Adults- how much hand flapping do you do?

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I don't hand flap as much anymore, except in the same situations. I also find myself flapping about when I am extremely anxious or having a panic attack. Nevertheless, for the most part, I have learned to control this tendency.

I hand flap a heck of a lot.

Mine is heavily tied into my
visual stimuli. I can essentially
see movies when I flap. There
have been a couple of others here
that do that, as well.

It's approximately equal to the images
that I get through masturbation, but
without any sexual connection.

More or less stopped for a couple of
years, but have taken it up again. Something
I missed greatly.

My wife only did it when upset/excited. For
me, 'tis a SOURCE of excitement, rather than
a release.

I hand flap when I'm hurt, or very upset. The more upset, or in pain that I'm in the faster, and more noticable the flapping is. I also jump up, and down most of the time when I flap. I do this sort of flap where I straighten my right arm to my side, and flick my wrist back, and forth really fast where my thumb is rubbing against the hem of my jeans. I do this constantly, and without realizing it. I will often times have something in my hand while doing it like keys, a pen, or paper. There's a few more movements that I do with my hands, but they're not quite flapping.

I have to kick my legs at night before I can go to sleep. I think the repetitive movement relaxes me. I think its similar to hand flapping I guess.

Hm, no, I haven't handflapped. From the videos I've seen, it actually looks painful.

But speaking of pain, when I am in extreme pain, such as during the unexplained headaches I get, I have a tendency to twitch one of my feet violently at the ankle. It keeps me sane while I wait for the pain to subside. My father experiened the same headaches, also undiagnosed, and reacted with the same twitching.

Let's see..i know I hand flapped alot when I was little....as an adult...it will come up unexpectedly in different scenarios..i have different kinds of hand flapping...my excited hand flapping is decidedly different from my stressed out hand flapping.

Really I am prone to do this thing where I sorta "pat the air" if that makes sense...my hands will shake, but it is not a full-on-flap....maybe because I am just mildly AS(just kidding)

hi there everyone,

hmmm,handflapping? Yep I do that! LOL....not as much as i did as a child...but im 25 now and i notice myself handflap when im happy or if i get a happy thought..at times i do it when upset...i also clap at times if im really really happy.....i see nothing wrong with handflapping...i say if your happy and you know it flap your hands! LOL...haha.... although I dont do it in public as much because of the werid looks people can give you...but all the same i do it..."soceity" puts to much on people to all act a certain way...i say just be yourself if you handflap or your dont and let people deal with it....its your life...do whats makes you happy!!

Haha, thanks, that made me laugh out loud.

no problem!

No hand flapping. I had this stim when I was a child, whereby I would lie on my right side, put my left hand on my left ear with my elbow sticking out front, and roll back and forth... Apparently I did something like that when I was an infant, that's why my name is "Roland"! I don't do it anymore, I get nauseous and sick if I do.

Sometimes with my "stim" music playing (I like hearing it again and again...) I do a little dance!

Very interesting. I've started a thread asking about stimming in general.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt46125.html

As I've said in another thread about stims :

I used to do that (hand flapping) intensively from 6-14 years old when I watched someone else play a video game... I could also do that for half an hour when I was in my imaginary world, thinking about an action sequence I made up in my mind and could almost see. I still do that sometimes when I listen to music or play a computer game (Im 25 now). I know it might seem quite strange... its no wonder I strongly believe I have AS.

I never do that in public thought, and have no problem controlling it. My father was really upset when I did it as a teenager, so I learned to do it only when I'm alone. It's a self stimulating behavior for me ; I never do that when I'm stressed, anxious or angry. I'd be curious to learn what effects it has on my brain (probably lots of dopamine released), as I feel greatly energic after I've done it. I tried to stop hand-flapping for a while, but whenever I listened to music or played a video game I felt like there was something missing.

I'm not quite proud of that, and I don't have many other stims... I bite my nails sometimes but that's all. And I don't think I am more severely affected by AS (or autism) than the average person here... so don't judge me to harsh on that. We're here to discuss our issues right?

Do you hold your hands in front of your eyes when you flap? That is what I do when I flap my hands. I think it's a visual stim. When they show those kids on Youtube flapping it looks nothing like how I do it.

No, I dont hold my hands near my eyes. My arms move when I hand-flap, so it's a combination of hand-flapping/arms moving around. My eyes are generally fixed on something, and I'm really in my head when I do it.

Both Big Bang and Calendale most closely describe my experience; an intense physical flapping to the film filed in my head. I stopped, though, when I was close to adulthood, because it struck me as being something very peculiar and socially unacceptable...maybe I should not have given a flip, but I put myself in a situation where I never had the "alone time" to flap.

Now, after having discovered Asperger's, I understand what all the flap was about and I certainly would not pass judgement on anyone for their stims. The urge to do so can be overwhelmingly strong and there might be hidden benefits.