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Would you class this as stimming?

arthurfakaya

Well-Known Member
Hi, I've been thinking about the fact that I don't appear to have any typical autistic stimming behaviour. I figured perhaps that as I slipped through the AS detection net growing up that I have subconsciously adapted to survive in the NT world. Displaying typical stimming behaviour would have either alerted others to my condition or would have targeted me as atypical (to bullies).

I'm figuring that perhaps my extreme social anxiety led me to subconsciously curtail stimming, or direct it into socially-acceptable or undetectable gestures/behaviours. I'm wondering if stimming is something that people can have any control over, or if it's completely subconscious (like a tic or tourettes).

I'm also wondering whether fist clenching (which I only recently became consciously aware of doing whenever I am in a social / public situation) could count as stimming. It is something that is undetectable to other people as I walk along the street. The only other things I'm conscious of doing is flicking my ear and what I'd describe as strumming my nose with all my knuckles of one hand, something I picked up at an early age from my oldest brother. It's not something I've ever seen anyone else do. Oh, and I chew my fingernails, and as an infant I sucked my thumb; what I'm sure are indications of anxiety. All these behaviours appear to provide some comfort to me in social situations, but they're not your typical hand-flapping, for instance. Would you consider them to be stimming? Have I evolved socially-acceptable stimming, or am I overanalysing my behaviour?:S
 
I have read that adult stimming can often take more socially acceptable forms such as pacing, playing with fingers, hair or jewelry, finger or foot tapping or drumming, etc. (all of which I do). It may be that as we get older we shift stimming to forms that draw less attention to ourselves.
 
I have read that adult stimming can often take more socially acceptable forms such as pacing, playing with fingers, hair or jewelry, finger or foot tapping or drumming, etc. (all of which I do). It may be that as we get older we shift stimming to forms that draw less attention to ourselves.

Well that makes sense, but is it really stimming? Surely lots of NTs have these same types of behaviours.
 
I couldn't say. It is only what I have read. Perhaps it depends on the quality and quantity, as so much of AS seems to do. When I first suspected that I had AS, my father said that since everyone he knew had at least some of the traits, then everyone must have AS. And if everyone has it, then no one has it (and therefore, I couldn't possibly have it). I tried to explain that it wasn't an issue of individual traits, but of a preponderance of them. So maybe stimming can be thought of along the same lines.
 
Perhaps it depends on the quality and quantity, as so much of AS seems to do... it wasn't an issue of individual traits, but of a preponderance of them. So maybe stimming can be thought of along the same lines.

Yes, most diagnoses are based on a preponderance of traits.
 
arthurfakaya, I am not entirely sure it isn’t stimming, I believe stimming is stimulation that the self needs and perpetuates to keep itself grounded, and therefore there can be many kinds of stim.

The most obvious would be the ones we establish before we know why we do it, but as well as physical stims there are vocal stims IE; repetition of words and phrases, or making comfort sounds/ rhymes, I find I have visual stims, where I will carry something nice or 'pretty' to look at in times of stress, or I just visually pick something out and constantly refer back to it for comfort.

I think there are stims we hide from embarrassment and ones that are harmful; there are stims we cultivate as they can be passed off as comedic or 'natural'. There are probably also things you consciously make into stims as well as the ones you actively phase out for no longer being appropriate or whatever.
Personally, I think that for an aspergical nature, anything repetitive and innocuous or seemingly random or meaningless would then be classed as a stim.
Like smoking is a repetitious behavior but it isn’t a stim, whereas rubbing your nose might be (unless your a crack addict) LOL
 
arthurfakaya, I am not entirely sure it isn’t stimming, I believe stimming is stimulation that the self needs and perpetuates to keep itself grounded, and therefore there can be many kinds of stim.

The most obvious would be the ones we establish before we know why we do it, but as well as physical stims there are vocal stims IE; repetition of words and phrases, or making comfort sounds/ rhymes, I find I have visual stims, where I will carry something nice or 'pretty' to look at in times of stress, or I just visually pick something out and constantly refer back to it for comfort.

I think there are stims we hide from embarrassment and ones that are harmful; there are stims we cultivate as they can be passed off as comedic or 'natural'. There are probably also things you consciously make into stims as well as the ones you actively phase out for no longer being appropriate or whatever.
Personally, I think that for an aspergical nature, anything repetitive and innocuous or seemingly random or meaningless would then be classed as a stim.
Like smoking is a repetitious behavior but it isn’t a stim,

I found this very helpful.

whereas rubbing your nose might be (unless your a crack addict) LOL

I found this very funny :lol:
 

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