Adults: stimming in general

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I bounce my leg, pretty much all the time. It annoys many.

It just comes and goes, I barely even have control over it. Though I can stop if I focus, but I tend to lose concentration of what else I'm doing.

I also tap rhythm. I used to play drums, and still have drumming hands or something. I tend to tap out something syncopated. I just make up whatever on the spot, frequently with a pencil. Often I'll tap my foot on strong beats, and just fill in the rest with my hands.

When I'm very stressed I pace. When I'm really relaxed I sing nonsense scat to myself, never in tune.

Playing with objects in my hand is also common.

Biting finger nails too.

I never really considered much of this as stimming, but I'm starting to think all this is connected to AS.

My main stim is moving my fingers rapidly. I can't explain. It started around age 5, and I'd do it on my nose, like it was really itchy or something. It started when I started reading. Teachers noticed it, I got made fun, and my parents took me to someone. They said nothing was wrong (I didn't stim in front of them.) Before middle school I learned how to hide it by crossing my arms and putting my hands under them. I'm sure people notice I shake a bit as I do it, and probably make weird facial expressions occasionally, but I'm not made fun of and no one ever asks about it. It only happens when I go to my fantasy world or see/hear something about my obsessions (right now, House). The only one whose caught me as a teenager is my mom - she thinks it's weird and gets angry. She noticed it a few months ago for the first time in years - I told her i thought i had autistic tendencies, and left it at that. I pretty much stim whenever I'm not occupied and go into my fantasy world. I also walk on my toes and do other little quirks, but none that are wicked apparent.

I type out the sentences that I'm saying or thinking in my head. I don't type on a flat surface I do it against my other fingers. I don't think other people even notice it (at least I don't think they do) because the movements are pretty small.

I tend to clap up next to my face when I get really excited and I jiggle my right leg up and down a lot. I don't even notice I'm doing that one.

I rocked a lot when I was a kid but I really don't do that one much anymore. Occasionally a little banging my head against the seat in the car when I'm bored but that's about it.

rubbing my arms, rubbing the top of my head, rubbing my beard, tugging on my beard, tapping my fingers in a repetitive pattern on the keyboard (not typing, but with the directional keys as I'm doing something else, which I sometimes notice due to my screen moving XD) on my thigh or on another flat surface, touching the tip of my thumb to the tip of each other finger over and over again, biting my lip, tensing and untensing the same muscle on opposite sides of my body in an alternating pattern.

(In order of how overwhelmed I am-- less to more)
Pick nails
bite my lips/inside of mouth
bounce leg/legs if sitting
spin and twist my hand/arm (usually left)
rock side to side standing; forward to backward sitting
flap hands (left usually, then it moves to both if I continue to spiral downward)
meltdown/shutdown
self-harm after melt/shut as I'm numb

I do all of the above in private and public.

I didn't even realise my behaviors were called stimming until I came here.

Rub eyebrows
Rub feet together
Bite at my bottom lip
I used to twirl and knot my hair then pull it out, about 20 years ago.
S.I(only just realised this was a form of stimming.)

I drive my partner nuts with riffs and songs. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant that had paper place-mats... Sheer delight! I proceeded to cut the edges of my place-mat, and it looked a bit catterpillarish, so I got it to dance and sang the music. Then I imagined it as being a centipede and wearing 100 pink ballet shoes, doing entrechats and dancing en pointe. Then the shoes changed to yellow and lime green. Then luckily for long-suffering partner, the food arrived. And then I had to cut the bits of food I didn't like and put into another place, methodically. Oh, and we ordered pudding first, as I always do.

My fav stim is foot-shaking, which I do everywhere almost constantly. Followed by putting a finger somewhere near my mouth, and waving my fingers about or squeezing my hands together. In bed, I foot-shake till I sleep sometimes, alternatively, I kind of drum or play piano with my toes Otherwise, I shake my legs and when not in public rock or talk to myself. And my very favorite in private is to scrape the ear wax out of my ear and sniff it while rubbing the bottom of my nose with the smooth side of my fingernail. Bliss...

I pull my earlobes
I chew on my lips
I chatter my teeth, and make tunes with them
I hum and sing under my breath
I rock
I flap my hands in 4 different ways according to what sets it off
I wiggle my fingers when I'm thinking
I bounce my hand off surfaces
I tap my fingers
I chew my hands/fingers
I bounce my arms off the sides of my body
I bounce my knees
When I'm sitting down, I bounce my leg off the edge of the chair
I tap my foot
I drum my feet against the ground.

bouncing/jiggling leg
opposing thumb to fingers
twirling pens

vocalisation (if alone)
rocking in chair (usually if alone)

I can relate to most of the stims and just wanted to say- while I used to try to not stim, it takes too much effort. I tried to move toes instead of bouncing leg or wrap my hair around a finger instead of tying a big knot in it and it takes all my concentration leaving me with little functionability to survive other public issues. I just don't care anymore. I was told I was rocking after a car wreck and thought that was beaten out of me before I started school. No matter how hard I try, there is always something to put humans off so why not just be myself and concentrate on surviving?

Sitting here trying to decide if I stim, and clicking my jaw back and forth.

If I am by myself, I rock back and forth. It's involuntary. I just suddently notice I"m doing it. I didn't know that this was called stimming. I'd always wondered what stimming was.

Something else I do is I do weird things with my fingers and toes, to a kind of rhythm or beat. Like, I wiggle the right fingers and left toes, and then the left fingers and right toes, to a sort of rhythm. Kind of wierd. I didn't really notice it (except that I've done it all my life without thinking about it) until my husband brought it to my attention. When I'm sitting next to him and my legs are across his, he sees my toes wiggling, and he feels my fingers wiggling against his arms when he's holding me.

I stim wildly when I listen to mp3 (Music-induced autism?).

Grinding teeth (very bad), tearing at cuticles (sometimes they bleed, gets worse with stress), rubbing fingers together, scratching scalp/back/arms, rotating ankles, rubbing feet together or on something soft, wrapping myself in blankets, walking on tip-toe, sitting in lotus position, crunching potato chips.....

wow. And I sat here wondering if I stimmed.