What are your stims?

[Ste11aeres]

Could it be a mental stim to count the sounds or syllables in words?

 

[The Impossible Girl]

My stimms- Rocking. Flicking my nails or rubbing them, and wringing my hands constantly. I tip toe, gallop when I am happy and make stupid noises (like a bird or some deranged howler monkey) or blow raspberries and make faces. I like moving my head in circles to get the fluid in my inner ear spinning, then I'll stop and try and make it go backwards.
I also count to fall asleep. I have pretty numbers in my head

 

[Zac]

Could it be a mental stim to count the sounds or syllables in words?

I count in my head too, though to me that's more an obsession rather than a stim? Because it annoys me most of the time...
I arrange letters of words in sentences I hear in chunks of 4 and if at the end some remain I repeat the sentence in my head until there are none left.

OH! And I twirl my hair a lot.

 

[Ste11aeres]

I count in my head too, though to me that's more an obsession rather than a stim? Because it annoys me most of the time...
I arrange letters of words in sentences I hear in chunks of 4 and if at the end some remain I repeat the sentence in my head until there are none left.

OH! And I twirl my hair a lot.

It annoys me too. "Chunks of four"...I more sort of assess words according to whether the number of sounds or syllables is even or odd. If drinking from a water fountain I swallow in multiples of three.

 

[redbee11]

I had never really ever thought much about my stims until reading this thread. Now I realize how many stims I actually have:

?drawing shapes on the surfaces of tables with my finger
?Bouncing my leg
?making noises Ex: tongue clicking
?rubbing fabric or playing with my cat's fur
?play with my ears (used to play w/ my hair but it's too short now)
?tapping my fingers on the table
?walking around barefoot
?talking to myself
?making lists (also a borderline obsession)
?repeatedly clicking a retracable pen (irritates classmates so I try to supress the urge)
?Making fists and rotating my wrists
?Bite/chew on my lip (I don't draw blood or hurt myself though)
?Play with my fingers

 

[Val2]

When I was younger I use to crack my knuckles ALL the time, suck and chew on the strings on my hoodies, suck and chew on the collar of shirts. Now I just bounce my legs all the time when sitting, smell my hands, touch my face or neck when anxious or embarrassed, I rub my head when in pain. I do this weird finger twisting thing too. I'm sure there's other things I'm doing that I'm not aware of yet.

 

[jwjones87]

I rock back and forth when I'm upset/ anxious. When I can't do that, I figit with my hands/ feet

 

[buckyboy14]

Sorry to bump this, but while I knew people here talk about "stimming," I was never sure exactly what it was. Until today, when my mom went to some meeting and was told about self-stimulation, which I realized is what "stimming" is short for.

One thing I do is rock back and forth (oh my God, I'm doing it right now). Another major one for me is writing things with my index finger. The common thing I write down are cities of states. I love geography (just look at the avatar), and I've memorized the top six cities of each state (working on seven). I normally write them on my arm or leg. Naturally, I never tell anyone about this. (Once, in elementary school, I was doing it in the air, and somebody just happened to be sitting in front of me, and teachers thought I was pretending to write swear words on his back or something...)

Another thing is people's names. This used to be almost all I would do. I would write lists of names over and over again. My desk at school would be swamped with papers of the names of my classmates written repeatedly. One time, while doing this in junior high, they thought I was making a "hit list." Sigh...

So yeah, sorry for the long post. I just suddenly realized what stimming actually is and wanted to contribute my opinion.

 

[aspieworldcitizen]

Wow, so that's what was going on, and I'm not the only one! I've done the following - some I still do, and some I've stopped, and others come and go:

- smelling the tips of my fingers
- sort of chewing my tongue (it looks like I'm chewing gum, but I've never actually hurt my tongue)
- feel my scalp for little dry spots and take them out
- scratching my head (I went through a time when I did this so much, I made my scalp bleed)
- look for split ends in my hair and cut them
- pull out curly hairs (I used to have straight hair and now have wavy hair, but when the first curly hairs started appearing, I would pull them out)
- pull dry bits off my lips
- pull dry bits off my skin (and my husband's, when he'll let me)
- flap my arms a bit like a chicken, as if being annoyed by something sticky in my armpits
- touch my face a lot (fortunately I've mostly stopped, as it was giving me zits)
- remove hard threads from fabrics, mainly knits
- remove cat hair from my clothes, one by one
- pick at my cuticles (though nowhere near as bad as some people have described)
- used to pull some of my eyelashes as a kid, mainly if they seemed to have a little hard white ball on top of the lid. It got to the point where my eyelids started to swell
- when I was little, I would remove dirt from in-between my toes, and to this day, if I get dry skin there, I'll pull it
- pick virtually invisible hairs and spots of dry fat from my face (I've got pretty oily skin)
- I got braces recently, and I'm clenching my jaw a lot more during the day (I've always done it at night)
- I don't usually drink like a normal person, but instead suck on drinks, like a baby. It actually took me a long time to even learn how to drink like a normal person. And yes, I will sometimes make suckling movements even when I'm not drinking anything
- I've been very distressed recently over something, and I've started doing all kinds of other things, especially when I'm crying over it

In spite of the long list, I don't do most of these things in public,very obviously, or even at the same time, and I do usually carry a stressball just in case. And like I said, some of them I no longer do or they come and go.

 

[buckyboy14]

Hey, I pull dry spots out of my scalp too!

 

[Soup]

Soup's stim of the day: split end trimming. Even one is too many.

 

[teasiep76]

Hello, I suspect my son may have Aspergers and am trying to get him an appt, but he does a couple things that are not mentioned here and I'm wondering if it could be stimming? He jerks his head backward over and over while raising his shoulders up kinda like he's string to pop his neck or something and he also moves his jaw from side to side over and over again. Any onsite on this would be greatly appreciated... thx

 

[wyverary]

Hello, I suspect my son may have Aspergers and am trying to get him an appt, but he does a couple things that are not mentioned here and I'm wondering if it could be stimming? He jerks his head backward over and over while raising his shoulders up kinda like he's string to pop his neck or something and he also moves his jaw from side to side over and over again. Any onsite on this would be greatly appreciated... thx

Yes, that is all classic stimming, which is a strong indication for an ASD diagnosis. Any repetitive movement can be called a stim, and they vary widely from person to person (as you see here). I hope you can get that appointment! An official diagnosis can be extremely helpful for youngsters.

 

[teasiep76]

Thanks so much for your reply. It is greatly appreciated he has other signs to such as poor motor skills, emotionl breakdowns, peer problems and the list goes on and on,but when I learned about stimming I was stunned because we had wondered for the longest why he done that and his teachers even give him a hard time about it,so when I learned about stimming it was like a light bulb went off in my head

 

[wyverary]

Thanks so much for your reply. It is greatly appreciated he has other signs to such as poor motor skills, emotionl breakdowns, peer problems and the list goes on and on,but when I learned about stimming I was stunned because we had wondered for the longest why he done that and his teachers even give him a hard time about it,so when I learned about stimming it was like a light bulb went off in my head

The same with me. It was a huge source of embarrassment until I understood it better. Now, instead of trying to suppress it altogether, I find less visible means of doing it--rubbing my thumb against a keychain, for instance. I have to catch myself whenever I start clacking my jaw back and forth.

 

[teasiep76]

The problem with my son is he is only 9 so idont know if I can teach him to resort to other things but I'm gonna try... thanks for your help

 

[wyverary]

The problem with my son is he is only 9 so idont know if I can teach him to resort to other things but I'm gonna try... thanks for your help

At that age, I don't think you have to worry about it too much. I think your focus should be on getting him to a specialist, who can then refer him to someone who specializes in working with children with autism spectrum disorders--something I think would do a load of good, and the best course of action right now. That way he can be more prepared as adolescence approaches, which is when the problems associated with AS really tend to start kicking one in the butt and can be the most vulnerable period.

Wishing you well in all this!
wyv

 

[Ariel]

Flapping, from the wrists or elbows. Swinging side-to-side on a swivel chair, leg-bouncing, biting the inside of my mouth, biting on pen lids, grinding my teeth. Not exactly a stim but I like sitting or lying on the floor too.

 

[bdatria]

I twist my hair and tie it in knots, although I'm a lot better than I was as a little kid. (I no longer tie knots I can't get out.)
I bounce my feet a lot and sometimes just bounce in my seat especially if I'm irritated.
I rub my hair and fingernails against my lips because it's smooth.
I love love love certain sounds made with food (not sure this is really a stim) for example, the sound when you toss an apple back and forth between your hands or the clicking noise when you tap frozen thin mints together. I have to make the sound before I eat these foods.
I was worse as a kid. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid because I used to pace and bounce in my seat or stand up and bounce around, but now I know that was just stimming and I'm kind of surprised no one caught on to that sooner.

 

[Manuheleku]

Spinner rings do it for me, one of them on each forefinger. In public I can just kinda nudge them back and forth, alone I can get them spinning. Interestingly I also took up yo-yoing, I've always been fascinated watching things go round and round, like the John Lennon song.