Question about stimming in HFA/Aspergers

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Does everyone with HFA/Aspergers stim? Do they suddenly stop stimming when they get older? Does stimming always have to involve motor movements or can it involve verbal or mental stimming too?

I ask because I've never seen a teenager with Aspergers stimming... and I never seen an adult aspie stimming either, although I'd think it would be interesting to see..

I'm not qualified to answer this question, the following statements are of observation and opinion.

I would say that there are probably some people with HFA/AS, indeed any ASD, who don't stim. I would also suggest that there are many NT individuals who do.

I would say that some may stop as they get older, some may limit it to times when they are alone etc. But I am not sure if this is either possible or advisable. I would think it is possible though.

It can be both physical movements or verbal. I'm not sure what you mean by mental stimming?

Stimming varies a lot amongst autistic people.

I stim constantly.

Some autistic people stim no moar than most neurotypical people.

I would say that stimming has to be behavioral, whether motor movements or verbalizations or vocalizations or sensory fixations. Mental processes without behavioral manifestations, e.g. a repetitive thought that loops in your head, I would not consider stimming.

I've heard that people with Asperger's often stop stimming as they get older because they adapt to their surroundings and realize/notice reactions from others about stimming not being socially appropriate. A psychologist told me this. I don't think I've ever stimmed. It's hard to think of specific moments in my life where I did, I may still have done it, I just don't remember anything specific.

I stim constantly, but it's usually really subtle so no one notices it. I tend to wiggle my toes a lot or tap my teeth. When I'm feeling especially overloaded though, the toe wiggling can turn into foot kicking, which is fairly noticeable being that I'll be bending my knee at least 90 degree's and jamming my toes into the ground repeatedly.

I'm an adult aspie and i stim often. Some of it is subtle, but i also have very obvious ones like rocking, which i do a lot.

I am an adult with AS and I have and likely always will engage in stimming. I do, however, engage in the more obvious stims in private, leaving the less obvious ones for any time. In regards to the "mental stimming" question, if it is a persistent thought or pattern of thought, I would (IMO) classify that as more an obsessive trait than stimming (not that I am a psychiatrist or psychologist or any other qualified individual).

I am also an adult, and stimming happens. It happens considerably less than when I was a child. I keep it subtle in public (tapping a foot quietly under the table), but when very agitated and away from people, the whole rocking thing can happen.

I'm 29 and I "stim" constantly.

Although, I refer to most of my "movements" as "stereotypies" to distinguish them from "hair-twirling" or "finger-tapping." I have full body movements that are definitely not common among the general population of NTs. It was one of the primary reasons I got DXed with Aspergers Disorder as opposed to Schizoid PD.

However, as an adult, I'm able to (mostly) confine them to when I'm in private.

As to your question, "stimming" or "stereotypies" specifically refer to motor movements or verbal stimming. There is no such thing as "mental stimming."

This website has a pretty good explanation of what stereotypies/stimming are: http://everything2.com/title/stim

Last edited by XFilesGeek on 22 Sep 2012, 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have always stimmed, and I believe I always will, but my stims are very subtle and also I do them more at home than I do outside, it's not often I do them outside. It's more to do with availability of the materials or objects I use for stimming (so, opportunity) rather than an attempt to hide it. If I did the stims I do outside I don't think they would draw huge amounts of attention anyway.

Are you stimming because you are overwhelmed? Isn't there anything you can do to not get overwhelmed? Like medication

Stimming does not necessarily have a trigger. For many autistic people, constant stimming is the default state. I would say that is the most typically autistic kind of stimming. Other kinds of stimming triggered by anxiety, eggsitement, and boredom, eberryone does.

I stim more visibly when I'm alone than when I'm with people but not because I'm hiding it, but because of what is around me just being different.

My more common stims are not things people necessarily notice.

I'm a 43-year-old aspie and I stim when I get anxious, however you probably wouldn't know I was doing it most of the time. Stimming can be as simple as finding a new smooth bottle cap to rub between my fingers or folding and unfolding a little scrap of paper repeatedly. I think like others said, as we get older, our stims become more subtle.

I haven't stimmed in many, many years, probably not since I started college. (started at 14 a year before I was diagnosed, I'm not old oh god I'll be 29 next month I practically have Alzheimer's I'm so old) It just struck me as childish to tweak my fingers together until they were raw, just because I enjoyed the weird tingly endorphiny pain for a half a second. Nobody seemed to notice or mind in school, but I still started worrying they might "mistakenly" think I was autistic when we got to that chapter. (it was an abnormal psych class) Only time I'll do it now is if I have to pull an all-nighter for whatever reason, which of course means adderall. That's probably why it's called tweaking, assuming my parents didn't invent the word tweaking in order to give a name to "that finger thing" I used to do all the time.

I've also read that people with AS or HFA often stim as children but then stop as adults, that's it's "transitory" for a lot of people. I'm 27 and I still stim -twirl string in front of my face- I just do it in private. I also still make noise to block out noises-humming, singing, reading out-loud or talking to myself in order to be louder than the other noise around me (which some people consider a stim) but usually just at do it at home nowadays.