If you voluntarily stim, you have asperger's/autism right?

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patrick6
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02 Apr 2008, 9:16 pm

I've been researching autism/asperger's and conditions with similar symptoms (tourettes, OCD) and it sounds like if you stim, or have stimmed at a certain point in your life, you are likely to have aspergers or possibly tourettes, right? The thing that makes the the "stims" in tourettes (in tourettes "stims" are called "tics" and are quite similar to what people with AS/autism do) different from the "stims" in asperger's/autism is that people with tourettes DON'T want to "tic", their "tics" are involuntary while people with aspergers WANT to "stim" because stimming feels good to them. If there is someone out there that could list me other similar conditions that cause "tics" or "stims" let me know. I have yet to find any that are as common as tourettes or aspergers though.



SilverProteus
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02 Apr 2008, 9:17 pm

What's an OCD stim like?


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patrick6
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02 Apr 2008, 9:20 pm

SilverProteus wrote:
What's an OCD stim like?


There aren't any "stims" in OCD but it has similar symptoms to aspergers. Also, it seems to be co-morbid with aspergers nearly 50% of the time.



poopylungstuffing
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02 Apr 2008, 9:25 pm

Maybe like a small repeated ritual?
When I was going through a somewhat OCD period of my life, I happened to be in a band and would have to walk a lap around the length of our practice space after every song that we practiced....I had to

Anywhoo..stimming does not mean you have AS...to my understanding...everybody stims to some degree..



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02 Apr 2008, 9:28 pm

I drum when I'm bored, but that's about it. I must be a boring AS...;)



anbuend
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02 Apr 2008, 9:40 pm

Well...

...in Tourette's tics, it's not just involuntary, it's also sort of explosive and compulsive, you can suppress it (at least some people can), but it tries to explode out of you in a particular way.

As far as what gets called stims, it's not really a fair thing to say any single thing about them.

The reason is that stim is short for self-stimulatory behavior, and self-stimulatory behavior was a term that non-disabled people came up with to explain any number of potentially unrelated behaviors among autistic people.

That is why it can mean...

...becoming greatly fascinated with a sensory experience that most people don't (possibly repetitive, possibly just continuous).

...mannerisms that happen to be fairly unusual among non-autistic people, but that are not consciously embarked upon by autistic people. The autistic person may be able to control it with effort, but if they stop thinking about it it'll happen again, possibly without them even noticing.

...unusual mannerisms deliberately embarked upon by autistic people.

...undoubtedly it's always been used(/misused?) on tics as well.

...etc.

There's other things too.

And of those, they can be for different reasons, from dealing with overload, to an overflow of emotion, to entertaining oneself, to dealing with a lack of sensory stimulation, to... huge amounts of things. Whether they are deliberate or not. (Many times the non-deliberate ones are serving a purpose that the autistic person is simply unaware of consciously, but their brain knows what it's doing.)

So I always find the "Is this a stim?" question kind of vaguely irritating (not the people, just the question), because it makes it sound like the word has a specific meaning.


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patrick6
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02 Apr 2008, 9:54 pm

The stims I have are really bizarre and you wouldn't find them in "normal" people. All of my stims involve me volunarily focusing on an image or a picture that I like and concentrating on it while doing things like tapping my feet while concentrating hard. I sometimes start to shake and after doing this for a while I will end up getting a headache, but it feels GREAT while I do it. However, it still disturbs me... You certainly wouldn't find a stim like that in a "normal" person I don't think, would you? You'd only find stims like tapping on a table or something similar.



Some stims I did as a kid were:

Jumping
Hand flapping
Clapping
Staring at things while tapping my feet, flapping my hand, etc.
Pacing


Most people with OCD or tourettes or any other conditions don't have this kind of behavior... I know that I also have major traits of OCD but it's not my OCD that makes me do these things I don't think.



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02 Apr 2008, 10:12 pm

I've heard of OCD "tics" before. Also I've read about them in a case study of a patient who also had AS, and whose AS and OCD "stims" and "tics" were totally different from one another. Tourette's and OCD, though, I've heard/read in the past to sometimes display similar "tic" behaviors. Perhaps these are more unusual cases? Or the "tics" are the behavior that is compelled by the OCD? I don't know!

Some stims I have had (just for reference) include: rocking, hand flapping or twisting, pacing (often in small circles or around things), tooth clicking, staring/fixating on something (a color, a pattern, an object), leg tapping/bouncing, body tapping/bouncing. There are more, though.
I also have one motor tic-type thing; I jerk my head.

Edited to add: However, it is definitely not a "guarantee" of AS or autism, and it is also not guaranteed that someone with AS will stim. That is why there's a range of diagnostic criteria of best-fit, of which only a certain number must be met. If you stim, but don't meet enough criteria, you won't get a diagnosis. Whereas, if you fit enough other criteria, but don't stim, you can still get a diagnosis.



Last edited by Jeyradan on 02 Apr 2008, 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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02 Apr 2008, 10:14 pm

pat666rick wrote:
I've been researching autism/asperger's and conditions with similar symptoms (tourettes, OCD) and it sounds like if you stim, or have stimmed at a certain point in your life, you are likely to have aspergers or possibly tourettes, right? The thing that makes the the "stims" in tourettes (in tourettes "stims" are called "tics" and are quite similar to what people with AS/autism do) different from the "stims" in asperger's/autism is that people with tourettes DON'T want to "tic", their "tics" are involuntary while people with aspergers WANT to "stim" because stimming feels good to them. If there is someone out there that could list me other similar conditions that cause "tics" or "stims" let me know. I have yet to find any that are as common as tourettes or aspergers though.

Isn't masturbation Stimm? I hear that normal people masturbate too



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02 Apr 2008, 10:17 pm

MartyMoose wrote:
pat666rick wrote:
I've been researching autism/asperger's and conditions with similar symptoms (tourettes, OCD) and it sounds like if you stim, or have stimmed at a certain point in your life, you are likely to have aspergers or possibly tourettes, right? The thing that makes the the "stims" in tourettes (in tourettes "stims" are called "tics" and are quite similar to what people with AS/autism do) different from the "stims" in asperger's/autism is that people with tourettes DON'T want to "tic", their "tics" are involuntary while people with aspergers WANT to "stim" because stimming feels good to them. If there is someone out there that could list me other similar conditions that cause "tics" or "stims" let me know. I have yet to find any that are as common as tourettes or aspergers though.

Isn't masturbation Stimm? I hear that normal people masturbate too


Don't waste my time, that isn't funny



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02 Apr 2008, 10:28 pm

pat666rick wrote:
MartyMoose wrote:
Isn't masturbation Stimm? I hear that normal people masturbate too

Don't waste my time, that isn't funny

Masturbation can be a stim though. Depends for what reason, and maybe what's going through your head at the same time. Porn? Likely not a stim. Frustrated and anxious (for comfort I mean)? Then maybe it is a stim.
Just being blunt. Sorry.



Last edited by riverotter on 03 Apr 2008, 8:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

poopylungstuffing
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02 Apr 2008, 10:42 pm

had troubles with this at an early age... :oops:



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02 Apr 2008, 11:34 pm

Nothing voluntary over here; I just find myself automatically doing it. Before I knew what "motor mannerisms" were, I didn't know I did them.



nomad21
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02 Apr 2008, 11:49 pm

Danielismyname wrote:
Nothing voluntary over here; I just find myself automatically doing it. Before I knew what "motor mannerisms" were, I didn't know I did them.


I am the same way, most of the time I just start stimming without realizing it, but lately I have been realizing it when I do it alot because Autism has been on my mind alot lately. I remember a couple years ago I was rocking really fast, and someone I was talking to said, "What the f**k are you doing?! You look like you're ret*d or something when you do that!" I hadn't even realized I was doing it.



Grey_Kameleon
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02 Apr 2008, 11:53 pm

According to the Wikipedia article, 10% of non-autistic children stim. But we all know what Wikipedia is.



patrick6
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03 Apr 2008, 12:02 am

Grey_Kameleon wrote:
But we all know what Wikipedia is.


What do you mean by that?