• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Why stim, why not stop?

I rock back and forth while curling and uncurling my toes and also press down on each of my fingertips in a row.

I don't get myself to stop completely because there's nothing wrong with it. It's not hurting me or others, and if other people have an issue with it or are unsettled by it, that's their own problem. I'm not going to change because I'm not going to let other people make me feel ashamed for being an aspie.

The only time I force myself to stop is when I need to make a good impression, which is just in professional environments.
 
It helps when I'm stressed and is pretty benign, so I don't see a compelling reason to stop.
 
Last edited:
I literally can't stop. To stop would require nearly 100% of my attention all day, every day. And I don't think it's a pattern I can "learn my way out of."

If any of y'all want to explore and share your various and favorite and least favorite and most embarrassing stims, there's an excellent thread devoted to it: what is your stim? | AspiesCentral.com
 
Natural variation is considered to be "unacceptable" by a large portion of Neurotypical society for no valid reason. As people who are by nature different from the majority, I believe that we have a moral responsibility to oppose the concept of blindly conforming to social conventions when doing so prevents us from doing what is both natural and harmless.

The elimination of a natural difference that isn't harmful to anyone would not make someone an inherently better person, so I really don't understand your point Gomendosi.
 
My stims are normally unnoticeable. Like a vibrating leg, or shunting my shoulders sharply upwards several times. I only seem to do it when I am bored, or restless. Never thought to stop it though. Nobody has ever told me not to either. So I'm just going to keep doing random repetitive movements because it is a harmless activity, and so nobody should care.
 
I stim when tense/anxious, which is generally, but I set aside about 2 hours a day, when I get the chance, to listen to music (the same track over and over) and rock because it helps me process.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom