stimicry

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I made up a word today. Stimicry.

Stimicry is the combination of the words "stim" and "mimicry". I don't really have a good working definition for it. Anyone care to contribute to a definition? And perhaps examples?

Or is "stimimicry" better? Pronounced with a raising inflection between the first "m" and second "i" with the inflection flattening out at the "y".

Yes, I know I should be doing something more important than having word combinations pop in my head and proposing proper pronunciations for the made-up words. It's been a slow day...

not sure that's how it works in reality -
i believe the concept is supposed to precede the word

it is how it works in poetry though, or may work at least
so let's see:

it must then be:
copying stimming behaviour, i.e. looking like one is stimming
but actually, whether or not consciously, one is NOT stimming

to what unconscionable purpose? the mind boggles

ah. I suppose in my head I was framing the word in a different way. Like how an aspie might appreciate the sensory jouissance of impersonating voices, mannerisms, or abstractions. Or how we might use reflexive copycat strategies to try to blend-in in the non-autistic world.

Last edited by aguales on 16 Apr 2008, 1:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

What I think of on seeing that word is Echopraxia, or copying others' actions subconciously or involutarily.

Only the action being mimicked or copied would need to be the stim of another person or the mimicry itself would need to be the stim of the person copying.

The act of falsely stimming.

I would stay stimicry is when you are stimming and someone copies you. I was once having trouble with eye contact at an informal meeting and there was someone there who was copying me with my head movements. Thats stimicry.

My definition would be "the psychological process where one individual appears to receive an energy boost after a close friend of theirs takes a stimulant such as caffeine"

one person mimicking another's stims is my definition. i've even seen it done. and done it myself.

i picked up one of my most annoying stims from someone i know who is diagnosed ADHD.

[1] aha, the joyfully soothing wonders of echolalia
(including birds & other vociferous animals i hope)...

[2] reflexive copycatting? please exponder...
US mimicking THEM to blend into NT-land?

i'm off for a whimsical think into lalaland - au rêveoir

ps: how do you impersonate an abstraction?

I'd have gone about a completely different definition.

An autistic person is copying a non-stim action from another individual (person, animal, from pictures, films) and tada... the autistic person has gained a new stim.

Copying stims for nonsensical reasons such as mockery?

I take it I should think more accusing and hostile.

firstly, did that copying lead to any reciprocity, i.e. did how did you respond -
(non-response=ignoring included)? i ask, because

secondly, your post lead me back to a lovely little contact that was established by the mimickor (me the mimickee)

once upon a time - and it is some time ago believe you me, grumps spoke after clearing his throat, sitting up, left hand fingers stimmingly roaming about the chin in a rather reflexive manner - i found myself in one of those social loungy areas where one can sit by a table and possibly get service if the hours are right, while in transit - which is the most empty way of waiting

i was on the ferry, taking a slowboat to merry old england, i'd seen it before, i had been there & done it, and had been hugely overcharged for procuring the appropriate undergarment - so there was nothing for it but to set aside my perpetual but then unidentified executive dysfunction, and start a bit of writing

when in public transit, i always carry something to read or write or puzzle to keep myself seen to been occupied, hoping not to get approached by the average other -
i don't mind being approached and torn into conversation, it's just so rare that it leads to anything interesting, and i do NOT want to be at the mercy of such a coincidental fellow traveller if (s)he turns out to an absolute bore

this then is a preventative occupation, but my eyes are always looking around - i do like to watch people - aspies are not the only ones to dislike being seen in the eye, by the way.
the table next to the one next to mine offered transitory shelter to a rather annoyingly loud family, especially annoying as the noise emanated mainly from the adult part of the family

not included in their going-ons was a little girl of five years at the most - she had crayons and paper - and she was watching me make my notes - and i know (which only means i have no proof & cannot possibly know for sure) the little temptress was mimicking me by making as if she were writing herself, in order to get my attention and she was playing me when she did - i of course was happy to oblige

it is deeply nice to establish real contact with no verbal static

so now we know: stimicry exists & it's contagious, it must be a virus:

undeliberately & against one's mental well-being
copying & pasting someone else's stimming

i suppose copying/imitating one's stim for bullying-satirical purposes would be called stimockery

lol, it sounds like what annoying NT salesmen do, you know the ones who've been taught to copy the other person's mannerisms because they think it will increase their chances of a sale? it just cracks me up seeing them trying to 'deliberately' copy my stims!

i've seen this happen between aspies too, once there was this woman who had a really annoying echolalia, she really couldn't help it despite putting in a lot of effort to control it. well there was this guy with AS who saw her 'getting away' with it, so quite deliberately started to copy it and develop his own echolalia which really annoyed everybody else, and whenever anyone told him to stop being so annoying he just said she was allowed so he should be too, despite the fact that she put in so much effort to not annoy people (and he put in absolutely no effort at all), he was the sort of person who used his AS (or anything else) as an excuse to be irritating and annoying - but at the same time he always accused everybody else of using their AS as an excuse whenever anyone did the slightest thing to annoy him!! !

What happens whenever my friend Joel and I get together.

Seriously, somehow, whenever we get together, we end up both doing the same stims, and since both of us have unconscious echopraxia, we rarely figure out which one was doing it first.

We always called it "synchronized stimming" though.

simmicry (also: symmicry), not otherwise specified (incl. asd)

not just a catchilly contagious bug then, but a definitely airborn virus
with acute effectiveness, no firm information yet on long term effects

Yeah, I guess I mean mimicking certain NT behavior patterns. And if these patterns are absorbed into an aspie's mind, the aspie may stim from these adopted patterns.



Hm. It made sense when I typed it at the time, now I'm kind of at a loss for words. Let's see...I think what I meant relates to my response to your "US mimicking THEM to blend into NT-land" comment. By impersonating, I meant acting out certain abstract ideas like "being religious" or "being a hipster" or "being a good worker". They're abstract because they are ones ideas of what a religions person is or what a hipster is or what a good worker is, at the same time these abstract ideas come with a baggage of behaviors. I guess, I meant, that by mimicking and practicing these behaviors, one is attempting to impersonate an abstraction.



Truly.



I've done it, too. And it surprised me how quickly I can pick up another's stims.



I've guilty of this, too. Especially films. Films kind of became a subconcious window into learning new stims or behavior patterns.

On a different note, when one starts to question or critically analyze one's stim, is that the first step in breaking free from the stim? And when we see repeated patterns in "NT-land" do we frame those as stims and attempt to question and critically analyze those in attempt to break free from any kind of NT-centric, herd mentality?