Stimming

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(Warning: sorry if some of the things described here are distasteful.)

I'm in the process of getting my diagnosis (or finding that I am deluding myself). Anyway, over the past few weeks I had a semi-epiphanic (?) moment. I kept seeing this word 'stimming'. I had to look it up to find out what it meant. I then realised that there was a name for the things I had been doing all my life (or for as long as I can remember). Also, amazingly, I hadn't really noticed in all this time that most other people don't seem to do it.

However, my stimming doesn't involve rocking back and forth or flapping my hands, so I thought I'd check. Do the following things count as stimming (or even self harm, come to that)?

Tapping my feet or waggling them rhythmically in the absence of music.
Chewing my fingernails (I never using anything but my teeth and other nails to 'cut' my nails. I seem to have learnt amazing skills here and produce a very neat result).
Picking bits of skin off my fingers around the nails.
Chewing the inside of my mouth and lips.
Cracking knuckles.
Fiddling with things and examining them in unnecessary detail.
Touching my face and smelling my fingers.
Picking my nose. (I won't go into any further detail on this one.)

I don't do these things all the time and know to keep them fairly covert (because they irritate or disgust other people).

Now that I know about stimming I like to watch other people. I travel by bus a lot and it's a good place to watch (but not stare at) people. The biggest surprise for me was watching how still people are. I'd not really noticed this before.

As far as I understand the term, LOTS of things count as that; it's just that the hand-flapping and whatever are some of the more commonly known/recognized. But it can seriously be tons of things.

Here, have a look at this: http://www.stimtastic.co/stim-toys/

All of those things exist just for the purpose of stimming... that's it. They dont have another function. It really does take all sorts of forms. Heck, I do a couple of the same things you do, for that matter.

And yeah, now that I think about it, it does seem like most people really are very still, not really fidgety at all much of the time (but not always). I hadnt really thought about that too much before... Hmm. Might make my own constant movement seem a little odd, ugh. But whatever, dont really care...

I've done something interesting (I think). Before I realized it I turned my stimming into dancing. I literally do all the stimm-y stimm things I do, but when done to music it makes it all acceptable. I thought I was dancing (in the traditional sense of the word) however, I noticed that my dancing is nothing like and completely different from NT dancing (courtesy of the rude NT people I know). Then I anaylzed the dance movements of the NTs I see dancing and the few few few aspies (myself included) and my "dancing" or what feels best or natural is just stimming set to music. This made me laugh.
My stimms include:
bouncing up and down
swaying side to side
hand flapping
throwing my head left or right forcefully (to the beat of the bass or some aspect of the music)
tapping
bouncing my leg up and down
twisting my shoulders
spinning around/twirling

then when I pretend to say I'm "enjoying" the music if I'm sitting down (because that's what everyone should be doing) I tapping or bob my head to the salient parts of the music. What was very very intentional in the beginning has become quite natural because I made it autism-y.

Are people very still?
I hadn't noticed that yet...
I'm told I'm deathly still when I fixate on things. So, I guess there is a spectrum of "appropriate stillness."

Hi. I had the same realisation as you as I went through the dx process.

I do a lot of those too and didn't realise it was stimming but of course it is.

Also I can't sit still. I often notice in work meetings everyone is so still but I FIDGET. Pick at my fingers, cross legs, uncross legs. Everyone else sits so still - how do they do that ?!

I think they're a bit weird!

I don't chew my nails but I have most of the other stims you have including nose picking and finger sniffing. It took me a very long while to realise that this was actually an autistic behaviour. It's nice to know I'm not alone.

Here is a kid stimming.

Here's my list:
wiggling around
clapping my hands
talking in a squeaky voice/squeaking like a little mouse when I'm happy
jumping up and down
dancing
singing
smiling excessively when I'm happy
fidgeting
tapping out rhythms with my fingers
sniffing things/my fingers
stroking book covers
cuddling stuffies
spinning
swinging my arms around
flapping my hands
hitting my fingers together
chewing my lip when I'm nervous
rocking sometimes
hugging myself
acting like this:
playing with Lego
pulling on my fingernails
moving around a lot
There's probably lots more.

I think with stimming, it's not so much what you do, as why you do it when autistic. Stimming can even just be staring at something that is shiny, moving, spinning etc. It's a manifestation of coping with too much sensory input through self stimulation. Like when someone is really nervous about something and they pace back and forth to ease their tension. As far as I know a stim is usually repetitious and rhythmic.

This is something I see with autistic kids I go to school with.

These are my stims:

- Stroking soft surfaces (stuffed animals, different kinds of fabric, flocked toy animals, etc)

- Rubbing stones between my fingers

- Chewing (I have a couple of chewable pendants from Stimtastic.co for this purpose)

- Manipulating things with my hands (such as Tangle toys)

- Rocking (mostly when I'm anxious or upset)

- Tracing over patterns with my fingers

- Bouncing things up and down (like Slinkies, balls attached to elastic cords, etc)

- Pulling at something attached to my wrist and letting it snap back (I have a hair scrunchie around my wrist for this purpose - that plus it's soft. )

- Rubbing my tummy

- Rolling my head around on my neck and shoulders (it relieves tension)

- Pulling at the sleeve cuffs of my favorite hoodie

- Tossing small plushies and Beanie Babies up in the air and catching them

Stims:

Tensing up my entire body

Tensing specifically my hands into basically claws

Making noises (croaking, and soft vibrating noises) This hurts after a while but it's hard to stop

Covering my head in my shirts

Petting my hair

Touching and putting my face into soft things. This is something I don't like though as it is extremely addicting and I have twice ended up sick from it.

Random jerky movements usually involving my head. Similar to a zombie twitching it's head from The Walking Dead.

Rubbing my finger and flicking out my middle finger from my thumb.

Running my nails over the pads of my fingers.

I used to have a soft of beanbag object that I used to like swinging to the left and right of my hand. I liked the sound and feedback.

Depending on how I am feeling sometimes I will walk by landing on my heels and then ball of foot but it's more like a little bounce. I have walked around like this for hours while thinking about ideas.

Sometimes I spin, not often, not many times either as i'll make one revolution and whoever I am with will ask "What are you doing?"