My current stims

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I stim a lot. I have been stimming since I was a young child. I used to spin in circles a lot and repeat sounds over and over. I also used to flap my hands to the point where people made fun of me for always doing it. I don't flap my hands as much now. I do it whenever I am excited.

Right now I like to rock. I didn't used to do it as much but now I find myself doing it when I am stressed or when I am content. It feels really soothing. Sometimes I also like to grab things like my hair while rocking. It feels good. I like the way hair feels. I also like staring at ceiling fans. I like the way they spin. It looks really cool. I sometimes lay on the floor and look at the fan in my room. My favorite fan is at my grandparents house. It has been my favorite since I was 9. I also like to play with tassels on curtains at their house. I like to feel things like velvet or carpet too.

I like to snap my fingers. I tend to rock when I'm happy. I'll hand flap if I feel extremely bad. I also like to fan myself.

Hot shower. If possible, hours of hot shower. The hot water flowing through my skin calms me more than anything else.

My boyfriend untangling my hair or giving me a really tight hug.

If I stim it is in the form of rapping my fingers on a desk or clicking a pen. I also bounce my feet up and down fast if sitting at a desk. I don't know why I do them though. I hardly do them now as I have been taught not to.
Oh. Ifidgit with my hands when nurvous or agitated. Oh. Somethings come to me. Is this a form of stimming. I used to walk round the carpet in squares or rectangles when happy, just like I sometimes walk back and fore when talking... Are they stimming?
I may not stim at all. I don't know really.

I wouldn't consider those "stimming." Many neurotypicals do these kinds of things.

Ah. Then I don't stim. I wasn't too sure. I fidgit when nurvous with my hands (Not the same way as people who stim with their hands do by shaking them... I only ever shake my hands like that when something yucky happens which is not the same). But not stim.

I sway from side to side/twist my torso back and forth gently when in "neutral." I also touch my fingernails to my thumb over and over. I used to bounce on my toes a lot when younger, but do that less now I think. When feeling bad, I shake my hands or rock forward and back. I also sometimes get the urge to hit my head, but suppress it.

I also like to click my tongue or make a popping sound with my lips when thinking. Not sure if those are all aspie-esque or if some are typical "all human" stims.

Is it really not stimming because neurotypicals do it, or could it be that neurotypicals do stim to some degree?
It's self-soothing in either case. If it isn't stimming, I'm wondering what the threshold for stimming would be.

Sorry for the tangent, but I'm curious about this now.

My thought is that it is still technically stimming, but that it isn't what is meant when people use the term - they are talking about behaviors that are noticeably different than typical behavior. But I think things like bouncing your knee when a little nervous/ansty serves the same purpose as flapping your hands...just one is typical, and thus not noticed and labeled.

Stimming itself is not defined as being for NDs or NTs. It applies to both but autistic stims usually refer to ones that the average person doesnt do/are more obvious and less socially acceptable. I think

I actually dont know if I have any autistic stims. Im suuuuper fidgety but like bouncing your knee and playing with your hands etc etc are pretty normal. Or at least, no ones ever thought me odd for doing them.
I bounce my knees a lot, and generally cant sit still well. Ill cross and uncross my ankles, tap my feet together, swing my legs, move from sitting to one leg under me to back to sitting. I drum and tap my fingers, play with my hands a lot, and pretty much fiddle with anything within reach of me. If Im barefoot I tend to curl and uncurl my toes and sometimes rub my feet together. I used to chew on the inside of my mouth but my mother put a stop to that one.
Honestly Ive never thought of any of those as stims. Im just kinda a fidgety person and cant sit still. Most of the time I wouldnt notice Im doing it till someone else points it out.
I do tend to rock back and forth on my heels when Im nervous though. Ill bounce up on my toes and then rock back down onto my heels over and over. I noticed I did that once when I had to talk to a teacher and I was suuuper embarrassed.

I mostly make noises. I'm going for a certain pitch. I can/will also listen to certain screams on FB and if they hit just the right pitch, it will make me laugh like someone is tickling me. I thought I was unique in that, but in another group I'm in, a teacher admitted to meowing like a cat when her students were taking their final. I thought that was great and hilarious. Could totally see myself doing that!

As a kid, spinning and head banging. I also hated to be held or comforted. I sucked my thumb till like 14... I was a total self-comforter.

Leg bounce - the most socially acceptable stim; 9 out of 10 maskers recommend leg bouncing
Rocking - when no one is looking, why not rock out?

Biggest one is pacing. I'll get lost in thought and start externalizing inner dialogue while pacing and I can do it all day with brief distractions if given the opportunity.

I spun my pencil on my fingers in school regularly. I have a beaded bracelet and I love spinning it around in various ways. I snap my fingers and tap rhythms a lot.

When I was high school age I would go outside for hours after school and spin around a metal rod I had if I wasn't sitting and thinking.

I grind teeth, slap my tongue back and forth in my mouth, and constantly fix my hair. I have a certain pattern I will grind my teeth in, too. It's like a cross with 6 diagonals in specific locations, and it kind of bothers me if I mess up the pattern. I don't think this counts as a stim, but for many years I absolutely had to walk over the same amount of cracks or lines on the floor with both feet (if left foot walked over 2 cracks, I had to catch up with right foot). People would ask me if I was superstitious, but it wasn't that.

I catch myself rocking back and forth sometimes too. A lot of these behaviors are compulsive and I don't notice them until I'm in the middle of the activity, if I notice it at all. The pacing and talking out loud thing can zap me of my time pretty seriously. I think there's some overlay with executive functioning as I'm doing it as a subconscious distraction from anxiety oftentimes. I can find it difficult to initiate even enjoyable activities and will just pace and talk no matter what I planned. Next thing you know...time for bed.

Stimming can be virtually anything. It's not what a person does but rather why they are doing it. I have been around those who have severe autism that do not stim in the classic sense all the time. Stimming is usually a matter of significance when it comes to detecting autism in small children.

My word! Right to the letter. Leg bouncing. That's EXACTLY what I've done, all my life, and I do it when I'm very, very relaxed but still feel like I've got a bunch of energy. Thank you, Fern!

Dyadiccounterpoint--pacing and externalizing inner dialogue happens to me. There is an old Victrola in my room and I tend to put it on and I can't sit still when it plays. Forget the postcards from back in the 1900s showing languid ladies and sophisticated gentlemen sitting around listening to those things. In the 2010s I might, or might not, be doing pull-ups from the attic door.

I push my hair back--it's parted in the middle and I don't like it on my forehead. Patterns, yes, that's real. I unscrew the caps on fountain pens.

I use my pocket watch as a stim...when I get fidgety I pull it out and wind it up.

FOR STIMS IN THE MOVIES--The 1919 film "The Oyster Princess" has a whole long scene dedicated to that while Ossi is in her bath and the Prince's proxy, trying to win her approval, is bored. He ends up walking patterns on the floor, skipping (!) , playing with the pull chain on the light switch--Lots of autism in silent movies. Also, they can be very funny.

TazCrystal--I like fans too. I used to have rituals about ceiling fans when I was a child but I realized as I got older that ceiling fans will not harm you if you look at them as they slow down.(Yes, I had a taboo about looking at the fan at the moment it stops.) Have you ever messed with the old brass-bladed ones? Those put out lots of breeze and look awesome when they spin. I have two of them.

B.