What is your stim?

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Rocking, touching my eyelids with my fingers, squeezing my head with my knees, moving my feet back and forth underfoot, gnashing.

Yeah, I'm ashamed of it and try not to show my stims.

I have a specific pattern that I drum out with my fingertips. If the thumb is 1, it goes 1 3 2 4 5 3 4 2, repeat over and over quickly. "Air drumming" in general is something I tend to do quite a bit of.

There's a variation on this that I do almost as frequently, and I'll be lucky if my explanation makes any sense at all. Basically, I start on the first note of a melody with my third finger, if the intervals go up I go up a finger, and likewise with downwards intervals. I keep going until it goes out of the range of my hand + 1 interval on either side. I started this in high school when my band was playing Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and I realized that the middle of the second movement fits perfectly under the hand in this way. Try it for yourself...if you dare! (starting at 2:32) [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04JrGoSyDxg&feature=related[/youtube]



Tugging at my face is another. I can't believe I've never had an acne problem, because I'm touching my face pretty much constantly. Rubbing my eyes and pulling my ears, too. Man, it feels weird to write this stuff out.

I rock a bit, and hum droning pitches sometimes, which I've heard are two of the most common ones.

My office chair both swivels and leans back, and I will probably wear it out before it's time. I twist my ring finger on my left hand, I don't know why, and it stays sore all the time, When I sit barefooted, I pull my toes on my left foot into different directions with the big toe of my right foot, or with the outside edge of my right foot. I gnash my teeth to the rhythm of the music that constantly plays in my head. I remember I started that habit when I was fifth grade. I was being criticized for being distracting in class because I hummed and tapped my foot to the rhythm of the music in my head. I needed something that would allow me to respond to what I was feeling inside without making noise, so I started beating out the rhythm using my teeth. That was a bad habit to form, because it still makes noise that can make some people's skin crawl, and when I am doing it, my mouth is moving at a time folks assume it shouldn't be, but I have yet to figure out a way to end that habit without going crazy. It all sounds very childish to most folks I expect.

It is nearly impossible for me to keep my feet still. I used to chew my inner lips, but I have managed to break myself of that for the most part. I consider laying in bed, a form of stimming. I lay on my stomach with heavy covers over me. This is extremely calming to me. I consider listening to stimulating music a form of stim. Saying certain words feels good, so that is a stim. I have stim toys on my desk that help me use acceptable stims, as opposed to unacceptable stims that make me look weird. I have tried every way I can think of to stop stimming, and I simply can't. I am evidently just not wired that way.

The Internet is probably the biggest stim I have. I'm probably addicted, but oh well.

I also tend to rock in my chair often; I also like to pop my knuckles.

Another one of my stims is coffee.

I flap my arms when I'm frustrated (like when too many people are talking to me at once).

I sometimes rock back an forth when I'm alone.

When I'm not, I hum. I think this one is probably the most efficient one.

I also drum with my fingers.

I wag my toes.

I might have more, but these are the most obvious ones.

I use to flap my arms when I was a child, but now I wiggle back and forth a lot especially if listening to music.

I play with my juggling sticks when i have them on me. It's a pretty awesome way to stim and it has even gotten me some money (from tips on the street) in the past.
When I don't have my sticks I will generally fiddle with things. I flip a silver dollar around and around in my hand, I twiddle my pointer and ring fingers together and sometimes I snap my fingers really fast (usually when I am stressed out about something). I also flap my hands when I am excited about something. Also, don't know if this counts but I talk to myself all the time.

Pace back and forth, not ashamed of it as long as I am not getting in anyone else's way, my home is filled with corners so I don't got much distance to pace and most people pick up on my stim almost instantly when I do it.

[quote="willmark"]

I have stim toys on my desk that help me use acceptable stims, as opposed to unacceptable stims that make me look weird. quote]




I too have stim toys my cousin would make them for me and i would test them out i remember doing that it was awsome and i used to play with bits of string and elastic it was a stim for the mind cuz i was away for me to escape into my imagination if that dosent sound weird

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Youtube killed the video star!


My favorite letter is the squiggly! ~

I got caught doing a stim today at college. My ripping every piece of paper up around me and lining it up or rolling it around my fingers and that, it's just so satisfying! Anyway my teacher asked infront of the whole class whether I'm having fun destroying his boxes people were giggling and I pretended to laugh a long but dying of embarrassment inside. Can't you let me stim in peace without making a show of it? Jeez