Has a stim ever got you in trouble? (Or watches)

[Pats]

I guess it was kind of a stim I had a long time ago. I was constantly looking at my watch - have no idea why, other than it just being a stim. It was years ago when I was working at a dry cleaners. My boss told me if I looked at my watch one more time I would be fired and went into a lecture about just waiting for time to go home. Then he asked me what time it was. I said "I have no idea", that's not why I was looking at my watch and I didn't know why I looked at my watch, but it was never to see the time. And I enjoyed the job and was not just waiting for time to go home. (Thinking about it now, I probably looked at it because it's something on my wrist that didn't belong there.) When I quit wearing a wristwatch I was fine). Later, as a nurse, you were supposed to wear a watch because you'd use it to count a pulse or breathing and I found myself doing the same thing. And if I was trying to use it to count a pulse, I actually couldn't watch the second hand on my watch because looking at my watch was not to look at the time or anything - can't really explain it. I just would know how many seconds would pass as I'm counting the pulse. Eventually I quit wearing the watch then, too, because it was useless, except looking at that thing that shouldn't be on my wrist.

 

[Wolfnox]

Yep. Daydreaming.

 

[Progster]

Picking at spots on my face or picking my lips when I was a child - I got told not to do it. Once one of my mum's friends who came to to visit her told me off, so I told her it was none of her business!

 

[Loren]

I've had similar experiences, but mine have been due to (OCD related) compulsions, as opposed to stims. I rarely experience compulsions these days, but, would attempt to keep them under wraps, and, when I couldn't, I could be seen as acting in a way of which I had no intention, nor awareness. Such as, being more concerned about things being in order, being a distraction to others, when I was, actually, the opposite, and had never wanted to be noticed.

 

[Peter Morrison]

Pats, I have the same affliction - I would look at my watch many times in a span of a few minutes, usually when I am feeling self-conscious for no real reason. I look, but I don't acknowledge the time. The funny thing is that I need to acknowledge the time because I often do it when I am waiting in an airport for a flight, roaming around to pass the time before boarding, or in places where I am waiting for an appointment. I rarely wear a watch these days, as I rely on my phone more and more. I always thought I looked stupid checking my watch constantly - clearly would look to be nervous. I have no idea why I do this, but it is the same issue as you have. I also check my pockets to be sure I have what I brought with me, many times in a short span. I'm being overly vigilant and I never lose things.

 

[Thinx]

Well these days it's not unusual to be often looking at my phone, but mostly do it to check the time though can't always say what the time was then have to look again. Then I drop the phone and once I broke it. I think the complexity of getting the phone out of the pocket of my rucksack distracts me from actually taking in the time so then I repeat the action. So that's more about dyspraxia and executive dysfunction than stimming, and I thought the watch issues @Pats discussed might be about exec dysfunction? Or some disconnect that makes the watch seem out of place? Our brains are different...

 

[AuBurney Tuckerson]

Teacher got mad at me for "singing" when I was repeating a phrase from spongebob where Mermaid Man kept hollering "EVIIIIL"