been doing this since I was a young toddler (clearly remember doing it-loved hearing the air swishing in my ears is why I started). I usually do it when I'm alone but not always. That's my most noticeable stim, but I have others.

I am 46 years old (diagnosed with Asperger's) and I stim as much as I did when I was a child. So I selected that I stim as much as young people with Asperger's.

aspergers worsens as you get older, I probably stim more than when i was younger,

I also like to watch other people stim, including little stims like hair twisting and rubbing their fingers against something. I heard that some people get anxious when they see others fidget, but others fidgeting makes me feel calm and relaxed.