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Toucan
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26 Sep 2011, 9:43 pm

The way I most commonly stim depends on my position. Sitting it is drumming and tapping, usually on my head, sometimes on object and other parts of my body. Standing is pacing. This is my favorite stim, it has a powerful effect to focus my thoughts. The other day I caught myself rocking while sitting, hardly ever do that, that i notice anyway. As a child it was spinning. It makes me nauseous to think about it now, but I would spin until it was impossible stand, watch the world spin on my back, and then go at it again once i sufficiently regained equilibrium. What are your most common stims, and how do they help you, or do they hinder? I prefer to be able to stim, but i can suppress the urge if necessary, in public. I know some people have less ability to turn those impulses off . . .



pensieve
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26 Sep 2011, 9:50 pm

When I'm stressed out, exhausted or mentally drained I flap my hands. My most common nervous stim is clenching fingers in and out or almost squeezing something I've got hold of, like the arms of the chair.
I do vocal stims too, which can either be from exhausted from a long stressful day or to drain out people talking in the next room. It sounds like "buuuur, buuuur buuuurrr.' Very annoying. :D

I used to spin around too when I was young then I'd try to walk while still dizzy.

edit: I have some severe hand flapping while jumping up and down on a trampoline. Both hands. And once I stop moving I'm still doing it.


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Last edited by pensieve on 26 Sep 2011, 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Willard
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26 Sep 2011, 9:58 pm

Redacted.



Last edited by Willard on 01 Oct 2011, 9:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tuttle
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26 Sep 2011, 10:23 pm

I'm not sure the order but I think my most common ones are:
- Clasping my hands and self massaging of my thumbs with the other thumbs
- Holding onto my wrists with my other hands
- Fingerspelling
-Finger twisting

I also do things like rocking, but not as common as these.

The fingerspelling one is interesting. I never could spell outloud in school, if I wrote something down I could spell it but I couldn't orally. I took an elective in sign language in high school and somehow realized that I actually could fingerspell and then spell something orally almost as good as if I wrote it down first. Fingerspelling is processed in a different part of my brain than speaking it seems. From this it turned into a stim and a method to try to figure out what I'm saying when stressed out. It's one that people rarely realize is a stim and actually does a ridiculous amount in allowing me to speak when am stressed out.



PTSmorrow
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27 Sep 2011, 2:43 am

Rocking back and forth when sitting, also during meals, flapping one or both hands, intertwining and turning fingers and hands, feet and legs shaking, rubbing my head. All kinds of shaking and rocking, picking my shirt and pulling it off the chest. Someone recently told me i make gutturual sounds like i'd hawk or growl but i'm completely unaware of it.

When stressed out, especially due to anger, i repeat single words or sentences for hours, sometimes combined with flapping or rubbing and the only way to stop the cycle is to focus on something else, an activity that requires close attention (or sex. I know how this must sound but it's actually helping me.)

I use homemade squishy toys i.e., balloons filled with some flour, in many different ways like rolling it between my palms, pulling, squeezing, shaking, throwing from one hand to the other, and so forth. That's one of my fav's and i need to have at least one in my pocket when leaving the house.



cathylynn
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27 Sep 2011, 3:18 am

wiggling the thumb and first two fingers of my right hand. you can even see it in my wedding video as i walk down the aisle.

when i have a strong emotion, i rub my hands together the way most folks would if their hands were cold.

in gradeschool, i used to chew my hair. i stopped after getting low grades under the category "is neat and clean".

in gradeschool, i also used to wave my feet around under the desk as if keeping time to music, but there was no music. my mom called me fidgety.



viera
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27 Sep 2011, 3:26 am

I rock back and forth and while standing I go around in circles though in public it takes all my might to try to stim without being noticed.



MrMagpie
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27 Sep 2011, 4:14 am

While sitting, I'll rock back and forth. While standing, I'll rock side to side. I sometimes also click my nails together.

When I'm especially mentally exhausted, I find that the pain involved in biting or chewing at the inside of my cheeks or pressing a nail into the spot just below my lower lip is really soothing.



Maje
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27 Sep 2011, 4:20 am

I dont have a stim.

Im smoking, dont know if that counts?



TheMatrixHasYou
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27 Sep 2011, 6:13 am

#1: PACING. I pace all the time, I seriously can't stand still. I pace not just when I'm nervous, but when I brush my teeth, when I'm alone, just so I can focus my thoughts. When I was getting my module results for my GCSE's, I was so nervous my legs started moving automatically.I'm not lying.
Also #1: TALKING TO MYSELF. I don't know whether this counts as a stim or a coping mechanism, but it comes out automatically. I script out conversations I'll have with people in the future, in fact I've scripted this one countless times.

#2: Rocking/Swaying: I need a good chair to rock. My sister's swivel chair has one of the rolly things missing from the bottom of one of its legs which makes it easy to rock on. :) At school, I sway and bounce off a wall gently, when I talk to people. I must have been doing this unconsciously before, because no-one seems to notice. :lol:

#3: Rubbing face/Smelling fingers: A familiar scent keeps me calm. :)



Basagu
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27 Sep 2011, 9:32 am

1: i move my head left/right/left/right for like 1/2 hours before i go to sleep (I never heared about this stim, anyone got information about it?)

2: i bite my cheek/lips

3: I pull small pieces of skin from my finger tips

Thats about it for me.


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Burzum
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27 Sep 2011, 10:07 am

Pacing.



MagicMeerkat
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27 Sep 2011, 10:14 am

Knuckle cracking


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Zexion
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27 Sep 2011, 10:48 am

The most common stim is probably is Pacing. Even my NT brother does it a lot.

My most common stims are pacing and staring at my hand.



Sibyl
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27 Sep 2011, 12:37 pm

Maje wrote:
I dont have a stim.

Im smoking, dont know if that counts?


That's actually interesting! I don't think that I have a stim, but I'm a totally addicted smoker. I wonder how many undiagnosed people in the world use smoking as stimming? Of course, a lot of NTs are hooked, too.

Then there are a lot of people who just can't sit still: if their legs are crossed, they're wiggling the suspended foot, stuff like that. I wonder whether those are stims?



Jay27
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23 Dec 2011, 11:02 pm

I had a lot of different stims when i was younger, like running in circles on a trampoline, half flapping, or pacing. This is before i was diagnosed (what the hell were my parents thinking?) At a really young age i was comfortable doing it in public but i remember becoming self conscious about it once a "friend" brought it up at school (i stopped doing it at recess by 2nd grade).
By the time i was 11 i began stimming to music. I also started locking myself in my room and closing the blinds so nobody would see me. By the time i was diagnosed at 15, my stim had mellowed down to just tapping or bobbing my head to music. I still tap and drum on my legs whenever im in a nervous situation. I've been smoking now for about a year, it helps with various other problems, and i think it substitutes for stimming.

Sorry for any typos i'm running off of 3 hours of sleep.