Do you chew?

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I've seen brief mention of chewing being a characteristic of autistic children, usually those who have 'classical autism', and I wonder whether it's also something many of us on the other end of the spectrum or adults have in common too.

I chewed a lot as a child - excessively chewing on pencils and I would constantly chew/suck the ribbons on my dresses. As an adult there's always been an oral fixation; I suck my thumb when going to sleep (sucked my thumb publicly up until I was 15), nail biting, smoking, pen biting and sucking, I tend to stroke my lips in a lot of situations, and I very often have the urge to bite boyfriends arms or fingers...or at least it's only boyfriends who get bitten as it's a little more acceptable than biting random strangers ^_^

Is an oral fixation common amongst those on the spectrum, or how about oral fixation?
If so any thoughts as to why this may be, could some of it be stimming behaviour?

I've had a bad habit since childhood of chewing on my lips and the insides of my mouth. I've become very accustomed to the taste of blood over the years. It's sometimes voluntary, but most of the time I'm not even aware I'm doing it. It happens both during the day and at night when I'm asleep. I've woken up before with my lips looking and feeling like they had a fight with an angry chihuahua.

I will chew to skin and nails off of my fingers. I will bite the skin off of my lips. An I hate gum but almost always have a small piece of plastic in my mouth.

Me too! I finally stopped a terrible nail-biting habit in my early twenties, but I continue to chew the inside of my mouth to shreds. I've gotten more than one lecture from a horrified dental hygienist about this.

I've done this all my life as long as I can remember too, but I don't generally draw blood. There's like this... dead skin or whatever that forms just inside my lips and just beyond my lips in the direction of my cheeks that's just always there, and i'll chew and pick at it with my teeth all the time. I don't know why I do it, and I can't really stop. When I was a little kid, I used to peel the dead skin off the bottom of my feet with the same sort of obsession/compulsion.

As a child I used to chew my fingernails quite a lot.

Then I switched to chewing pens - I didn't like the torn fingernails, and the painful torn skin or bleeding, when I chewed my nails.

Eventually, in my adult life, computers came along and I gradually switched from writing with pens to working all the time on keyboards. I guess keyboards are too big and clumsy to chew on, so I never took up that habit.

But more recently (though still quite a few years ago) I noticed that my knuckles were all callused, especially on my left hand - like this picture here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Dermatillomania_fingers.JPG

I discovered that I was absent-mindedly chewing my fingers while intently looking at the computer screen, to the point where I had those calluses all over the knuckles and other places where my teeth regularly chew my fingers. I do wonder if it is a type of stimming - both clenching my teeth and deep pressure on my fingers.

This finger-chewing is still the case now, in my fifties.

I usually bite on my lower lip and the insides of my cheek, its actually a trait that i think i took over from a girl i knew xD I do it especially when i'm tired or when i get nervous or anxious.

Yes I did and still do. I don't truly chew, I just put things between my teeth.

I was a thumbsucker till I was 10yo, then became a gun chewer until Mom abolished it as unladylike when I got my first job. I proceeded to chew on pens etc. until I took up smoking which was legal at the time. I became a chain smoker. Skipping ahead a few decades, I gave up cigs
http://www.quitnet.com
and resumed gum chewing because Mom was wrong - I have a dry mouth and chewing keeps the saliva going, which would have saved a zillion cavities.

Could it be that people (like me) who compulsively suck on things are just trying to get their saliva restarted?

yep I chewed up every pencil. Never heard of this till now

When I was around 5 years old I was always chewing every pencil, whether it was mine or not. In later years I moved away from that and started biting the inside of my mouth, lips, and my fingers and fingernails. I haven't been able to break through the habit of biting my lips and fingers yet.

I've always chewed on things. Pens, my lips, plastic etc. I still bite my lips och chew on plastic. Oh, and chewing gum. A lot of chewing gum. I sometimes bite my left thumb as well.

anyone else chew until they can`t move there jaw for a week

I would rip the fibres out of my bath towel with my teeth and chew on them when I was younger. Nowadays, the pen lid gets it.

When I was small I chewed my hair, my shirt, my pencils, my eraser, my books even if I get irritated. Part of why I have short hair. Now I chew on my nails. They are really messed up

I broke countless Wacom tablet pens by chewing on them. Aquarium tubbing is just to soft and so are chew toys speficaly made for autistic people. I need something HARD to chew on and the only thing that really satisified my oral sensory needs were dog toys intended for agressive chewers. I find drinking water fills the same void.