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Hello! Introduction and question

Ro1774

Ro1774

Member
My name is Jessica. I live in New York State and it is suspected by my doctor and myself that I have Asperger’s syndrome as well as diagnosed social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.

I find going to therapy unhelpful because it exhausts me mentally.
I was made aware of this site and usually I wouldn’t add to a discussion like this but the idea of friendship with like minded people seems like a positive thing.

I wondered if any other adult on the spectrum, particularly women, experiences excessive stimming (for example hand flapping& rocking) and is very aware of their body language in public places or around certain people in order to control this behavior?
 
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Ro1774 said:
I wondered if any other adult on the spectrum, particularly women, experiences excessive stimming (for example hand flapping& rocking) and is very aware of their body language in public places or around certain people in order to control this behavior?
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Welcome Ro ≧◉ᴥ◉≦ I dance or do taekwondo instead of rocking or hand flapping. Essentially for the same reasons related to stress/anxiety/high energy, in public I'm very careful not to do those things. And quite aware that I calm down my body language.
 
Welcome to the Forums! I hope you make new friends and enjoy your stay in the process! :)
 
Welcome! I hope you find this forum as welcoming and helpful as I have.

To answer your question - yes. There are quite a few threads on this forum on stimming, and what stims people use to avoid being noticed. There is also a lot of discussion about "masking" - deliberately changing your behavior to appear more "normal" and to be more accepted.

I almost always have a straw to fidget with (I started using the term "fidget" long before I was diagnosed and knew what stimming was - hard to change now). I'm lucky that I work in an engineering department where everyone has a fidget of some sort, so it doesn't stand out much.

When I worry that fiddling with a straw will be distracting or look weird, I will doodle, count things around me (e.g. tiles, dots on the wall, bricks, etc.), or retreat into mental activities like looking for interesting patterns in whatever numbers are around me, factoring numbers, or anagramming words.
 
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