Adults: stimming in general

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Is it like wringing your hands or jumping up and down occasionally?

In answer to Invincible's question about hand-wringing and jumping up and down:

That would be considered a stim if you do it without realizing you're doing it, to soothe an inner feeling of anxiety. Really, almost anything can become stimming behavior if it soothes you. It's weird how we Auties can sometimes feel anxiety over situations that seem like "nothings" to an NT.

So Invincible, do you have a social anxiety disorder? If so, perhaps that should be addressed. I don't think I'd be too worried about whether or not you stim. Also wondering about the jumping up and down-- it's related to stress? My son has a "side-dish" of Tourette's Syndrome (not uncommon in Autism disorders). and jumping up and down has always been one of his tics, usually when he is in situations that involve social contact, which can really stress him out.

I don't really stim, and I never have done. I got out some old videos of me; one in a school play when I was 9, one on a school trip when I was 11, and one of when I was on holiday with my family when I was 13. I sat and watched myself carefully to see if I stimmed a lot in the videos, but I didn't. I blended in with the rest of the children, so if somebody watched it who didn't know me, they wouldn't notice I stand out - because I didn't.
I was happy when I realised I didn't rock backwards and forwards, or flap my hands, or whatever. I think I was fiddling about with my fingers in one of the videos, but I think that was just a little phase I went rhough for a couple of months.

When I was about 6 or 7, apparently I used to shake my right hand when I was talking - but my mum said that was just part of my body language skills developing - and the teachers pointed out that it was good for an Aspie child, because some have trouble with using their hands when talking. Now I'm excellent with using my hands aswell as using facial expressions as I talk. But with the flapping and shaking my hand - I did grow out of it very quickly.

Other than that, I don't think I have any tics or stim-movements. That's just a symptom of AS I haven't got. Not every Aspie has got every symptom.

- rubbing my hands ( people often as me if I'm making evil plans) (public/private)
- bouncing my leg up and down really fast (public/private)
- smelling things, rubbing my fingers on objects then smelling them. (different metals are my favorite) (public/private)
- walking on my toes ( I often scare people because they don't hear me when I walk in to a room) (public/private)
- playing/ curling my hair (public/private)
- touching my face and pressing up my eyebrows with my knuckles so I get better vision of things (public/private)
- talking to myself (private)
- masturbating (private)
- fiddling with my penis and pubic hair (when I'm not trimmed) (private)
- rocking back and forth (private)
- making improvised motions when listening to music (mostly upper body/arms) (private)
- ALWAYS keeping hands busy with something (or I'll go crazy) (public/private)
- peeling of the skin on my fingers with my nails when deep in thought (often) (public/private)
- cracking my knuckles (public/private)
- washing my hands a lot (public/private)

I have an early memory of hand flapping when I was upset (I vaguely remember that I was wrongfully accused of doing something I wasn't supposed to) and my grandmother telling me to stop with a very severe tone. I did, and she said something like 'I thought this phase was over long ago', meaning the hand flapping. I assume that I've been doing it when I was younger.

Now, if I need to stim, I frown a lot and tap my fingers or fiddle with little objects. In any case, I need to occupy my hands so as to get my brain to work so occasionally I might get a grip on someone else's pen or cigarette box and play with it - which might be embarassing. Been thinking of getting a rosary so as to be able to stim when I need to but since I am not religious and it will decidedly look odd, for the present I just try to restrain myself from stimming in public, except for frowning as people around me are pretty much used to it.

Wow, this thread has been very interesting. I was especially amazed to see that there are others who "type on the air." It never occurred to me that this was autism-related, and I have always felt like a complete freak for doing it (it's entirely involuntary for me and sometimes drives me crazy as I try to keep myself from doing it).

I have a ton of little stims (mostly involving my fingers and feet), the vast majority of which have been mentioned here already, so I won't go into them. There is one I do, though, which I haven't noticed anyone else mention, so I will: I like to wear dangly earrings and shake my head to hear the sound they make. Thinking about it, I believe that's the only stim of mine which is auditory.

Ah yes, I actually never stopped to think about it, I do type in the air too, but very rarely. Must be a common trait then.
And I toss my head quite a lot, despite the fact that I wear my hair short and I don't ever try to impress or attract attention of 'the opposite sex', as they call it.As I see it, it's actually the equivalent of tapping the CPU cabinet of a computer if the fan gets too noisy, I toss my hair just to get my head thinking straight again when there's too much buzz inside;-))

I just began to realize that many of my odd behaviors are likely stimming.

There was a period of several months where I had a vocal stim, when I was about ten or so, where I would basically do the Goofey laugh after every sentence. Not a anxious chuckle, but actually very odd. I got severe bullying from family about it, I rarely talked to anyone at school so didn't get anything there, and could always compose myself in class (or so I think?....). I am sure there are more, but I am beginning to almost be concerned about some of my actions... in that I can't be certain what I may do in front of people thinking about it now...

When I am at home alone (I have two room mates), I walk probably miles in the house and very quickly if stressed. Just walk, pace, around this, through that room, back again. When I was young and really stressed, I would go in the back yard at my parent's house and walk in a circle around a tree. I never spun though, except specifically to get dizzy on purpose.

When I am driving, particularly on the way home from work, I can't even describe. I babble, giggle almost manically, talk in word fragments or backwards, open and close the center console very rapidly, slap or hammer my knees, sometimes scream at the top of my lungs, roll the window up and down a few inches repeatedly, tap my foot on and off the brake or accelerator, depending on if I am slowing or going.... (not such to be dangerous or when around cars, I am in a semi-rural area). I am sure there are more. This is almost every day. I don't know if it is stimming, or that I am a weirdo otherwise, because I can't control it if I am alone, but don't do it with a passenger.

In school I would bounce my legs in class, until enough people mentioned it (not till about 10th grade, had done it all through school) to finally learn to jam my knees into the legs of my desk to minimize the movement.

I was medicated when I was eighteen, I started very rapidly twitching my index and middle fingers against my thumbs on both hands. I left a job in part because of ridicule about it. After stopping the meds it mostly went away, but I still do it to this day.

I know I do this at work all the time, when talking to people, etc... tugging my beard excessively. I thought it was normal for people with beards to do it just a little, but I know it is abmormal to do it basically constantly at work.

I have always drummed my fingers, different patterns, horse gallop, and now since I have started playing classical guitar it has transmuted sometimes into different fingering patterns.

I curl my toes alot in my shoes, I pull my arms tight behind my back, crack my knuckles, squint my eyes, facial contortions, bite the inside of my cheek and tongue, the list goes on....

The worst one is that I cannot control saying "I am going to kill myself" under my breath. This has only started within the last three or so years. I don't have bona fide suicidal thoughts, but think about suicide a lot, not in the context of me doing it, but kind of like "what if", at least since I was fourteen, but likely younger. Perhaps I should be concerned by it, but it doesn't bother me outside of being annoying.

One more big one is staring without blinking, at lights, or at empty space. I can't say for sure how long these periods last, but I know they can go for many minutes at least.

Realizations can be hard sometimes...

I am new to the Aspie thing, so have only begun to notice things I do might actually be stimming. In the past I have tended to consciously prevent such things.

Pacing - I found my self pacing in a circle the other day while waiting in a checkout line.
Rocking - Never knew I did it until I starting looking at my movement patterns. I have found I have a very subtle rock that happens rather frequently
Spinning coins (spinning anything, actually. Spinning cubes on their corners is really fascinating)
Fidgeting with small objects
Sitting in odd postures (is this stimming?)
Pinch my thumbs between my middle and for fingers.
I do this finger move/stretch thing
Drum my fingers
Bounce my leg/foot
Sometimes when I start a sentence and the words get a little stuck I do this sort of squint/grimace thing.
My wife tells me my legs move a lot every night while sleeping
Pick at my skin
Rub the palm of my hand across my shaving stubble (I like the scratchy feeling)
I've recently noticed some odd ways of walking and standing.

Probably many others as well.


I noticed that I am religious in stopping these things. I remember harassment by peers and punishment by parents a little too well. Mom bordered on sadistic in her efforts to keep me still.

that's pretty interresting! i thought the rocking and hand flapping was the only thing called stimming, so now i wonder....is eating the inside of my mouth stimming then? pushing on each fingertip with my thumb because i can feel the inside of my nails and it bothers me, so this replaces the diffuse feeling with something more definite....is that stimming? cracking my back? ( i can crack it from top to bottom by leaning backwards but if one vertebra is bothering me i don't have to move, i can crack it by pushing on it with one of my back muscle lol...drives my mother nuts....) what do you define as stimming then?

In public:
Sometimes find myself rocking from side to side while waiting in line
Flick fingers or rub my thumb over tips of each finger over and over
Bounce my foot
Flick tongue against my lower teeth
Bite fingers
Absentmindedly pluck the little hairs off my face using my thumbnail and index finger as tweezers

Private:
Used to hook my foot at the end of the mattress and rock the whole bed until I fell asleep
Flap hands (probably do this in public occasionally too without noticing, especially when startled or excited)
Whole body rocking motion while curling toes back and forth
Used to love heavy blankets until I started getting hot flashes, now not so much.

Forgot to add one I used to do all the time, but not so bad anymore...I would type my thoughts in the air with my fingers, just like I was typing on a keyboard. I started doing this after taking typing my sophomore year of high school and did it up until a few years ago.

Stims:
Rocking left to right while standing
Rocking in seat forward and back
Flapping hands when excited
Rubbing hands together when excited (my sisters called me fire starter.)
Shaking/bouncing leg
picking my skin or my husbands
tapping hands
playing with items
scratching scalp (sometimes to the point of bleeding when under stress)
sometimes i bite my fingers
sometimes i sort of hum a single tone or sound

I avoid rocking in my seat in public
People already notice I'm a little odd because of my clothing and my behavior. I hate having anything else for them to rip me apart for.