How much do you stim on an average day?

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I would say I average close to two hours a day. Including the times I start stimming without even realizing it. I can’t stop playing with my friggin pen at school when I get bored. When I get stressed out from school or work the two-hour average probably goes up a little bit.

I've never counted. I chew my cheek or my lip sometimes. I don't know how often I do that. I drum my fingers on arm rests and surfaces and tap my feet quite a lot. Probably several hours a day.

It's pretty constant, but it can be pretty subtle. I tap my fingers against my palm a lot, in different rhythms or in patterns that represent musical notes. I twitch various muscles in my body in a similar way, a stim that's nearly undetectable, which I learned in the sixth grade to replace the more obvious, hyperactive-looking ones. A position can be a form of stim. Right now I'm pressing the sole of my foot against the hard, cool iron of my desk. The more classical ones, rocking, flapping, staring at lights or spinning objects... hmm, no more than about twenty minutes. Rocking happens when I'm thinking hard; flapping is an expression of either happiness or confusion; lights and spinny things do capture my attention but they don't do so for hours, only minutes... well, okay, I have been known to stare at a load of laundry in a front-load washer... but yeah, usually the stims are a background thing that fade into ADHD fidgetiness and let me think a little more easily. I have no idea why movement helps me think. It just does.

It all depends on the day and circumstances, really. I don't stim that much except at certain times.

I would have said just a couple times a day when I was in the car or at home. But now I think I stim when I don't even know it. Like when I was working several months ago I got called down at work for repeatedly twittling my finger while reading the newspaper as it apparently bothered someone. I had no idea I was stimming. It really embarrassed me.

im always stimming, constnatly, flapping, rocking, fingering flickering, headshaking, swaying, biting my hand or something, spiinning, and so much more, wherever i go, huge stimmer, i wonder what would happen if i didnt stim i honestly think ppl would be like what is wrong with her hahaha

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Something probably would be wrong with you, too. The only time I don't stim, really, is when I'm either so completely tired I'm about to go to sleep, or else in near-complete shutdown. Kind of interesting--I think my stims take some sort of minimal mental resources; but they give back more than they take; so when I don't have even that minimal level, I can't stim either.

I wonder if that's why many meltdowns seem so sudden. If you lose the resources to carry on coping behaviors like stims or mental defenses, you don't just lose that, but whatever extra ability those behaviors generated--making a sudden drop in your ability to process things, so you yell or curl up or cry or freeze... and people think it's "out of the blue" even though you've felt it building for quite a while.

I'm more of a ritual and obsessive type of person rather than someone who does frequent motor mannerisms. For example, listening to the same part of a song over and over again on my MP3 player helps me more than flapping my hands does.

Sure, I'll sway when I stand up, I'll tap/wriggle/twiddle my fingers all day, do repetitive motions (going through with the motions of various forms of reloading a 1911 pistol is something I do often, come to think of it), curl my left hand up when I walk (I notice that a certain subset of people with Autism do this with a hand...), rock when I sit, etcetera.

A lot, but the repetitive thoughts in my head are far more frequent and noticeable to me.

On an average day, I don't stim. I only stim when I'm upset, bored, or tired. Like, yesterday, I was really tired in one of my classes, so I rocked the whole time. But I won't rock on a normal day. Just if I'm having a breakdown or if I'm really tired.
-OddDuckNash99-

all of it

Another vote from the 24/7 Stimmers and Repetitive Music Players wing of the autistic world. Repetition in all of its glorious forms is essential to my regulation of feelings and maintenance of sanity. Even two consecutive minutes absent the comforts of the dozen or so stims I do at least a few of throughout the day, not to mention verbal tics and other outlets, can be a most uncomfortable experience. Not only does it feel unconfortable physically, it also promotes anxiety and seriously interferes with what paltry sensory regulation I do have.

Music is essential for me to connect to emotions. Ordinarily, I have an ever-changing playlist, occasionally with only one or two songs; other times up to 100, that I play at every opportunity where I can listen more or less undisturbed. Nighttime, on the train and while doing housework alone are my main listening times. In between these, music still plays constantly in my mind, with exact reproduction. My "jukebox" never stops.

I do not, however, repeatedly play parts of songs. It's kind of an obsessional thing - I don't like to "walk in" on a song in progress, and it is plain disturbing to stop a song from playing before it is complete. The jukebox of the mind, however, does not respect the house rules - it replays individual songs, tiny song snippets, album sides, playlists from years ago - pretty much whatever it wants.

I randomly guessed. But I am always tapping my figner ro a pen, crackign my knuckles, listenign to the same song,bouncing my leg, hand flapping, or rocking.