I stim way more than I thought

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This post is really two things about my stimming.

The first is that over the weekend I realized that I've been stimming way more than I normally do. I don't know why. Yesterday, for a while I was upwards of a few dozen times an hour. Normally, it's maybe once or twice an hour. The quantity was almost disruptive to what I was trying to do at one point with meal prep. Handflapping and arm waving with a sharp knife in your hands isn't neccessarily the safest thing to do. but it didn't really get in the way. I didn't have a problem, but it could have been.

Yesterday, my stimming was mainly one of two things, either vocal scream/sounds, or a combo of hand/arm flapping/waving, upper body cringing, and I closing my eyes as if trying to avoid visual input.

Of course my logical mind is trying to figure out why there was a change in how often I was stimming. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed in my environment, or routine, or with my health other than I got over a flu/cold bug last week, yet I'm stimming away at a level that is way above what I feel as a normal level. My anxiety was randomly off and on over the weekend and today, but the stimming occurred regardless of it being on or off.

Of course, I'm now paying attention to how I stim, and I realize I do more than what I thought were my two main things. I've discovered two other ways I stim that I didn't realize was stimming, and two other ways that I do way more than I thought.

Which leads me to my second point, and that is that I stim more ways than I thought. I'm not going to list them.

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TL;DR
But basically I learn more about myself every day, and I guess I learned over the weekend more about how I stim.




I share this just to get it off my chest. Any thoughts or input are welcome?

...Maybe I tend to " rock back and forth "...maybe . Is that " stimming " ?????????

Rocking is considered to be a very common form of stimming, yes.

I've been learning a lot about my stimming too, in the past few months to a year. So it seems like it's increased for me, but I think this is attributed to two things:
1. Coming to understand what stimming is and learning to realize/notice when I'm doing it, and
2. Based on that new-ish knowledge, realizing how much it helps me cope and thus allowing myself to do things more that I previously wouldn't have done.

I've always noticed that I've done things like rubbing my hands/arms/etc, pressing my ears in response to noises, rocking, tapping patterns, and other things like that. I just never saw anyone else doing these things, so I assumed they were abnormal and tried to suppress them for no good reason. I certainly couldn't find a logical reason for doing them. Now that I understand why I do it, I can think to myself, "hey, I'm stressed out," and I know to start rocking or rubbing in order to make myself feel better before I get too overwhelmed. And I don't try to stop it anymore, either. I guess being aware of my coping mechanisms makes them more effective?

Well anyway. Maybe you're stimming more because of a new stressor, maybe you're just learning more about your stimming. I'm still learning about it so I can only really relate to the latter. The thought of flapping with a butter knife in your hand is really funny, though.

It was a full size sentoku knife. I tried to hold that arm away from the rest of me if I couldn't put the knife down in time.

I rub my hands and whit and bang screwdriver or pencils, hangers. I still think of them as tics because they do not take over. My focus is still on watching TV or reading not these movements. A lot of times I do not even know I am doing them.

I rub my hands and whit and bang screwdriver or pencils, hangers. I still think of them as tics because they do not take over. My focus is still on watching TV or reading not these movements. A lot of times I do not even know I am doing them.

I just went to a transgender support group last night for the first time in almost a year.

I stimmed the whole entire time. And I mean 2 hours non-stop of fidgeting as I tried to not stim, realize I was, moving or repositioning myself so I couldn't, and then realize I just started doing it a different way.

The worst of it was when another meeting in the building we were at got out, and our door was open, and it got loud and, I ended up bent over the table, squinting my eyes, bouncing both legs and rubbing my arms and just trying to not be overwhelmed with everything. As soon as the meeting got out, I got out faster than I've ever gotten out, and got to my car, stimming the whole way with hand/arm flapping/waving. I thought I could handle it, but NOPE, I guess not. It was more than I thought it would be.

I had not known until recently that I lot of my fidgeting, pacing, hand movements, leg shaking, skin picking, etc, is stimming.

"What is?, and What isn't...?" stimming is curious subject. I am described as being on the closer to "normal" end of the spectrum (in that my Aspergers tendancies are very hidden in general). Yet, when I am stressed I frequently feel compelled (subconciously or sometimes knowingly) to respond by pacing back and forth around the room like a caged animal. Other emotional reactions include "playing drums" on my thighs, and foot tapping. Also, pulling my hands over my face and rubbing around my eyes. I've always considered these to be reletively "normal" responces to stress and anxiety, as they seem to be accepted as architypal signs of a stressed individual. To me this points points towards the conclusion that there is no definitive line between NT and Aspie behaviour, but that the "spectrum" seemlessly blends into what may be considered "normal".

What do you think?

I am utterly confused by this statement...as someone with Tourette's, I can assure you that tics absolutely take over. It is not a choice...those who are able to control their tics temporarily will certainly need to express them...much the way you can hold your eyes open, but eventually your body takes over and will force you to blink.

As I saw earlier posts the difference between Stim's and Touretts and tics they said Stim's take over and tics don't. I would assume they were thinking of common tics. But Touretts tics do and was not considered. Which shows you Aspies are not immune to the careless lack of thought and understanding we accuse NT's of.

I'm still a little confused, and itchy, about the subject.
I'm unclear as to what is stimming and what isn't stimming exactly.
Maybe I stim a lot and just don't know it?
I'm pretty fidgety.
I'm always itching, or pushing my hair back, or messing with my clothes, or moving around, at least if I'm not concentrating hard on anything at the moment, and sometimes even when I am I guess.
What part of that is stimming, what part of that is the hypersensitivity, and what part is me just being fidgety?

There are things I don't do as much anymore unless I need to stay still and I'm bored like finding a light or a reflection of one and moving my eyes to make the glare trails make numbers or letters or symbols, or just cool shapes, that I know are a form of stimming.
There are things like rocking which I only do when I'm really upset, which I know is stimming.

I dunno, I guess I stim a lot in ways that most people don't notice most of the time, or if they do they think it's ordinary behavior unless they watch me closely for an extended period of time and notice all the movement.

Just reading this thread made me all itchy for some reason, but it seems to be getting better now.

I am undiagnosed, so I don't know if I could claim these as stims, but I do tap my fingers in rhythm when I'm bored or incredibly stressed out. I also find myself rocking my legs or bouncing my right leg up and down. Like I said, I don't know for sure, so it could be me just being weird. >_>

I just have to say that that is really cool... I kinda wish I had thought of it!

I used to do that with lights quite often when I was younger. Not so much now as my vision is not as good as it used to be and I'm more protective of it then I was before. It's kind of weird but okay that I'm not the only one who did/does that.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

You're the first person I've come across that's said they did/do it.

I didn't actually 'think of it', it's just something I started doing at a very early age.
In fact, most of the time I don't really intend to do it, I just do it without thinking.
Sometimes I only really notice it because someone will ask me what's wrong with my eyes.