Unusual head and body movements

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In about November 2007 I developed a head twitch for two days that I just could not stop. My head constantly went quickly from left to right and was seemingly impossible to prevent. When I knew someone was looking at me I was able to control it, but the second they turned away the twitch came back with twice the force.

After a couple of days it subsided, but I have been left with the same head movement compulsions, just not all the time.

Now I find that if I think of something bad (like "I made such a fool of myself today") my head twitches/spasms (I don't know what other word would explain it). This seems to have superceded something I used to do which was to clench my fist and dig my nails into my skin. I also used to have very slight body twitches where my stomach muscles would tense up quickly as if I'd forgotten to hold my body upright for a second.

My head also twitches when I feel on edge or unsettled, but also comes when I'm relaxing. Sometimes it turns into a full swaying of my head from side to side in what I imagine to be like the number 8 on it's side, but only when no-one else is around (this is only a recent thing as far as I know).

The phone just rang (which I hate) and without even thinking about it I suddenly found my head swaying from side to side, followed quickly by small head wobble movements.

What could this be? Is this a normal thing for anyone with anxiety or is it a sign of something more sinister? Could it be seen as 'stimming', or does stimming have to have occurred for all your life?

I unintentionally use my head and neck as reference points. My head twitches in specific ways when people look at me. I think it's a stim. When I am alone reading or on the computer I often move my head around in patterns that follow aspects of what I am experiencing. Doing this helps me to integrate sensory data into coherent units.

I have bad head twitches sometimes, sometimes their bad, like they hurt my neck, sometimes their just plain annoying. But I also have tourettes, have you ever looked into seeing if you might have tourettes? Just like autism, how stims come and go, tics can come and go as well. My tourettes wasn't really big growing up, now as an adult i guess since i have more stress, my tics have been alittle bit more noticable.

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

I don't *think* it's tourette's, I've never experienced anything like it before and I have been in far more stressful situations (exams, university work etc).

There are still stresses in my life though so I just wondered if this was an outward way of releasing the tension? I don't do any exercise but haven't really done any for years, maybe that would help?

I do head "tic"-type things all the time. Jerk my head from left to right. It's not really voluntary, I don't think.

I felt like I had to do certain things with my head and eyes and hands and whatever in order to help free part of my soul that was trapped, when I was splitting in half (one half in heaven and the other half in hell) the day I took some stimulant pills, drank coffee, drank some alcoholic beverage (beer or tequila, I forget which), smoked pot, took one or two other, over the counter antidepressant tablets I think, took some daily legal natural over-the-counter "smart drugs", and I was withdrawing from Celexa. I was trying to free the part of my soul that was trapped without trapping the part that wasn't, trying to inflict the least damage to get the most of my soul out that I could.

About tics. Tics appear without Tourette's. Quite frequently too. in autism, there can be tics too, besides stims and repetitive movements.

Thanks Sora, useful information there. I think it must've been a tic to start with, and now I guess it's an anxiety thing or something!