Is this stimming?

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As far back as I can remember, my son has had some behaviors that annoy other kids. I think it is stimming. It is hard to discribe.

He makes a lot of noises not really in context to play. He used to roll around on the floor and stick his butt in the air, he doesn't do this anymore. He may do a little jump or spin accompanied by a little squeal or yip. He also has a facial thing where he kind of sticks his tongue out sideways.

These behaviors always increase when he is really happy/excited or stressed. As he has gotten older, they seem to have tapered off or changed a lot.

Now he taps, still makes some noises, but not as much. He may open the closet door and kind of bang it back and forth as he looks through the closet. Lots of banging and tapping. He also seems to pick at things and wrecks them. Like scraping the wax off a candle while doing homework, or poking holes in his shoes and school binders.

Is it stimming? Could it be some sort of mania?

sounds more like stimming to me

sounds like stimming to me too.

When I was a kid I was always doing things with my hands, picking, poking, pinching. I was also a biter, but stopped biting before the age of six. One time on the bus returning from school, I poked my thigh so hard with a pencil I broke the pencil lead and it stayed just under the skin for years. I think I told one other kid and she thought it was really weird. I liked scraping stuff, textures, the feel of things and finding out what would happen. Once I went to a counselor and was fascinated by these twisty masking tape sculptures a girl who went to counseling before me made and left in the room. Of course I had tons of questions about those and her and why she did stuff like that. Oddly, at the time, I had no idea I did the same sorts of things.

Is your son aware that he does these things? Does he ask a lot of questions when he sees similar behaviours in others? When he notices this in others is a good time to talk about it.
I outgrew a lot of this, staying true to PDD form.

Try to figure out if they're voluntary or not. Involuntary could mean tics; voluntary is probably normal stimming.

I think that he is aware of it. I don't think he can really stop himself. He knows it annoys others. He said once to me that sometimes when he feels this extra energy, he can so something with his hands and divert it into something less noticable. He said he remembers what it was like back in 3rd grade when everyone was always annoyed with him and he tries to stop himself from getting on people's nerves. He also knows of an AS kid who has behaviors that get on his nerves, so I think he wants to not do that stuff.

It bothers me that he has become so self-conscious.

Wow,

I don't know if feeling self conscious is that uncommon in youth.

When I was a kid I had certain triggers that made my "stimming" worse. One of the triggers was confrontational behaviour in others. Another trigger was being made fun of by others. Still another was being ostracized or shunned. Another issue of mine was being told what to do and when to do it, especially if it was some kind of monotonous chore that interfered with my ADHD-like scattering of energies. The one thing that I had a really difficult time with was being left alone to complete a task on my own without interaction from others. I realize this is an important developmental step for children, learning they can complete a task alone without help and are competent. Because of my PDD I had an especially difficult time with this and it really stressed me out.

As for the stimming itself I could not control it on my own. I just had to do it and words cannot explain. I don't want to annoy the other PDDers here but I wonder if some kind of drug would have helped with the stims? They did interfer with me dealing with normal everyday stesses in a way that others didn't shun me over which, in turn, made the stims more obvious.

People say everyone gets teased. I think being teased hurts everyone but people are not aware of how it hurts them. Some get really angry, others develop personality disorders. Even the ones who pretend it doesn't affect them at all are not even aware of it.

There are no easy answers. If there were, everyone would be perfect.

From personal not professional experience:

When the brain doesn’t get enough stimulation the body tries stimming to make up for it. I thought myself to constantly simulate my mind with this and that. I do this by always asking myself questions for everything I observe. Why, how, what, when, who, which. After a lifetime of doing this there is a fringe benefit of noticing things like contradictions that other people miss. Channeling aggression to competition is a good motivator to do so.

ditto

This sounds like my daughter, and it is considered stimming for her.