Stimming...

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Until I found out what stimming was a month or so ago, I wasn't aware that it's called stimming, or that the things that I do actually have a category. It depends on the situation for me, so I suppose I've found several outlets over the years...

If I get really excited about something but I know that I can't speak aloud, my leg starts jumping a lot, when I'm sitting. If I'm standing, if I get extremely excited, I'll start to jump up and down or shuffle/gallop from one foot to the other, or I'll start flapping my hands. I'm also a compulsive 'chewer'. I've chewed my nails since I could remember and I just can't stop [as in I will bite them off and chew on them, sometimes for hours]. But I went through a stage for a couple of years where, on top of nail biting, I was chewing on straws. Another year or so later, I was chewing on balsa wood. Sometimes to stave off that feeling, I'll chew gum, and have chewed it for days straight...

But the most apparent is that I sing. I sing a lot. As in, a lot. As in, in my everyday comments people will repeat or mock me lightheartedly after I've said something as simple as, "No thank you!" because it has been done in a very sing song voice. I think for this reason that I like music so much is that I can't say that I have a monotone voice. And if I have to remain quiet, I'll drum my fingers on invisible keys. I also do other things a lot, but these are the more notable ones. Other than that, when I'm thinking a very troubling thought, I can only sometimes stop thinking about it by going, "HUH!" Or singing out a single note. It's as if I'm exhaling these troubling thoughts for the moment, until they resurface.

Not really anyone's concern, but... The font is really small because I want to share this but I don't at the same time, but I really hate blogging...although this can be considered blogging...

Oh lordy yes, I do that.
All. The. Time.
When reading. When eating. When walking. When shopping.

I hardly ever stop - except when I get a bit wrong and have to back-track and replay it.
Is yours just for the rhythm or are you playing tunes/melodies?

Maybe off topic, but what is stimming? I've heard the term here awhile back and have been curious to it's definition ever since. I've even asked my psychologist and she hadn't ever heard the term.

How can a psychologist not be familiar with stimming? That's frightful.

According to Autism Wiki, "Stimming is a repetitive body movement that self-stimulates one or more senses in a regulated manner. "

There is an old thread here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt46125.html with a lot of examples of stims.

Personally, I stim a lot, but it's almost always in some tiny way which others wouldn't notice (I don't do much of the stereotypical rocking and hand-flapping, which are the ones people always mention when defining stimming--they should probably use more varied examples). For example, I like to turn small objects in my fingers, I move my thumb toes up and down, move my feet in a rhythmic way (this is probably the most outwardly obvious thing I do), etc.

I sing a lot too. Though...I'm not sure why.

I sing when I'm excited, I sing my comments to people, they look at me, because I'm off tune for one and two it sounds pretty weird.

I sing a lot, too, but I mostly only do it when no one's around. Or at karaoke.

I don't stim, but I have an Asperger's cousin Gwennie who will jump up and down, hand flap, hop from leg to leg, do that weird "leg bopping" thing, chatter her teeth, swish around, twitch, etc. Is that stimming?
Once her doctor asked if she had Tourette's because she walked in on one of her stimmy moments. She even tried to get her blood tested, but Gwen is terrified of needles.

If repetitive typing and posting is considered stimming, I must be doing alot of stimming.

I didn't realize I was stimming (although I know what stimming is) until I wanted to find out what particular stims looked like and realized that I either had done them as a child or still do them.

I don't mind admitting it here.

She didn't seem to know when I asked, but she gave a guess that was pretty close to the definition you gave so I think she may have heard the term and forgot



I think I do some of that kind of stuff. Like I spin a pen in a counter-clockwise motion while making it pass through the spaces between my fingers and make the pen come around full circle and can do it almost indefinitely. I do this when I'm concentrating on something like a drawing. I think it's outwardly noticeable because I've had people say it's cool and ask me how to do it. I can't do it very well when I'm trying to do it for people... but when concentrating on my art I can do it flawlessly

Thank you for the explanation Kaybee

Quite welcome. That could certainly be a stim.

Yes, I do that quite often as well. My father can't stand it because he said it's unbelievably distracting, but to me, it's so soothing to be doing something with my hands. My parents can't stand a lot of my stimming because of how they think people view me, but they didn't realize that I just couldn't stop -- literally. Now that I know what it is, I'm angry that they would force me to stop, especially because I don't think people's views of me change when/if they see me stimminig, especially in less 'abnormal' ways, at least I don't think so...

My parents know nothing of Aspergers...I've been going to counseling for the past month to find out if I do indeed have Aspergers [which they don't know about either]. But the more I see things on this website, and the more I found out some of the symptoms, the more sure I am.

I also cup my hands on my jaws, or sit covering my mouth a lot. I think it was a self conscious move for me because I clench my jaws all the time or smile too much in very bad situations, but my mother has made it very clear that it is 'unbecoming' of a woman...

I read somewhere, that there are different types of stims. Two that I do very often that go unnoticed by people are the 'squinting' or the 'fading' visual stims:

Taken from http://life-with-aspergers.blogspot.com ... -feel.html

I've tried describing to people these two things -- especially the fade, because when I get really concentrated on a speaker, I stare at him until he starts to literally have a glowing aura and everything else has turned to grey. No one has believed me when I've described this, but now I really understand it. I do the squint often as well...

So many things...

I aparently stim in my sleep.

Stimming is my biggest problem.


When I get excited, I jump back and forth and flap my hands. Even I have to laugh at myself

When I have to talk to people, I rub my shoulder, neck, and face. I also hold my elbows.

When I'm extremely anxious, I pick at my skin (not to mutilate myself, but without thinking about it).

When I'm reading or writing, I rock back and forth.

When I'm laying down, I rhythmically move my legs. I even sleep like this.

I also stim in my breathing. I take sharp inhales/exhales and pass air through my teeth to satisfy some weird impulse.

I stim, too.

Ever since I learned typing in high school, I catch myself typing in my head. Sometimes I do it with my fingers also. I never thought of it as a stim but maybe it is. My youngest son has autism, but I've never been diagnosed with anything.