Waiting Pains

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Not sure how to word this but I need advice on how to deal withs something. I'm a senior in college and my achedmic record is awesome but my classes this semester go from eight in the morning to eight at night with obvious breaks in between. My last class however is two and I half hours long. I don't normal rock back and forth but by the time this class was over I was rocking I had both hands behind my head. I gel if I sat there any long my stomach would explode. Its not like I was sick I just couldn't stand sitting down anymore and focusing and it hurt. My mind bond hurt I had weird taste in my mouth. Not the first Ive experienced this but never this bad. What do you guys do to relax and focus after a long day? My teacher I could tell knew something wasn't right but she didn't say anything. Damn psychology professors are so observent. But I don't want it to happen again.

So let's make a list of how to relax for aspies to help us focus.

One thing that kind of works if I feel the need to stim is to give myself a hand massage but this only offers temporary relief. Any other thoughts?

I doodle when I need to stim, but have to sit and listen. I draw shapes and color them in. Make pictures out of dots, whatever. I find that it helps my concentration, focusing on something else while I listen to what is going on.

I need to get up at some point if the pain is induced by lack of movement.

I imagine it's my hyperactivity (ADHD) in combination with stimming (ASD) and tics that makes either my legs, stomach, chest, arms, ankles, back, head or neck hurt after trying hard to sit very still for a long time.

The pain disappears entirely as soon as I get up and move. No alternative solution that I know of.

If however I feel unwell because of exhaustion and feel that I need a break I'll have to discard some pretence in favour of some stimming.

I don't want to do that but if I don't I know I'll feel worse and if something unexpected were to happen there's a risk I'll be overwhelmed/meltdown.

Gladly, I'm really into fiddling with my clothing, tracing seams, twirling ribbons, manipulating my shoelaces and such to help with stims. Most people don't notice these, unperceptive as they are. That's not a solution for everyone though, I guess.

I found it helps some to get a couple of simple block puzzles or such things. It allows you to manipulate an object with your hands while focussing on the class. Depending on your set of stims, it can be useful to stim inconspicuously by arranging, tapping, feeling the puzzle's parts without attracting too much attention.

Getting out and walking for a while works for me. Of course, there's the embarassment and disruption of leaving the room, but the relief of stress is worth almost anything and anyway, anything's better than sitting there gradually degenerating into a twitching mess.

I guess you're not "out" at this school? How important is it to stay that way?

If the teacher didn't say anything, my guess would be to just rock away as long as you're not making noise or coming too close to anyone. The teacher almost certainly isn't going to flunk you or boot you from the class for it.

I caught myself rocking back and forth in a job interview... I got the job. So it's probably not the end of the world. I don't know of anything that will completely stop stimming anyway, so your best bet is probably to just nudge it toward forms that aren't disruptive or annoying... rocking back and forth is probably one of the better ones from that standpoint.

During my own 2.5 hour classes at college, I would end up taking at least two breaks per class to go walking while listening to music. It let out excess energy and gave me a change of scene besides.

It's weird... at home, I can sit at the computer for hours and not feel the need to take any walking breaks, but in class, they were invaluable.

These are good ideas. I tried to stop doodling I never thought about it till I read these post. I tried to stop cause my notes didn't look neat and clean but think I'd rather have doodles all over the place. I'm also glad to hear others know of these pains I feel. Does that happen to NTs ?

when sumthing takes too long I cant focus and go off in a world in my head.. places I visited.. think i am tehre again.. become calm again...