New stimming routine

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Being only recently acquainted with Asperger's syndrome, I am still trying "get" what stimming is all about. I know I do it, but it has become such an ingrained behavior that I have not previously given much thought. Nowadays, I find myself stimming a lot and am often surprised at the forms it can take.

Just a few minutes ago, I noticed some stimming behavior that manifested in a new form. I was listening to "Walking on Sunshine," by Katrina and the Waves, while sitting on a couch in my new apartment. Near the end of the song, I noticed that I had been doing the flutter kick from swimming's backstroke during the whole song. I was caught up in it, in reckless abandon. Some new stimming for me.

This is probably no big deal to anyone more experienced with AS, but it's one of those moments when I feel like some light bulbs have lit up in my head, showing me another facet of this way my brain is wired.

I wind up unrolling velcro strips at work every once in awhile, but that's about it...

I was told after math class Friday that I had been lifting up and slamming the desk attached to the seat (in the lecture hall) for the ENTIRE TIME.

I... don't know what happened, either.

I pace around a lot. My mom tells me to stop pacing because she doesnt like it. I also do lots of knee bobbing which bothers my teachers. Other times I rub something rough over and over again.

For some reason I started rubbing my hands together and I find it calming.. strangly enough

I rock.
A lot.

I also rub my hands on my clothes, or anything thats rough or funny feeling.

I used to scratch or pick at myself... thankfully, I havent been doing that much lately. I rub my feet together, play with my hands, shake my leg. Those are the only ones I really notice. Rubbing my feet together is my favorite. I have a very hard time sitting still, and this helps a lot. I also am a lotion junkie. I always have lotion around and rub my hands with it. I love how it feels.

I'm pretty new to this also, and likewise I have been realizing I do all sorts of things that I thought were just nervous energy or other quirks that weren't related to anything:

Rubbing hands
stretching shoulders
placing thumb over ring and index finger and pressing down (this one causes calouses)
rubbing eyes
adjusting shirt/ jacket
this next one is difficult to describe: with large open book on desk, pressing tips of fingers against slightly skewed edge of sheets until they make a ripping sound (so satisfying, as odd as it sounds).
pressing each tip of my fingers between thumb and index finger; both hands sequentially
I used to roll my eyes slowly until a friend pointed it out
like other people, I think I rub the tips of my fingers over rough clothing (will look out for that)
pace to and fro
hold on to a napkin (and will even unconciously carry it around or place it in a pocket)
move my ears back and forth and up and down (yes, I can do that)
rub my fascial whiskers with my index finger

man, when I right it down, I feel a bit weird.

The moving your ears thing gets me. I wiggle my ears by moving them in all directions, controlling just whatever muscle(s) needed to make it happen. I never move my eyebrows when I do this. As a kid I saw someone on TV wiggle their ears and I taught myself to do it, and unfortunately I've been doing it since.

I recently picked back up on another bad behavior that I had as a child. I will grab my earlobes and pull down and out, making them literally pop. I don't know where I ever got this behavior from, but I hate that I've started doing it again over the past few months.

I also used to (and still do at times) roll my eyes uncontrollably, and I have a new quirk where I will control the muscles in my left eyelid to make it spasm, because I like the way it feels. It's very soothing to me. I developed this quirk one time when I had caffeine poisoning and a lot of the muscles in my body were spasming at random. When my left eyelid would spasm, I loved the weird way it felt and I started trying to produce this effect in the absense of caffeine. Clearly I was successful. Despite this success, however, I've still yet to be able to do the same with my right eyelid. Odd.

I crack my knuckles constantly, and try to do so even when they don't pop. I also twist my back all the time trying to make it pop. After I pop my fingers and my back, my neck is next. Then my feet (not my toes) and ankles.

Speaking of toes, I have a quirk where I rub my big toe and the next toe together. I have done this for years and I have some major callouses on the second toe on both of my feet.

Gosh I have so many, even some I refuse to list here because they're embarrassing. Some of them involve getting my sense of smell into the act, and my wife absolutely hates it when I do the smelling things, and I can't blame her for that. I have so many of them, but I really can't help myself. She knows I can't help myself but

One behavior I had years ago and recently had started again, but fortunately I was able to make myself stop, was that I would bite my fingernails (another repetitive behavior of mine) and leave the thumbnails sharp. I would then scratch my forehead with my thumbnails softly. This would give me an insanely wonderful feeling (similar to the feeling I get when I do the thing with my left eyelid). I finally made myself stop this after a few years, because I constantly had a sore spot in the upper-middle of my forehead from it. I was scratching very lightly, but after a while it would leave a sore and I couldn't get the same feeling until I would leave it alone and let it heal (which was nearly impossible.)

A newer quirk I've picked up is that I will roll my wrists while popping my fingers. I do this to make my wrists pop as well.

Oh and lest I forget, I have auditory tics as well. One of them is a 'pop' I do with my mouth, just like Jerry on Boston Legal. When I first saw his character I thought "hmmmm" but I still didn't think anything of it. My wife saw him and she knew right away that I would like him. I don't hop in place, though. But I also make strange sounds with my mouth and my throat, and I do them uncontrollably at home. I have learned to not do these at work much, so I do them in the bathroom or in another area of the office building where people aren't around to hear me. I mostly just hold it in until I'm at home or in my car, and then "let 'em rip."

I feel like a total loon typing all this out, but after seeing that so many people here do things that they can't control, I don't feel quite as bad.

Thanks for letting the new guy talk...

If I'm pleased, I rub my hands together. If I'm stressed, tap one finger against the palm of my other hand. Just a nervous release, I guess...

I pace too. I have learned to do it when i'm alone because i usually get told to cut it out. When i get stressed i tend to make a Y with my hand ( thumb and pinky extended the rest closed) and then rotating my wrist ( kind of like the ASL sign for "play")

I used to play a MMO and when i played that i would make a kazoo sound. Usually didnt even know i was making it until i was told to stop.