Fuck Yeah, Stimming!

my stims include waving my hands, pressing down in front of my ear, pressing the bride of my nose, bouncing on my toes (like i'll pop all the way up and then slowly bounce down until my heels are on the ground), and tapping objects really quickly :3

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:16:11 +0100

A Cognitive Defense of Stimming (or Why "Quiet Hands" Makes Math Harder)

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:02:28 +0100

A Cognitive Defense of Stimming (or Why "Quiet Hands" Makes Math Harder):

Thanks to Daniel Kahneman’s fascinating book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow” I’ve discovered the concept of ego depletion. Coined by Roy Baumeister, the term ego depletion simply means that we have a li…

I didn't see this until now, so apologies for being late, but to the anon who asked about excited stimming - For me, it just feels like a natural reaction to feeling excited! I even sometimes do it when something is particularly funny. It's not completely voluntary or completely involuntary (for me.) My most common happy stim is flapping my hands and/or arms (but not quite in the stereotypical way,) or just making strange flaily motions with my arms. It's GREAT that you support your son's stims!

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:55:23 +0100

I was wondering if anyone else ever stimmed by not moving? When I'm walking somewhere stressful and over-stimulating i hold my shoulders and arms tight by my side and tense every muscle right down to my fingers.

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:55:37 +0100

Tensing can be a thing. LOTS of ways

goldenheartedrose: Mutual stimming Sounds a lot dirtier than it actually is. I guess “group...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:02:20 +0100

goldenheartedrose:

Mutual stimming

Sounds a lot dirtier than it actually is.

I guess “group stimming” would be a better term.

Anyways.

Can Tetris be a stim?

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:32:57 +0100

Sure, why not?

It’s certainly visually stimulating and a thing to do with your hands at the same time.

My stims are mainly flapping and shredding paper when I'm upset, but usually when I'm out in public and if there are too any people, I tend to spin in fast circles and/or hit my hand against my leg

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:23:00 +0100

WAIT - is sucking your thumb a stim?! If so, this adds a stim of massive importance to my list!

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:22:55 +0100

It can be :D

So Californication is now officially my personal stim song.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 20:02:06 +0100

autiecommie:

Can’t stop listening. Also, I can almost play it on the bass.

For my stimming, I tend to not only suck my thumbs but actually physically chew my fingers as well and they're so calloused now. I also do the typical hand-flapping when I'm excited or happy or fangirling. And I know a lot of people rock, but when I listen to music that has several people singing at once (such as the refrain in "One Day More" from Les Miserables), I tend to sway back and forth. Idk.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:14:00 +0100

I sway too, especially when I’m singing, like in chorus. I’ve chewed on my fingers too. Stim ALL the stims!

One of my stims is ripping things into little pieces, esp. plants and paper. I do it when I'm bored or nervous, but usually when I'm bored. Does anyone else have this stim, because my parents are getting annoyed about the mess that this can make.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 02:01:33 +0100

Yup. I know Emma (Emma’s Hope Book) does it, I know I do it, I think it’s pretty common. Emma’s mom’s rule is “Go ahead as long as you clean up after” and that seems like a reasonable one.

learning that its okay to be me is effin hard

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:02:07 +0100

thesiegeperilous:

TW: internalised ableism, quiet hands

Seriously. The most profound thing my doctor said to me pre-diagnosis was that I was A) stimming and B) that it was my native language. Being that I am strongly magnetised to language of various sorts but that it was being brought to my attention that I was autistic and definitely neurodivergent(I knew this but there was always this cognitive disconnect between mind/body for me) not only in a specific area of my brain but in my whole body was a revolution on multiple levels. He encouraged my stimming and told me to stop repressing my native language(he used this term more than once). Learning that your body is also disabled, that neurodivergency isn’t just a black hole in the mind disconnected from the body and having to relearn how to “speak your native language” after years of forced repression is a revolutionary act. My doctor looked at me and told me it’s OKAY to express my whole self. It’s okay to express myself in the most natural way to me.

But it’s scary. My body has become jerky and full of pent up energy. It almost seems to tic, and jerk when the sensation and urge to stim rises and my mind reminds me that it’s “distracting” and “fidgetty” and out of place and i should sit on my hands and be QUIET! I feel a simultaneous amount of guilt and a sense of freedom in knowing I don’t have to repress and jerk and hold my body stiffly like a “baby giraffe”. Sometimes I am not even sure of the origin of my stims. Some of them are old as time, some are newer, some only come out when I’m alone, and some explode out of me and take my whole body when I become overstimulated. Accept the truth of my body being one with my mind is a revolutionary act.

My doctor has reiterated to me that I express myself and communicate through action instead of speech. It takes the sheer will and force of climbing a mountain to not repress myself and not feel guilty for it. This is a lot to talk in, to be revolutionary solely by the way your hands and feet move. It is revolutionary to exist in and occupy physical spaces.

It’s revolutionary to be okay with who you are and that is fucking sad. But to all of us who exist in the revolution, we are incredible, each and every one of us.

Bolding by me

youarenotyou: edgebug: Bottlecaps can help with...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:43:19 +0100

youarenotyou:

edgebug:

Bottlecaps can help with skinpicking/dermatillomania!

Carry a few in your pocket at all times. When you feel the urge to pick, pull one out and start picking at the vinyl liner inside the cap. It has the same sort of tactile feeling to your fingers as skinpicking, and when you manage to remove the liner from the cap, you have the same feeling of satisfaction or weird accomplishment—but no holes in your skin, torn nails, picked scabs, etc.

You can buy a bazillion of them at a time from places like Etsy or eBay. Make sure they have the vinyl liners in them—craft supply places tend to sell them without.

I’ve suffered from compulsive skinpicking/dermatillomania literally since I was born. It’s a constant battle. I’ve followed all sorts of advice, from “draw patterns on your skin with your fingertips instead!” to the ever-unhelpful “mind over matter!” but the bottlecaps have been the only thing to reallyhelp me a lot.

OH MY GOD. THANK YOU OH MY GOD THANK YOU I’ MGOING TO CRY

Stimming for non-autistics?

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:55:12 +0100

realsocialskills:

Anonymous asked realsocialskills:

can non autistics stim too or is that a term/thing reserved for autistics?

Yes, it’s common for other kinds of people too.

It’s not only autistic people who do it. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a nonautistic person moving in ways that are common for autistic people.

It’s just that stimming tends to be really important to autistic people (and folks with some other disabilities), in a way that it usually isn’t for people without disabilities.

And here’s a thing about that:

A lot of neurotypical people like to rock or play with toys or whatever

Most NT people can sit still in a socially acceptable way without harming themselves

In particular, most NT people don’t need to stim in order to understand what’s going on around them, communicate, or prevent themselves from getting really overloaded

It’s important to keep this in mind, and to understand that stimming is really, really important for some people.

If you’re not disabled, and these kinds of motions aren’t particularly important for you, it’s probably better to call them fidgeting.

"Excited stimming" is something I do a lot. This is where most of my stereotypically-obviously-autistic stims come from; flapping, mainly. :)

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 02:38:45 +0100

would like more on "excited" stimming as my son does this when excited playing a game, anticipating things, etc. He started this before he was 1 year old when preparing to eat a meal and has ever since (now he is 10). He does it more frequently when in a movie or even thinking of something exciting. I find it a positive thing, never negative. Thanks! Love your site!

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:55:00 +0100

Anyone want to say a thing?

I’m not sure if this is a stim, but I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. I drive...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 21:38:27 +0100

I’m not sure if this is a stim, but I’ve done it for as long as I can remember. I drive my mother insane, because I’ll leave little bits of balled fabric all about the house.

It started off with my baby blanket. It had tassels on the end, and I would roll an individual string between my thumb and index finger until it sort of balled up into a hard little knot. And then I’d run the knot over my lips/cheek/whatever bit of skin I could reach.

Once I gave up my baby blanket, I started doing my twisting (as I call it) to the corners of my pillow until I shredded the pillow itself. Devastation set in when my mother started buying me pillows with the rounded edges.

Now I do it with an afghan (I think other people call them throw blankets?) that I nicked off my gran. It started off with the tassels on the edge, but it’s morphed into my pulling apart the individual woven strands and twisting until the string falls apart- hence the driving my mother insane bit.

I do this twisting thing whenever I’m stressed out or happy. When I get nervous, l physically ache for a bit of my blanket to twist. And I know that sounds so overly dramatic, but there’s no other way for me to describe the feeling. It’s to the point where all of my knuckles have calluses from my constant rubbing. Before I had my anxiety disorder diagnosed and prior to the subsequent medication prescription, I used to sneak bits of my blanket with me places. Like I’d hide a bit in my apron pocket at work, or a piece in my purse, or a bit in my school bag. I’d hide my hands so no one could see what I was doing though. I suppose because it’s easier than attempting to explain my need to them?

I’m in my early twenties, and I’m ashamed of how ugly I’ve made my hands or the way in which people seem to judge me for my stim. I guess the reason I’m telling you all of this is for some reassurance that I’m not crazy, and that there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with me for doing this. That’s all. Thank you for reading. :)

Submitted on behalf of my 2.5yo: main go-to stim is balling up his fists and shaking them up near...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:01:47 +0100

Submitted on behalf of my 2.5yo: main go-to stim is balling up his fists and shaking them up near his cheeks, like a vigorous tooth brushing motion, his whole body tensed and his face pulled into a grimace. He hums the entire time he eats something tasty. He picks up sand and let’s it run through his fingers and then does his grimace stim over and over.

Possible Alternative to skin peeling

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:01:38 +0100

I’ve never had much of an issue with skin peeling and picking, but I did used to compulsivly peel and cut my fingernails. I saw the last post about peeling the lining off of bottle caps, and it reminded me of something I had as a kid that might be a good alternative for people with those stims: peel off nail polish!

I’ve included pictures of the peel off polish under the cut, b/c I’m not sure if the images alone would trigger people or not. So I figured better safe than sorry!

So peel off polish is something that seems to be marketed towards children, because you don’t need to use nail polish remover. You can paint it on and do designs or whatever, but when you want to take it off, it can be peeled off in a solid layer (not like chipping regular nail polish off)

I actually still find peeling nail polish off now as an adult, and I can’t believe that I forgot about this stuff until just now. It looks pretty easy to order on Amazon or other places online (I’m not sure how common it is in physical store locations).

In looking up pictures for this post, I also found what looks like instructions for DIY peel off polish, so if you want to try making it yourself at home first, it might be worth a go. I have never tried this though, so I can’t vouch for it’s usefulness

Anyway, I hope this may be useful to someone!

I just received a package of limited edition perfume I couldn’t wait to try…and...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:17:55 +0100

I just received a package of limited edition perfume I couldn’t wait to try…and it’s sitting neglected on the table while I play with the bubble wrap it came in!