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what is your stim?

Tapping with my feet and hands, off meter poly rythms, that have kind of an awkward time signiture, like 9/3. pulling the dynamic tention between the off beats that are technically in time but dont fit any graspable pattern. This makes no sense to anyone but me, but if you were a drummer it would sound like nails on a chalkboard. The akward off kilter patterns help release my own akward energy for some wierd reason.
 
Mattymatt said:
This is a stupid question but what is a stim?
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It's not a stupid question. I think it's short for self-stimulatory behaviour. I'd say it's something you do to soothe yourself when you are upset, anxious, overloaded or in pain.

I have several different stims. In public, finger or foot-tapping is a big one, rubbing my face, swaying from side to side and flapping my hands about are others. When I'm in private and I get very anxious or upset, I sometimes rock but most of the time it's just hand-flapping, just more extravagant.
 
Throughout my life, I've had the incessant urge to move my legs. When I was a baby, my parents told me that I would "rock" myself all of the time and with such force that they would have to periodically retighten the nuts and bolts on my crib. I would rock when I was awake and I would rock myself to sleep at night time. This rocking action has continued throughout my entire childhood and into adulthood where I still move/bounce my legs throughout the day and still rock myself to sleep at night time.

I also have made a conscious effort to pay closer attention to what my body is doing throughout the day. I have found that I shake my legs almost on a continual basis. Additionally, I drum my hands by placing my thumb and fingers loosely around an object and drumming alternating the thumb and fingers hitting the object in a rapid fashion. It's like hand flapping with an object between your thumb and rest of your fingers.

I also noticed that I rock, usually side-to-side whenever I am standing for any length of time. Sometime the rocking is just rocking between each foot or back on my heels. Other times, the rocking is almost like a dance, step left, feet together. Step right, feet together. Occasionally, I'll rock back and forth, usually when I'm sitting.

There are frequently are other times that I stim with my hands and fingers, either wringing or twisting them.

In addition, I visually trace shapes, designs or letters with my eyes or occasionally just stare at something and zone out. I also have a tendency to make random stupid noises/voices for no reason.
 
If I'm stressed or want to leave wherever I am I bounce my legs, otherwise I roll a penny back and forth across my fingers. Staring was something I did until my 40's and I realised it was freaking people out, but the leg bounce I have always had.
 
I've replied to this thread before, but that was based on memory. I'm becoming more self aware of stimming now. For example, today I've caught myself rocking (rather strongly), jiggling my knee, clacking random tunes with my teeth, and making random sighs and grunts, some voiced, some unvoiced. Funny thing is the fact that I do these grunts was pointed out to me by a classmate when I was 11 or 12, but I haven't really thought more of it until now.
 
I twirl my hair, which maybe is why I am the only man in my family who still has it (stimulating follicle growth?), and my lower legs shake up and down from the knee joint to ankle.
 
Also, when I was a kid, I shook my hands oddly. My dad made me stop doing that, which I recall being a fight. He finally won when he told me I looked like a sissy doing it. Some of you may think that is awful, but I did it in front of the mirror the other day and, you know what? I looked like a sissy boy doing it. I'm glad my old man never minced words with me, lol. He saved me a LOT of beatings in school. Good lookin' out dad.
 
atrocityexhibition said:
Also. I used to smoke a helluva lot whenever I was stressed, but I've since stopped doing that. It's hard not to return at times.
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Smoking is a stim for me, definitely, even more so as I roll my own. I've yet to meet anyone who can roll a cigarette as quickly or as neatly as I. :) There's comfort in the procedure. If only it weren't for that damned cancer thing...
 
Playing with my hair by twirling around my finger to make a loop, then playing with the loop to be precise. My boyfriend always knows when I am stressed or in deep thought. I didn't realise I did this as a stress response or how often I did it until I learned more about Aspergers and stimming!
 
I hand flap, gnaw on my knuckles, pace, rock, all the usuals. I am old. I am also ADHD and when I was a kid I felt I was going to explode in class, so I did body isolations,butt,thighs, calves, and chest. I still do them as stimming. When I got breast cancer and had a double mastectomy, and then a sort-of-like-breasts reconstruction, I was afraid that I would no longer be able to flex my chest parts [ mounds?] seperately to music anymore[actually, that was the least of my concerns] but, I can flex them better than ever. Arnold Schwatzenegger, eat your heart out!
 
Lisa Lacertilian said:
Playing with my hair by twirling around my finger to make a loop, then playing with the loop to be precise. My boyfriend always knows when I am stressed or in deep thought. I didn't realise I did this as a stress response or how often I did it until I learned more about Aspergers and stimming!
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I do the same thing with my hair, which, ironically, seems to leave it looking better in my wife's estimation. Also, I am the only male in my family not bald. Perhaps there is a connection?
 
Rubbing my index finger quick against my thumb, bending/creasing paper.... and flapping (which is encouraged as Karate warm up!:p
 
Normal stims: leg wiggling, chewing inside of my cheeks, chewing my fingers, rocking forward, and I think overeating counts....

When I'm stressed: low-pitched monotone hum, chewing my chewable necklace, headphones with loud music, or foam earplugs that put pressure inside my ears

Extreme circumstances: biting my arm, committing violence against inanimate objects, putting rubbing alcohol on any cuts if I have them... wanted to cut myself a few times, but fortunately (I guess) I never simultaneously had the motivation and the means.

More info about stimming -- it seems normal in the general population for people to stimulate their own nerves to comfort themselves or for the fun of it. Think of a frustrated person rubbing his temples, or an exasperated cartoon character ripping out their hair. The term stim is usually only used for when us atypical people do atypical actions or with an atypical frequency, but I guess it technically applies to all of types?
 
I twist my left thumb with my right hand, then twist my right thumb with my left hand, repeat.
And, I twist my eyebrow hair.
 
Publicly, I'm able to keep mine subtle. Leg bouncing if I'm agitated, covertly flexing or tightening various muscles in my torso and limbs, gnawing or sucking on parts of my mouth. If I've got my hands in my pockets I will press a finger in a very annoying pattern because the blasted pattern that just keeps expanding and never balances itself out because it has to have a starting point. (1 2 2 1, 2 1 1 2, 2 1 1 2, 1 2 2 1, and so forth with those two fingers.)

Privately I play with my hair when I'm thinking, rock a bit, and just generally move. It keeps my joints from getting stiff.

And I often pop my joints. Which I'm not sure if it's stimming or not because they build up pressure that isn't relieved until they've made noise. And sometimes they can get really loud! One time I had an elbow snap in the middle of prayer at church, and thankfully nobody jumped at the sound of gun fire.
 
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