Stims and running water

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I've been paying a lot of attention to my stimming over the past several months (that is, since I realized what I was doing was in fact stimming), and I've noticed I have three modes:

Uncommon: No real need to stim. If I think about stimming, actually stimming doesn't really feel like it "comes naturally."
Common (what I am usually like): unconsciously stims. Attempts to stop only work until I stop thinking about "not stimming" (that is, do anything else).
Uncommon: A physical/neurological need/craving for the stimulation/sensation of stimming, sometimes in particular ways, sometimes any at all. This can get pretty intense and I'll be doing multiple stims.

Anyway, that last one? I get exactly the same feeling around running water, I have to put my hands in it or under it and just feel the water flowing. Best if it's lukewarm or cool, but not hot or cold. If I walk past a sink, there's a good chance I'll need to get my hands wet.

I hadn't really thought of it as a stim until now, but really, it's the same need/craving for the sensation as with the other stimming, and more common than say the need to flap/rock/etc.

Mostly a random observation - kind of wondering if anyone relates to the different modes/levels I listed.

Not really....but I do like to sit in front of the electric heater and feel the really hot air blowing onto my hands and arms - even when he's a hot day!

Tut tut. Really bad as it dries your skin out. And all that warm dry air can't be much good for your eyes either.

Like you need that particular sensation? Or want it a lot?

Pacing. Sometimes for hours at a time. I can't relate to the water thing, however, although I do like to watch water streaming from a tap, it's quite soothing. I also like listening to rainfall at night when trying to get some sleep, probably because white noise cancels out all other sounds.

if i'm filling up a class of water or water is involved i have to have my hand under the water first before I do it.
i do enjoy the feeling whether warm or cold water. also I want to make sure it is at the correct temperature so my hand is also a thermometer.

I need to look at the fur on a stuffed animal often. Fortunately, it is in my line of sight, so I don't have to get up from my computer to look at it. I don't need to touch it though. I have found when I look at textures, like the beloved fur, I automatically feel them as well.

As for the rest of the stimming, I stim constantly by default, the only times when I don't stim being when I am sleeping and when I am hyperfocusing. I hate the feeling of not stimming. It's like the feeling of being pressed, not that I have ever been pressed.

I try to avoid getting my dainty furry paws wet though.

I don't need to turn on water, but if its running, I need to feel it. I definitely associate water with very calming sensory inputs.

While its not stimming, my functioning level is definitely strongly tied to water. If I'm having a particularly bad period, get me in my kayak, and I calm down. If I'm aware that I'm overloading an have time to prevent a meltdown or shutdown, I need a bath. Rinsing my face off if I've been crying isn't about making myself look like I was calmer, it is a way to reassure myself with water.

My mother tells me I used to play with water a lot when I was little. I don't remember it myself.

When I notice I'm not stimming, it might be that I am noticing I don't need/want particular stims (like I don't need to rock, but I'm still doing stuff with my hands) so I am not 100% positive I have periods where I'm not stimming except when asleep or hyperfocused, but I've noticed periods where I simply don't seem to stim as much as other times.

I do also have a fear of being underwater and i am a bad swimmer, i get clastrophobic underwater from all of the pressure. I used to have a melt down when ever we had water fights, or someone sprayed me by surprise.

I also used to play with water when I was little. I would put the plug in the hole of the bathroom sink and run the cold water. I liked the sensation of it.

When I went swimming, I'd try to get to the bottom of the deep end of the pool and stay down there as long as I could. It can get really uncomfortable around 8-10 feet or so, though, but I still enjoyed just being there.

I haven't been near a swimming pool since I think 1990, sadly.

ya that's too bad....sounds like you enjoyed it- maybe you should swim in a lake =)

If I'm getting really frustrated or angry, one of the quickest ways to calm me down is running my hands and inside wrists under cold water- Like cooling me physically also cools me mentally if that makes sense. I also love watching the water coming out of a tap or waterfalls or throwing water in the air and watching it ball up and stuff.. And running my hand through bodies of water. I like putting my hands under running water of different temperatures even when I'm not upset.

I pace a lot and only rock when I'm ridiculously upset, but I fidget a lot and I do something that's similar to hand flapping but I don't think it's the same thing, or tap my fingers or clap or blurt out "YAY" and throw my hands up randomly when I'm excited.. There are more but I can't think of them right now. It's rare I'm still, I can't even stay still in my sleep, I think I am fairly still when hyperfocused, though.

Most times it's like your common statement, other it's like your second uncommon one. Rarely it's like the first.

I did this a lot as a child. I don't do it so much as an adult - usually I just have water running from the faucet. And yes, love the sensation.



It's been ages since I've been in a lake. I think the last time I went swimming at a beach was on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. Bodysurfing with the fishes. Literally. They were riding the waves on both sides. Was cool. Until I felt the sunburn, anyway.



I love to run cold water on my inside wrists when I'm overheated. It's amazing how effective it is. I don't recall it helps me calm down, but I don't think I've ever tried.

Something else I do is run really hot water on my hands if they itch (I have cats, I'm allergic to cats), and I get an intense sensation of purging the itch. I finally looked that one up because I first discovered it when a fabric softener I was using actually made me itch all over. Having a shower that could run hot water for an hour with a detachable showerhead was interesting, and helped that a lot. Anyway, I looked that up and found that hot water causes one's skin to release all of its histamines at once, banishing the itching for hours at a time.



I rock much of the time, whatever my emotional state. I rock more if I'm anxious or upset (and it squeezes out the anxiety very effectively). Hand flapping has a lot of manifestations. I've been flapping my entire life but I didn't think what I was doing was flapping when I heard that hand flapping was a common autistic stim, at least not until I saw someone else doing the same thing I was.

I tap my fingers in the rhythm of the "heartbeat" sound from Doctor Who, "The Sound of Drums" or some such thing. I do it all the time on everything. Once when I was really overloaded and talking to my mother in the kitchen, I picked up a spoon and banged it on the steel back of a bar stool-type chair and didn't even think about or realize it until she told me to stop. I usually don't do things like that, though.

I am not as sure about the first as I was when I wrote it because I was tired at the time, and because I have only noticed it a few times and I primarily noticed that one thing I do a lot didn't "feel right", like rocking or flapping or flicking or tapping or something. Often I think I'm not stimming and then I realize I'm stroking the bristles on my hairbrush or the skin on the back of my hand, or generally doing something.

I have also been slowly gathering stim toys, which seems to focus my stimming on those things rather than various movements. I had to use one to avoid distracting my attorney last month, as I was stimming full bore otherwise (excitement/happiness at finally moving forward on the SSI thing, not so much anxiety).