Autism and Stimming: 10 Types of Autistic Stims
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- čas přidán 28. 04. 2024
- What is stimming, and how does it connect to autism? Do all autistics stim? Today I'm here to tell you more about autistic stimming and to share 10 ways that stimming could look. Keep in mind that all autistics are unique individuals, and so we all have our own stimming style. Do you have a favorite way to stim? Be sure to share in the comments! ⤵️
✨ Looking for new stim-friendly items, like some of those mentioned in the video? chrisanddebby.mykajabi.com/pl...
Whether you have an autistic friend, family member, or loved one, work with people on the autism spectrum, are autistic and struggle with routines, or are simply interested in learning more, this video has something for you. I'm here to provide the unique perspective of someone who is an autistic ADHDer and also an educator. We want to help people better understand autism and ADHD and support one another as well with the goal of improving communication and life in general for all of us in a neurodiverse world.
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📌 Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:55 Hand Flapping
2:37 Rocking/Swaying
3:26 Spinning
4:50 Echolalia
6:56 Finger Tapping
8:07 Pacing
9:58 Visual Stimming
13:21 Humming/Singing
14:34 Fidgeting with Objects
16:43 Rubbing/Scratching
17:55 Bonus Stimming Method
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👇 FAVORITE FIDGET GADGETS (especially for ASD)
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-- NOTE: This is about SO much more than therapy!! Highly recommend for anyone who is autistic or wants to learn more about how it feels to be AuDHD
2. Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker): amzn.to/46GJOd7
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⭐️ ABOUT US:
I'm Chris and alongside Debby, my brilliant partner, we've traveled, taught kids and families, founded companies, and navigated the world while also balancing both autism and ADHD as a neurodiverse duo.
Whether it's better understanding the autistic mind, getting productivity tips for ADHDers, neurodiverse relationship hacks and travel tales, or just a peek into our everyday life, we've got a lot to share. So if you want to join a community that's all about improving lives, you're in the right place. Give a thumbs up if you enjoy the video, drop your thoughts in the comments, and hey, maybe consider subscribing? Cheers to a better life!
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#autistic #autism #stimming #mentalhealth #autismawareness #ASD #actuallyautistic #autismsupport #adhdandautism #livingwithautism #neurodivergent #AuDHD #autismdiagnosis #audhder #autisticlife #latediagnosedautistic #mentalhealthjourney #mentalhealthawareness #understandingautism #autismadvocate #autismadvocacy #autismacceptance #neurodiversity
✨ Looking for new stim-friendly items, like some of those mentioned in the video? Here’s a list to get you started: chrisanddebby.mykajabi.com/pl/2148303953
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Love your videos,
So relatable.
I was first diagnosed with ADHD when I was maybe like 5 years old and put on a bunch of horrible meds that made me feel like total crap.
Then throughout my life I was diagnosed with many other different things...
Then in my 20s I think was the 1st time autism was brought up, but me & my family only knew of severe cases so we dismissed it...
Then in my 30s in hospital autism was brought up again & later in my late 30s I learned more & everything made a lot of sense!
Now I'm 41 & still trying to learn about myself.
I have anxiety for sure & been diagnosed with that many different times.
I've been anxious as long as I can remember.
Anyway,
Thanks for you videos,
Very relatable!
✌🏻😎👍🏻
Yaaay!! For completing task all on your own!! 💓💓🥳🥳
Bravo!!!
I have a personal theory soem may have a tough time understanding. I think my autistic need to stim amplifies my cigarette smoking. I used to do a lot of 'typical' stim stuff when I was a kid, but as a teen, after I had started smoking, it subsided.
Thing is my addiction to cigarettes has always been much more strong than most can even comprehend. I smoke a LOT, despite such societal backlash all these years. (I stared in 1981, when you could smoke everywhere)
over 40 years later, I still smoke several packs a day. I do not think it is entirely the chemical addiction to nicotine driving this.
None of the nicotine replacement methods have worked. It is the actin of smoking, vaping doesn't even work for me.
There is a very complex sensory environment around smoking, and I think that is all my "stim".
I do not think it is possible for me to quit tobacco, it would be too traumatizing. Nobody understands. They just hate me for being a smoker. So, I hate everyone who hates smokers. And I just wait for my physical end, why do think I smoke?
I hate
I practice conversations out loud. I don't know if it is stimming, but it helps me feel more regulated.
I do this especially if I’ll be going into a new situation or in places that make me feel a bit worried - like doctors offices
hi! I think this is called scripting.
I do that too. Last time my man walked in and asked me who I was discussing with and I said, with you. And he said, but I didn't answer anything. And I said well you did, in my mind
He was really confused
Me all the time
@@nuni6158 thank you.
Discovering my autism at 30, I realized after years of being 'judged' for stimming, ive subconsciously switched to 'feet flapping' as I call it. Since they're hidden in your shoes a lot, you can freely move and wiggle your toes without anyone noticing! I now go full scale feet flapping, and have added many alternatives, but makes much more sense now!
Yes, I do this too! Raise and lower my toes. Rapidly. I used to have people get after me for moving my leg or wiggling my foot. Or tapping, or pen clicking.
I've adapted mine to slow movement mostly, with more emphasis on pressure. So I'll slowly but with pressure, slightly move my fingers under my leg, or cross my ankles tightly and slightly move the center contact point, stuff like that. It's an adaptation I'm sure, to not get in trouble, from a time when there was no understanding about these things.
Hey me too on both.
I draw shapes with my feet. I'll make S's, figure 8s, or raindrops. 💧 I'll also do the conductor thing when music is playing.
I had to internalise most of my stimming, as my father would get really angry, for doing abnormal things, humming, repeating words, tapping, jiggling my feet, echolalia, I had a stimm of pulling a part of my hair so often that 50 years later I've got a cow lick that I wasn't born with. The finger tapping and leg jiggling, he never "cured me of that. I hum internally along with repeating parts of words. I would clench my stomach subconsciously, when I was anxious, as it was a physical thing, that wasn't noticed, this caused a lot of my stomach issues, that appears to be common with ASD. I probably did loads of other stuff as well as a very young child, I just don't remember.
I've found that autistic individuals with strong affinity for echolalia can excel in foreign language learning as far as pronunciation. Once attuned to the shapes and feelings and audial quality of making the sounds, we can mimic native speaker pronunciation.
This is true! I’m not diagnosed; in fact I have only recently realized that I have always had a ton of autistic traits. But I’ve always been interested in “decoding” other languages and mimicking sounds. My bachelors degree is in foreign languages but I have always dabbled in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This is such an interesting observation that I haven’t thought of before. Thank you for sharing!
@TsunamiRogueWave for sure, it's an interesting thing. I was diagnosed as a young child, but have never had treatment, intervention or anything throughout my life. My parents believed in raising me without the cultural idea of being different in my mind.
This makes so much sense. I'm remembering my years in choir where we'd have to learn to pronounce multiple different languages, and I often would be humming or softly singing whatever songs we were learning as I just walked through the hallways.
@NeenjaFruitcup 100%. It can make audial understanding much simpler for some of us. It can also pose its own challenges, of course - if and when we focus on sounds we LIKE or that feel right to us, instead of the correct sounds!
True!
I didn’t even notice that I quietly say “boop” when setting something on the counter or handing something to a coworker until recently, and then I noticed that my other neurodivergent coworker has picked it up and started doing it too, which makes me incredibly happy, especially when we do it at the same time
Omg, I say "boop" randomly while doing things too. 😆 I also say "bean" in a high pitched tone when something jumps like my cats "beaning" onto the sofa or even when when watching wrestling and the wrestlers jump off the top rope. 😂
Hahaha I do this too!
Samesies!
My MIL, I've noticed, picks up so many of my little sounds/noises. She's definitely neurospicy, but undiagnosed.
@zombiiesque the opposite for me haha! I told her I was late diagnosed, she has a masters for teaching SPED...after I told her she goes 'do you normally bite your cheek?' I didn't realize I was doing it, but noticed I was and was like ope😂👀
But then she's like its okay, I do it too!🤣
i'm crying at this intro because i noticed the cream on your face and after you sat down i just accepted it as some kind of face mask chat or something and even as you said you got everything done without needing any reminders i believed you 🤣
Same 😂
I noticed, put it out of my mind, and believed him too! Hilarious!
I kept telling him in my head "You forgot to wash the cream off of your face!". Lol.
Just realizing that this is the same trait that leads people to believing that we are gullible. Hm. Much to think about.
@anna-fleurfarnsworth104 to be fair, I have this trait and AM gullible 😂
Same 😭
My youngest son who has been diagnosed started humming from birth. I know how it sounds. I had to point it out to the nurses and then they were like, hmm strange” I never thought about that before. He only did it the first few days. He now has a bunch of different stims. I am late diagnosed and have 3 children with autism and I absolutely adore their excited hand flapping, spinning, and jumping because the joy is so real and palpable that I join in. They are the sunshine of my life.
Humming is my predominant stim.
I hum constantly, people have told me my whole life!
I've noticed my 5 mo old humming while eating and needing to fiddle with stuff while he eats lol I'm late diagnosed but I'm keeping my eye out
@@PollyHistorI'm currently in a diagnostic phase and try to have clear examples of behaviour. Do you hum predominantly when you're stressed/nervous/uncomfortable? Basically, when do you do it? 😂
I often imitate sounds around me. “Talk” back to animals, “honk” in response to cars, and so on. Is that echolalia or something else?
I do that sometimes, and have heard autistic children do it too. Maybe it's a bit different than echolalia. Perhaps onomatopoeia? It's effective to get chickens out of the road - "buh-gawk!" quite loudly. Seems to mean "threat" to chickens. They run.
Yes that's definitely echolalia! I do it ALL the time and have been teased for it all my life! 😂
@@lisawanderess Thanks! 😁
To me imitating sounds (animals, machines, other people, repeating tv ads, and other stuff) was my unconscious masking tool to be accepted! I was a like a small comedian!!
My daughter repeated what I say. Before her diagnosis, I used to get so angry about it. But she isn’t trying to aggravate me, she is stimming and that is totally okay.
The compulsion to organize, align, group up, etc is strong and incredibly soothing 🤷♀️
Yessss
I am house sitting now and the items in the door of the refrigerator are every which way, you can't see what anything is. I am resisting the temptation because it's not my stuff.
@@recoveringsoul755 ooof. That's a tough one, I'd grapple with that for HOURS! Oh sure, the "simple helpful innocent turning of containers so all labels face forward" is ok tho, right? RIGHT?? Which inevitably morphs into an all-consuming every cabinet & pantry, then laundry area, washroom, garage 🥵😟😶🌫️
OMG! 😱 I have got to make order out of chaos or I can’t function! I didn’t know that was stimming!
Omg my brain can't function with clutter and disorganization and I feel compelled to clean and organize in order for my brain to calm down. Visual sensitivity overload.
I Never knew or thought that was a stim, I thought it was my ocd. 🤯
I get so triggered and overwhelmed with dirt and clutter.
I also bite the inside of my lips, make rythyms with my teeth, eat ice cubes, listen to very complex music or fast music, I taught myself to cut my hair so I don’t have to go to the barber (it’s a simple haircut with a #1 comb attachment), I like to look at complex machinery and try to understand it! I do a lot more things but I would be here writing until next week!!
I thought most people hated going to the hairdresser. What is it about that experience that is so very horrific? Is it the formulaic 'So, going anywhere nice on your holidays this year?' as that drives me up the wall? Can't flee, at that point, because they have put their shackles on me (the gown) and I am pinned in that chair. I hate going to the hairdresser. I haven't been anywhere near one for decades. Like we can't cut our own hair? Maybe, if they would just shut up and work without having to trot out the script about holidays and boyfriends - hairdressers would be a possibility for me as I don't mind a bit of physical discomfort if it makes it all happen faster.
Autistic hair salons - there's a niche for possible exploiting!
I've never known anyone else who makes rhythms with their teeth! I'm constantly clicking them together in different orders at different speeds, till my jaw hurts sometimes. Also constantly wiggling my foot, and fidgeting with my fingers, and love busy chaotic music, chewing on the inside of my mouth. Maybe I should get checked out
Yes! Teeth rhythms!
I like complex machinery also (vintage motorcycles, airplanes, trains, and industrial machinery are high on the list, but also things like old school pinball machines and such. It's all fun). And I bite on my lips and inner cheek ALL the time.
I bite my inside lip too, but noticed while reading this I stim with my tounge. I make it move in my mouth back and forward or rub it on my teeth. I knew I was doing it but never thought to connect it to stimming
Me watching this video out of curiosity only for it to be too relatable and leave me questioning my entire existence
Same!!
My dude just single handedly explained why I collect pretty things, especially rocks, and organize them over and over on shelves. Then sit and stare at them for hours. Probably while humming/singing or making noises with my mouth. Idk how to feel about this.
Same!! I’m also an artist so I can’t believe I never picked up on how often I visually stim
Not to tell you how to feel, but I know for me it provides a ton of calm. I now know what to call it, how to explain it to others, and (most importantly) it gives me more feeling like I'm not the only one who does this.
Definitely hum/sing to myself, visually stim, rock/sway, and pace. A lot. 😂
@@madisuniesame!
I like pebbles, the smoothness is just amazing.
Don't feel bad about that at all.
Listenning to a song over and over and over and over...for hours or days
Touching my face around the mouth or rubbing my scalp
Fidgeting with the tip of my fingers
Folding a bit of paper over and over until it's a stick, then trying to fold the stick tight as well, and then just fidget with the rolled thing
What song have you listened to on loop recently? For me, it's the whole album Grief Chapter by Mother Mother, specifically End of Me. I'm not sure why that song hits so hard but i keep coming back to it
@@anna-fleurfarnsworth104 The last one was Put down that weapon by Midnight Oil (I looped it for days). I remember looping Hero by Family of the Year. Also Shallow by Lady Gaga. I actually found a version of Hero that was already it on a loop. I don't know if it's something about the songs themselves, or their melody, or if there is something comforting to me about them.
Omg. Touch my face often when nervous
I do the same thing with songs, so I can pick up the lyrics and feel really comfortable with them. ❤
visual stim for me is looking at patterns 0n floors ,walls,and ceilings when i get overwhelmed
I do this too. Also I make my own pattern with my eyes on the wall and follow it all the time
@@Amylaemia cool how do you do that?
@chaote2069 just create a movement with my eyes without even realizing and then repeat it over and over again
@@Amylaemia awesome gonna ry it ty
I used to do that when I was a child.
This word, "stimming," is less than a week old for me.
I have suspected for well over a decade that I might be a bit autistic. This awareness came after attending one of Temple Grandin's talks while living in Fort Collins. Everything she said deeply resonated with me. I felt conflicted about that because I was made fun of for being different, slower, shy, and in my head.
No one cared when i voiced this observation, not even my best friend at the time who worked with autistic adults.
I was actually accused of wanting to be autistic because it was suddenly cool. It wasn't.
I was tormented as a kid by other kids who relentlessly called me a retard. They called out on all of these stimming activities you mentioned as proof of my retaredness. I was even in special Ed for speech therapy. It was awful. I wanted so badly to be normal and likable. I was forced to stop behaviors and learn new ones in order to be more normal. Even then, I could never pass. I was just a fake.
In high school. I had to make drastic changes to my social life. Only then, did I begin to pass as normal. Until I had to jump.states and live with my dad. Then all the social awkwardness returned until I could figure out the masking thing all over again.
I am fifty-two now, and I live alone. Since being on my own, many behaviors I had growing up have begun to return. Things I felt super self-conscious about. Most of these are in your top ten. I had forgotten about some of them, like running the ends of my hair across my face. As soon as you said this, I did it. And it felt SO GOOD. Which reminded me of something else I used to do all the time. Paint my nails. I learned to paint my nails for the love of color, like a normal person. What I actually loved, however, was the way those painted nails felt when dragging them across my lips. It was so calming. I want to go out and buy some clear polish now.
Something I haven't told anyone in a very long time was something I do in my head in the car. My one and only confession left me feeling exceptionally stupid, and so I have kept it to myself. In order to make drives feel shorter, I would count all of the metal posts along the sides of the road. In addition to that, I would also fold and squeeze my toes while squeezing my fingertips together as we passed each one of these posts. I also did it with divided lines between lanes. If I missed one, I would actually feel anxious. I actually still do this when I am a passenger.
Sometimes, I will even count them.
As a kid, we would watch trains pass through town and count the cars. I still do this, especially if they are long and I am trying to get somewhere. It helps me not stress over time. It puts me in a bit of a trance. I don't know if this is normal or not. I have never asked anyone.
Anyway, thank you for this video. It has helped me to remember a lot of the things that were beaten or bullied out of me when I was young. Now that I don't care so much about fitting in anymore, many of these things you mentioned are making their way back. I don't feel the need to hide them.
Thank you for sharing. I want to meet Temple. Do you like Fort Collins. I always knew I was different but learned to mask really young. ❤
@dorothythornton4993 she is fascinating and so easy to listen to. The talk I saw focused mainly on how autistic children learn. I never related so well. After failing to get through to my best friend, I stopped talking about it for a good ten years.
I do not live in Fort Collins anymore. I haven't kept up with her, so i'm not sure if she is still there. I left in 2013, but it's a great little town. I've heard it's not so little anymore. Still, I would highly recommend a visit.
When I get anxious while driving, I count traffic lights and the seconds between them turning from red to green. I do a lot of toe scrunching and playing with the button on the parking brake, or even just wiggling the gear shift while in neutral.
I also masked a lot in high school and as an adult out in public. I allowed myself to quit doing that after having my child at 34 years old. I was exhausted and overwhelmed and it wasn’t worth it to me anymore. However, I did not seriously consider anything different about myself until I was 38. I was 39 when I was assessed by a counseling service as having ADHD. And now at 40 I’m realizing I have always had very autistic traits. I have no idea where or how to be evaluated for that. I just know that most of my life I have lacked the tools to effectively cope with who I am. But now that I know, maybe that can change.
Not caring about what others think about the things that make us peculiar is a good things, as long as we aren’t harming ourselves or others. We deserve to live authentically too.
@@TsunamiRogueWave we do! And I can't believe you do some of the same things I do. I always thought I was the only one and felt like such an odd ball.
I masked a lot in high school. If anything showed up on the autistic spectrum, it likely got accused as being on drugs or being drunk. I went super wild in high school. It was the only way I thought I could handle my life and stop being seen as a freak or a reject. As an adult, the masking took on deeper layers.
I love not caring anymore.
I am sort of in the same situation, I am 48 now, but have always suspected I might be autistic all my life. And the more I learn about it, the more I do believe that and should be tested for it. It’s very hard to be tested in the city I live in.
I live alone now too, for the first time in my life. And I think it is just the first time I have ever felt free to be my unusual self, maybe.
I most definitely have always had sensory processing disorder. I think I have always known this, even prior to knowing what it is. I just always knew that the world is too loud, and things smell too strongly, and my clothing feels odd on my skin. I started to listen to music in public anytime I was in public, back in the 80s with a Walkman, then with an iPod, then with an iPhone.
I tap my feet to calm myself but I do it as if I’m playing a kick drum, with the heels part. I count things like you do, just different things. But I have counted train cars before too, I used to live right by the train tracks. If a train was blocking the street and we had to wait, I’d count the train cars otherwise I’d freak out.
I have a very difficult time with people or things getting in my way, wasting my time, holding me up on time.
I have a very specific way of doing things within my own apartment, that I was never free to do living with others before. It’s very free to be able to be unusual by myself.
I also run the ends of my hair over my skin, and I also run the tips of my fingers over the insides of my arms. I used to do this in school. As a child once, another person in my classroom asked me why once and I told her, try it it feels good. And she tried it and told me it tickles too much for her. But I was never really questioned too often about weird behavior in my childhood. Not by other children, or my parents, who knew I was strange, but they were too. My mother had agoraphobia, and hoarding disorder, my father was extremely social but accepted that my mother didn’t want to be social with him. My grandmother had OCD. It was after I became an adult that I felt judged. I feel much less judged today, living by myself. Even if I find a new relationship I might want to just keep living separately. I like the privacy, I like being able to control my environments sound and temperatures. I like being able to just sit and rock back and forth without anyone asking me if something’s wrong. I understand what you are saying here.
singing is absolutely the best stim
Singing also activates the vagus nerve, making it beneficial for mental health :)
I went to a voice liberation workshop yesterday! Very intense, but also really good. EVERYONE making their own "weird" sounds and moving freely😊 Most were struggling with self censoring, working through that together was really cool
@@SachiJones that's what I've heard, although wind instruments also have this same effect, if you're not feeling as confident on the singing bit. Sadly, I no longer have my clarinet, flute, or even a piano (I do miss the baby grand), so during the pandemic I took a queue from the Italians and started to sing just because music has always been very dear to me, but I didn't have any instruments... Or so I thought. I've never been very good at art/music, but I have been intrinsically drawn towards it for as long as I can remember. Felt good to reconnect to this part of me.
Thank you for listening to my impromptu Ted talk 😆
my primary stim.
@@bvgg2630mine, too. I've always loved music and always am singing or humming a song!
I like to watch the way the light plays in the falling rain on a puddly city street at night, it's so sparkly but it's so calming. I can stare at it for hours. It's like a meditation sometimes.
Yes! Or an oil slick on the wet blacktop. Or watching the swirling on bubbles until they pop!
You'd probably like being on a lake in a rowboat, canoe, or yacht. The water can be smooth like glass or a small breeze can make it look like lots of diamonds.
@@recoveringsoul755 i do like that! Both the flat stillness and all the ways the surface is turned into ripples and waves.
I also like watching the wind blow through fields of tall grass or wheat or similar because it looks a lot like wind waves on water. The patterns are fun to watch as they continuously shift and flow into new patterns. It's all visually simulating in an enjoyable way.
pure joy 🌬🌾🌾🌾🌾🌾🙂
@@SachiJones yes!! The wind on tall grasses!!!
From your first comment I thought maybe you were more of a city person, but happy to know you get nature too
Just recently diagnosed with asd1 and adhd at age 49. I think this might fall under echolalia, but I visualize and replay select scenes from movies and tv shows in my head over and over. They’re from my childhood and teenage years. CZcams is such a great resource for media so I’ve searched for those 30+ yr old video clips and rewatched the scenes that I had kept repeating in my head for decades. I have been surprised to find my memory is a carbon copy.
I also do this!
I do this too, and it's like my brain memorized it, I don't even know how! Really cool.
I spin. Not around in circles, but take fiber and turn it into yarn/string. The spindle going round and round with the fiber twisting makes me excessively happy.
Bingo. There's something about it. Do you have any spinners, or maybe weavers, in your genealogy? It's tricky because at one point most poor people were spinning or weaving so if there are poor people in the family tree they might have had to spin or weave. I think it's a decidedly autistic manifestation, though. I've now become a bit obsessive with the concept of Lachesis (in my reading of it - Lachesis is the one that takes the thread and makes something from it) and the battle between existence and entropy. I do crochet. That's my version.
To go right along with this, I think the process of knitting. Specifically, the basic knit stitch over and over again is very comforting, especially with some soft sock yarn, particularly if it has variegated colors that mix and has pops of colors via speckles.
@batintheattic7293 to the best of my knowledge, there were no weavers or spinners in my genealogy other than what would have been common practice. Fiber arts are one of my special interests, and while I knit and crochet(both also work as stims), I spin more. Weaving and fiber within language and mythology are fascinating and I hope you get to spend many hours enjoying learning.
Spinning away on a wheel is a form of "physical mediation" for me. And I _love_ watching film of other people spinning, there is something about the rocking motion of the footman and the wheel going around that is very satisfying.
Omigosh, yes! I got SO into spinning fibers into yarn as a special interest. I have three spinning wheels, several drop spindles, and LOTS of fiber. It’s so meditative. I also knit with my yarn I’ve made. Mostly smaller items for faster gratification-socks, mittens, hats, and such. I like pattern/textured knitting more than color knitting.
I hope you thank Debby ever day. Some of us don't have a Debby... and a Debby would be nice.
I have a Debbie, but his name is David ❤
My husband and I are both autistic. We support each other, but it's amazing that we get anything done.
@@TashaRansomArtmy husband and I are both AuDHD. Thank goodness, honestly. It's nice to be with someone who gets me.
The “shy” segment made me laugh out loud - “she’s going to know how shy I am” 🥺💞
Some of my happiest times is watching stuff. Not TV, but drapes moving in the wind, the reflection of pool water on the ceiling, staring at the stars. I too have that neck cramp, frequently. I have a chair now and try to remind myself not to get lost when taking out the trash late at night, but it's just so danged... amazing, soothing, reassuring.
I stim by rubbing my fingers and hand with my other hand. I also scratch and pick at my skin in order to sleep or calm down. I love visual stimming, especially if it’s glittering or shiny.
Yes, skin picking! Sadly, I seem to have relatively few stims that I recognize as inducing pleasure - most surface in anxious bursts. But one version of skin picking has always felt good. I tend to take baths too, and when my skin gets soft, I love dragging my nails across certain areas, and accumulating white, doughy dead skin cells under them. It feels like exfoliating, and I also love to roll the accumulated skin between my fingers, the texture is weird but nice.
Meowth!! (Sorry I really had to)
One of the ways I stim is knitting. I also doodle lot if I can’t knit. When I was child I loved to swing in playground.
I doodle a lot and looove swings growing up and even in my late life.. it’s that rocking sense I like besides the air when I like to go for big swinging.
I knit & crochet too. Just the mindless repetition of a simple repeating pattern is so soothing. My hooks & needles have gotten me through some dark times.
@@peekaboo7424 It's one of the defcon one things I fall back to, also, when I feel shrink-wrapped.
Yes! Since I took up knitting again, it is definitely something I do often.
@@peekaboo7424- same. Stockinette stresses me out,but cables and lace I love.
Pressure: scrunching toes, squeezing finger tips, big solid hugs, etc.
As a newly self-diagnosed autistic, I am still discovering things I have done all my life that have actually been stims the whole time. I do a lot of small things but the main ones are rubbing my nails, rubbing my face and particularly my nose, rubbing and twirling strands of hair, clicking my teeth, singing, petting soft things like stuffies, and tensing my leg muscles. I have also just started figuring out what stim toys/tools I like, and so far my faves are the dimple, tangle, and the marble in mesh.
Huh this video explains a lot .. I've always loved watching tires spin on cars, and stirring coffee.. Starring at the stars at night.. Watching certain things moving.. singing / humming, fidgeting, pacing, rubbing / scratching / rocking etc.. so many of these ways to stim .. I guess stimming in ways I never knew were stimming..
Yes, many ways to stim. Appreciate your list/ comment, and Chris' clarification on this. I think stroking my dog is a stim, too.
Have you seen the 'wagon wheel effect'? Maybe that's just part of wheels spinning for you, but it's specifically when a wheel looks like it isn't moving despite rotating relatively quickly (mainly on camera, but looking through narrow vertical bars really close together can do it too). I specifically enjoy when the wheel looks like it's rotating 'backwards' slowly, while looking stationary is more uncomfortable. :)
Sadly there doesn't seem to be many videos on CZcams of it, at least specifically compilations of the effect rather than people trying to explain it.
@@markwright3161 cant say I have but not im super interested in finding out about it. it sounds really relaxing just thinking about it
Anyone else use crocheting as a stim? I find that crochet when overwhelmed or anxious along with rocking and humming at the same time lol helps alot. I really enjoy counting and numbers but I am horrible at math and still count on my fingers
Sounds nice. :) Sewing and humming it is here or counting things around like the books in a bookshelf or so… I just wondered the other day if I only was told that I was not smart enough for mathematics and if I could start again to learn to like/ to use it in a relaxed way…
Me too!
I use embroidery!
Yes yes yes! Crochet is an amazing way to channel my nervous energy. It was very difficult for me to learn, though. My autistic traits make it very difficult for me to watch someone perform a task and be able to replicate it.
Me too
Me too I pace a lot. When stressed or excited or just thinking, it feels good to b moving, helps the mind it feels like. I hate to have to stay still while on the phone, always pace
I am such a pacer.. yet I have to be energy conservative at times because my spoons get real empty due to fibromyalgia.
@@SunshineGrove04 o no that sucks, my sister has it too
@@heedmydemands 😞 not easy GI see you sibling in such dire need.
For me I pace on personal cellphone calls only, as I had a landline at work and it makes t tricky to pace....so I doodle instead.
Always on the phone, I can't help it. Hubby does it, not just when he's on the phone, too.
My favorite vocal stim is repeating "okay, alright" over and over and over. I've been made fun of and a lot of people don't understand. But there's something about repeating those two words, especially when I'm anxious, that helps me. It feels like playing catch with myself. Passing the words back and forth with myself. It may not make sense to others, but but makes me feel good
Omigosh. I do this too, though usually not repeated back to back. Maybe one round of "ok, alright"... Almost as a reset when I'm trying to focus, or when one task at work is complete and I move to the next. Or when I'm really tired and I'm trying to make myself keep going. But I do it so much it bothers me, (so if someone is around me, I'll tell them that I'm telling myself "ok", not them). I supervise at work, so I still mask a lot too, and try to let them know I'm not saying the tired or impatient ok to them. It's to myself to keep moving.
When I was a teen I said "Like" a lot. It took so long to root it out of my speech. But I guess I still say, ok and alright a lot throughout my day.
OH MY GOD. I have so many phrases that I've just sort of accumulated over the years from shows and stuff that I just keep repeating and repeating, over and over again... the big one for me at the moment is just the phrase "Spongebob Patrick!" My friend of a friend keeps telling me to STFU when I say it lmao
@@aah_my_handleI call them my pop culture phrases, from movies and commercials! It's a huge part of me. 😂
@@zombiiesque most of mine are from Spongebob or other random shows/fandoms/videos I've seen over the years!
@@aah_my_handle yes!
I find myself rocking back n forth sometimes too but I cant pinpoint what brings it on. I feel very peaceful though.
I love rocking chairs!!! They are soothing!!
I rock back and forth and if I’m standing I rock from foot to foot. I love to rock
It's calming for me! My husband is neurospicy, too, and he's definitely a rocker. You mentioned doing it while standing, and we have a huge tree just outside our door. There's a big chunk of root sticking up from the ground, and he will rock one foot on it and then switch. He does it a lot
I love the exaggerated, scripted joke at the beginning. It made my day.
I subscribed because of it... I need more of the funny in my life.
Me, too!
SAME! 😊
Pinwheels were my favorite when I was a kid. The noise, visuals of spinning, breathing , and shiny colors met so many needs. Best ever!
This may sound weird, but I used to play animal crossing city folk all the time as a kid and I’d hold the pinwheel item and walk around for HOURS. They have a pinwheel in the newest game, but it doesn’t make that satisfying clackity clack sound anymore :(
The noise of a pinwheel being blown is wildly underrated!
That just set off my mental jukebox of near-constant music that flows through my head… I am now playing the theme music from the children’s show Pinwheel (from ‘70s/‘80s) in my head. Will likely come out as humming/whistling along with it at some point (and singing the couple words of it that I know). 😁
@@cosievee I love that, mental jukebox! Definitely going to use it. I do the same thing. There's music going on constantly.
As you described how saying "shy" has to FEEL exactly right, like it's not about just saying it but about getting the word into that "place" that precisely "does it" for you, I immediately related and, in my own way, knew exactly what you were talking about. It's like the feeling I need to get from bringing the corner of my gaze into union with the corner of some exterrnal object. It's not about simply seeing something, not at all. There's something you're viscerally compelled to make HAPPEN by seeing. Like you are viscerally compelled to make that thing happen that comes from manifesting "shy" just the way it needs to come out.
At work and at home I have a very bouncy stool behind my desk (a Swopper) and I'm bouncing constantly. I love the feeling so much, just thinking about it makes me happy! And I have a few glass objects with flat surfaces in my window sill; everytime the sun shines on them, there are little rainbows all over my room. I love watching the rainbows.
I love to stare at the night sky. I can see the red or blue tint of each star and can see each star “blink” or “pulsate”. It’s like I can’t look away 😩
Autistic stimming + non-autistic stimming ! So interesting to understand ! I believe i am a non-autistic adult who stims a lot (!!) due to : a predisposition to chronic muscle pain xx
I am pain free since i started to stim regularly + found the diet that works for me (removed my allergens + heal the gut.) + take magnesium and vit. Bs + yoga (gentle stretching) and nutritious movement.
I am looking forward to learn more about the other types of stimming! 😊
Thanks for sharing this - I also have a lot of muscle tension and pain and still am learning how to let myself stim more often. Your other points about figuring out how to help gut health is something in the middle of now too. Already going (mostly) gluten free but figuring out what works is taking some time. Appreciate your ideas!
@@ChrisandDebby I have less muscle pain, and better digestion, if I eat less sugar (processed/ refined)- or things that act like sugar in the body (fermentables, including gluten). Fresh fruit bowl is OK (couple times weekly), with lots of plain yogurt and protein (like nuts). More protein rich snacks (pickled hard boiled eggs; celery/ carrot sticks/ apple slices with almond butter; cheese sticks). More veggies/ fiber/ protein, and less carbs (chips/ crisps, cookies, etc), plus vinegary pickled veggies, helps balance my body. Hope it helps you too.
It made me happy to hear you talk about getting your hair cut and what an uncomfortable experience it can be. I've never understood why I don't like getting my hair cut. I have long hair not so much because I like it long, but because I don't like to get it cut. I had no idea this was a common thing for autistic people. I've only recently realized I'm probably autistic and this is just one more reason to think I'm right. I have an assessment scheduled for next week but I'm already pretty sure of what the results will be.
When I was in primary school (in England) I went to a planetarium where there are stars 360° above your head. I didn't like it and I cried. Now I love anything visually stimulating my favourite is rain falling on the floor or in puddles and the ripples it makes
I heard that autistic people don't like to be told what to do. After I got my diagnoses, I started trying to rationalize things, like "why are you so mad at your mom asking if you got your keys if you're leaving and you don't have them on you?". I think I feel mad at myself but project it on her. Just a theory, but doing all this helps.
I love the night sky but also am very prone to motion sickness (thankfully just feeling yucky and not actually getting sick) so the planetarium with all the stuff moving around on the ceiling was hard for me.
I get vertigo symptoms when looking up.@@cosievee
Me too with handflapping with excitement. When I got bafly teased for it as a teen, I learned to stop it.
It feels so embarrassing when you get caught lol like I can never be comfortable when someone’s watching
I sort of combine stims. Most days I wear a ring especially if I’m going out to do things that stress me. When I start to feel overwhelmed I will use my thumb to wiggle the ring and it makes me feel more grounded. If I’m wearing a ring with a sparkly gemstone I will get lost in just watching it sparkle as my thumb wiggles it. Without a ring my thumb just brushing back and forth where a ring usually is will help.
As a little girl I had hair long enough to sit on. Taking little bit of it and brushing my face or lips was a constant, as was putting it in my mouth and twirling it with my tongue. Right up until the moment a teacher said if I was going to “eat” in class I had to share it with everyone. You can imagine how horrific the thought of everyone crowding around and putting their mouths on my hair was. To this day the thought makes me gag. Never put it in my mouth again. Instead I twirled it on my finger…under the desk where no one could see!
I love spinning coins on the table. Also, I've been known, for years, when nobody's looking (I guess that means I haven't been known) to spin in my office chair. How can I express the feeling that spinning gives. It's like something at my most central, existential "gut" has come home, is right where it belongs, engaged and clicked into its...destiny. Both at rest and yet freely coursing with a paradoxically channeled "abandonment" somewhere. Don't ask me where. That's not the point. The point is just that the core of my being feels like it's hurtling wildly yet controlledly where it's supposed to be going and is totally centered in the midst of this whirl that's blanketing me. Another "stim" is my frequent need to fix the most acute angle of my gaze on the most acute angle of some corner somewhere. It's like an immediate hunger, a compelling need to make that contact, to feel that connection. It's like touching the "cornereness" of that angle with the "cornerness" of my gaze and the two corners meld into a single existential ecstasy of "cornerness."
Perfect explanation!🤌
And to think that I used to think autistic people were developmentally disabled. As in not very intelligent, unable to understand much humor, (especially sarcasm) and not really able to show love and affection. That shows clearly how much we need to do better with the awareness. 🤨
Can i just say, I just really loved your explanation! I get the sense neurodivergent people are tuned into our senses and the world in a way that appreciates their significance in ways that aren't conventionally understood yet. I love reading how so many people are delighted by things and engage in the world so earnestly. I think we have that in common with children, which is a kind of intelligence. Mainly, I love knowing now that there are adults in the world who love to spin in their office chair for the sheer feeling of how right it feels. I'm going to honour myself more, worry less about behaving like a dull conventional human, and identify and celebrate the quirks that make me happy 😋
I tap or bounce my foot or leg. All The Time. Once when I lived in an apartment on the third floor, my downstairs neighbor came up and knocked on my door and asked what all the pounding was. He said a photo fell off the wall downstairs! I was shocked. I had no idea it was making the apartment below vibrate like that. I made up some lame excuse and got rid of the neighbor and then was soooo embarrassed. I was also really stressed and wanted to go back to this stim, but I didn't dare!
I twirl my pen or pencil a lot and have several fidget toys. My favorite stim is rubbing a certain kind of vintage blanket binding between my fingers, right along the edge. Sweet relief, and great while driving.
it can also be just "restless legs syndrom" which can maybe be reduced with some magnesium supplements.
My baby basinette was fitted with yellow satin bedding. The fitted sheet was satin, the little pillow and the comforter all satin. I started constantly pulling the satin between my index and middle finger. When I outgrew the basinette my mom always made sure I had a blanket with satin edges on it. By 3 I could do it with one hand and every morning my little hand would race back and forth across the edge of my blanket. Then by 5 my toes got involved in the fun too. I just absolutely adore the sensation of satin between my fingers and toes. I like how it quickly becomes cold to the touch again. I'm 41 now and can't imagine trying to get to sleep without a blanket with satin edges.
Debbie sounds like a gem. 💎
Gonna call it "textural vibration". Rubbing the flat faces of fingernails together, or hands, nails, keys over corduroy or coarse denim (with that micro-corduroy diagonal on the thighs). Makes hands buzzy :) Bonus: flapping items (not hands) - as a kid, twisting my body to feel the sleeves of the shirt tied around my waist, flapping those against my legs; gripping the edge of and shaking a needoh "donut" like I'm trying to reset an old mercury thermometer, so its "icing" flaps, or any action that creates a motion that could be summarized by "Wogga-Wogga".
As someone with self-diagnosed asd, my biggest stimming method is biting my nails. Everyone that doesn't know me much tells me I should have grown out of it by now, but every time I'm bored, in a stressful situation, or just generally want to, I bite my nails. I have been doing it forever and don't plan to stop.
I've been doing it for 39 years and stopped for the person I cared about. Now I always have a small nail file near me (Victorinox Classic). So as soon as I feel some notch or uneven length I can file them, before they got destroyed.
just be careful not to break skin, cuz that introduces the risk of infection (especially because mouths are NOT clean)
I bite the inside of my cheeks. Wrecked my teeth.
I'm glad you mentioned scratching. I scratch a lot, usually my hands and arms. I may be itchy, I may not.
You had to know someone's (my) first introduction to the channel would be this intro and I'm here for it already
The merry go round was my favorite playground item. I’d almost always be on that or the rocking animals that some playgrounds had. I think it was me trying to get more spinning and rocking in in a socially acceptable method.
For me, mostly humming: basso continuo/basslines. For added effect, I do something or other internally with my ears (perhaps it's my Eustachian tubes) that allows the sound to resonate within my head, which I find much more soothing that just humming normally.
The ear thing!! I do this too I think, for me it's sort of like popping my ears but then not letting the pressure normalise which makes everything sound really resonant
My youngest likes to organize at stores. It makes them feel useful and enjoy seeing the shelves neater.
I can relate to that so much lol
@LivingItUp810 The trouble is that they don't always enjoy doing that type of task at home were I need them to help out❣️
When I was a kid, they hadn’t yet invented those shopping cart return pens that they put in supermarket parking lots. I would go around the lot, collecting the carts and taking them back to the store. I remember being perplexed why anyone would not want to return their cart. Hmmm.
@jimwilliams3816 How old are you ? I know that I am old and they have had them since I was little in the big chain stores. There was a store with a different setup than what Aldí's has now adays but the same concept. You paid a nickel and got it back. If you needed to borrow it for taking your groceries home, you needed to buy a certain amount. I am in my Early 50's. Some grocery stores would allow Jr. High boys to package your groceries, take them to your vehicle. They would put the groceries inside your vehicle, all that service for tips. We didn't have a vehicle. So we would buy a month worth of groceries and borrow the cart.
I bought myself a NeeDoh Nice Cube, like that one and took it to work. Now, fully half the office has one. They are amazing!!!
Thats why I love the train, i just get to listen to stimmy music and crochet and look out the window, seeing the landscape fly. I could stare at it for hours. It makes me feel the calmest I can probably be :)
I raise and lower my toes rapidly in my shoes. I also chew on the insides of my cheeks. Both things are quiet, so no one can hear it. I’ve had people get on me for foot bouncing or more visible/audible stains, so I’ve found invisible ways to stim. However, I also rock back and forth when standing at church. I recently bought a roller and a scroller from ONO, and I love these! I do a lot of scripting, too. I rehearse conversations for past and upcoming interactions.
Whenever I have been super distressed to the point of too overwhelmed, I scratch my arms until they leave red marks cuz the bloodflow warms your arms up and that is soothing to me. To replicate this in a calmer and safer headspace, I would just make a cup of cocoa and then hold the mug, then press my warm palms against my arms and it helps soothe me in a safer way
Hair twirling is a big one for me. Always had been for as long as I can remember.
Twirl it in my fingers, twist it in my fingers, twirl it around my nose, twirl it around my eye, paint my face, poke my face, tie it in knots, untie the knots, cut the knots out that I can't untie.
People always notice.
I used to spin a lot as a kid. I'd stand in the garden and spin round until I got so dizzy I'd fall over. Now it's mostly fidgeting with objects. I vape, and I'm convinced that's a stimming thing; I get as much comfort just holding it in my hand and playing with it as I do from the actual vaping. Oh, and the "shy" section reminded me of Kajagoogoo from the 1980s.
I thought of kajagoogoo too
i'm convinced that smoking (and now vaping) is more about the stimming type ritual thing than the nicotine
I love the feeling when you spread your hands wide and touch the surface of the bath water. Hands face down and flat. There is a really nice resistance.
Also watching my ring under the water it shoots out little rays of light as i move it about. Baths are great!
Thanks for the reminder. I’m gonna go run one now! With bubbles!
I like the hand slapping and suction playing with water too!
Yay! The first touch… clear water, perfect temperature and no movement. Love that special resistance as well. I even stop breathing when thinking about it. 😅
I've always liked to spin tops, look through crystals, trip out on the cream swirling into the coffee, love kaleidoscopes and spirals...anything that's visual like that. The bath bomb sounds really cool. I'll have to try one. Also I repeat things I say back to myself in a different voice more often than I'd like to. When I was still working as a graphic designer, I found clicking the mouse and nudging with arrows very comforting on my stressful job.
Im new at this,a week or so, I didn't know I had this amazing gift,now I begin to understand why so many things in my life,it is an amazing gift that comes with a price to pay,but I can say it is worth it
You are an admirable ambassador to the world of autism.
I love your sense of humour 😂
For me, I knit a lot to keep my hands busy. I used to pick at my nails and the skin around them. I'm a finger tapper too.
I roll my thumbs a lot when I'm reading and don't need to hold the book.
I also bite my cheek too much when I'm concentrating, and it really annoys me when I realise I'm doing it.
Lights bring me so much comfort and I have loads in my room.
I had one of those sand pictures in my youth and recently saw one in a shop. It came home with me and I can't stop watching it. I'm always playing with and watching my daughter's bubble/gel toy, like the one you mentioned.
When I'm reading I often stroke my nose and I find that wonderfully soothing. I've done it for years now.
I love sitting on a swing and let it gently rock. I used to sit for hours on the one I had as a child.
It's so nice to be able to say that these things I do are stimming and are perfectly normal now. I used to do other things, like hand flapping, but had a parent 'correct' me (I was slapped when I did it) in that activity at a very early age. Most of the things I did were seen as bad habits and I was regularly shamed for them. Now I know that even though they may be bad habits, they may also be because I was trying to self regulate in a world that I didn't understand.
Thank you for doing your videos, they bring me so much pleasure xx
I have a very small dog who likes to sit with me, always. He is the object of my stimming. He gets scritches for hours on end. My other one is wiggling my toes. Like someone else said, no one sees it. And I rocked as a child.
I got some mad echolalia-if I hear a line in a movie or video that sounds real nice, I have to repeat it under my breath. I love how different words, accents, or sounds feel in my mouth. I hum and sing constantly too.
I also love to tap/jiggle my foot and sway. I grew up in a fairly strict household and was not allowed to be loud or rambunctious, but at church on Sundays I was allowed to sway and move my arms during the singing portion, and I only realized as an adult that that was less of the Holy Spirit guiding my worship time and more of a feeling of release because I was stimming and getting pent-up energy out.
I know this comment is a little late but I just found your channel and it made me feel so at home. Both my sons are diagnosed autistic and, as is often the case, learning about their autism has made me realize I might also be autistic or adhd. Anyway, my youngest son stims by jumping.....a lot. Especially when he's excited. He also stims by walking in a tight circle around me if we are waiting for something, like a line to get ice cream or something like that. He's only 11 so I know as he gets older those will probably morph into something else as those stims become less socially acceptable for his age, but I will miss them, because he always has so much joy when he's doing it. And when you were taking about the hair painting.....I was literally doing that all morning...just because I like it and I'm overwhelmed at home right now. I'm also an organizer when anxious or overwhelmed....so.....🤷😏 I remember doing it as a teenager when my parents would endlessly lecture me about whatever....lectures are stressful, but my bathroom was very tidy.
Oooh my gosh that's why when I get stressed or excited I feel a need to run as fast as I can!
Also I mow understand why I was the only one getting so excited at a view from the train that I was rushing to the window to get pictures and observe, and everyone was just sitting and watching quietly....
Thank you so much for helping me understand why I'm often the "odd one out" as you once said. And making me laugh too!!
I loved the humor with which this video was started. Thanks for keeping it light.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching! 😊
So, all my life I have: Drummed my fingers (often to a tune or in a pattern)
Fiddled with anything nearby (pulling strings out of furniture, tying knots, randomly messing with the leaves of a nearby potted plant, etc.)
Absolutely LOVED beautiful gorgeous colorful patterns (and loved to color my own, in coloring books)
Scratched when nervous/anxious
Realised that sometimes I feel like I can think/imagine more freely when swinging on a swing or bicyclingj (this'd be a variation on the pacing/running one).
I spun in circles like crazy as a kid.
Still to this day sometimes copy animal sounds back at them (especially "talking back" to my cat. :P)
And ORGANIZATION. Oh my god, I love it. First off, I love coloring, and I ALWAYS organize my new coloring materials by "rainbow order", first thing. I love the transitions from one "full" color into another and think the spectrum order looks "right" and pretty. Always loved rainbows, all my life.
I also adore music, and have made MULTIPLE big long collections/playlists of songs I like--in chronological order, by decade. To the exact day sometimes. (Three of these playlists are here on CZcams.
--Right now I'm making a big list of all the deities from all the different mythologies I can find. When I'm done compiling them, I'll organise them alphabetically by culture. Why? Because I CAN. :)
--Dates (oldest/youngest/first/earliest etc.) Comparisons (how many people did this vs. that)
--I once went through my "Choose Your Own Adventure" books and specifically kept tabs of how many endings each one had, and how many DEADLY endings each one had, to figure out which book was the "meanest"/most dangerous to the reader character. (I believe the "winner" of this experiement was "Through the Black Hole" by Edward Packard, with a whopping like 70% of endings where you're either outright dead or "gone forever".) Why? Again, wanted to.
And all my life, I thought I was just "a sensitive nervous weirdo" while thinking that autism, once I even heard of it at all, was more like "Rainman" and if you weren't like him, you weren't that.
I mean, I AM a sensitive nervous weirdo, but I'm starting to more and more suspect that my particular brand of....neuro-spiciness is all one SPECIFIC undiagnosed thing. :P
I have a piece of satin that I always have with me. When I was little, I had the blanket with the satin edges. I self soothed then and now. I have it wth me when I go to bed as well. I carry some in my pockets as it's easy to slip my hands in a pocket while I'm a car, bus etc. and grab my satin and feel it and nobody knows. I just subscribed to you. You made my day! ❤
When anxious I yawn! When driving long trips and there’s too much traffic and it is slow I yawn a lot!!!!
Now the word shy is going to be stuck in my head! Hahaha
OMG THAT TUNE! YESSS. Every time I hear it, I'm repeating it all day 😭
First time here. I thought Debbie was an app, but even better, a real human.
Here’s another one for you.
Shai-Hulud
---
I’m in the process of diagnosis with a professional. Hypothesis about autism. I’m figuring out what qualifies as stimming.
(Nice intro, the scripted joke with shaving cream in the face!)
Stimming I do:
- Music I enjoy blasting in my ears. (Now gotta be cautious about hearing!). Powerful music like Beethoven, or good lyrical heavy music Prog rock.
- Intellectualization(?) just the pleasure of “seeing” data get worked on in data pipelines, or Web application code, organizing code and create systems, automating for the pleasure of making thing efficient
Back Shai-Hulud, it’s a reference to Dune, the God Emperor. Felt so good this book series
Wow!!! This was really interesting and eye opening!!! Thank you for this. I’m still learning what all stimming looks like. I think I do it more than I realize.
Sorting Legos! Sorting anything, really (books, papers, toys, art supplies, clothes). With music....when I play instruments (drums, piano, violin, trumpet, flute, guitar, voice, harmonica, marimba), I will play the same section over and over. Not because I'm practicing that section, but because it is very soothing. I also LOVE playing scales and pieces like Hanon....the patterns 'sing' to me. Pacing, sometimes all day. Soothing textures...paints, soaps, warm water, water beads. Math....doing math problems calms me down....I know, weird. Spelling books.....I have many spelling/vocabulary workbooks (not in school anymore). Writing in those books is soothing and reassuring to me. Patterned doodles. Not just doodling random things, but actual patterns. For example, I will do 'marker tests' by drawing a line of each marker on a paper. Same for any item used to create art. And of course....routines! When things change my routine.....aarrgh!!!!!!
thank you! i never knew that my finger twiddling was actually stimming. Recently diagnosed at 52 years old. A lot of things I do are apparently stimming and now I know. I scratch my arms and the water lines on my eyes (😬). When I was little, I used to take all my barbie stuff and line it up like a display in a store...and also... i flippin' LOVE my Ono Roller.
I think I do all of those, including “face painting”…
Also:
When I was a little kid, the sound of vacuum really upset me so I would hum until my pitch matched the machine, when I reached the right note, I kinda went into a trance of harmonic peacefulness. I kept humming until it was over. I may or may not still do it.
I also love to copy words and phrases I heard on the tv, it’s unintentional.
I like to do different things with my fingers like tap or rub them together, play “mothers forks and knives”, put the all the finger tips together and push my hand in and out quickly til it feels like there is a wall between them, etc. I rub my hands together or clench them tightly.
I word stim by saying different longer words that sound alike or are related somehow.
I twist my hair around my finger, or even chew on it (when it’s longer).
I like to eat things with specific textures mochi, boba tea, violet bars, marshmallows, etc.
I like singing along to songs with strong harmonic voices.
I like to feel the rush of cold water over my feet and melting sand under them as I stand on the beach.
I was a massage therapist and massaging someone was a stim for me. So calm and peaceful.
I also like to overshare.
All of these make me feel calmer and/or happier.
I still do this, the vacuum sound doesn't upset me but the humming with it is entrancing. I'm 58.
@@youvegotthis7100 I’m so glad you said something! I thought I was the only one! It’s VERY soothing.
I should try that humming next time I try using a hair dryer. I hate the sound they make.
I'll probably be the odd one out, but getting my hair cut is a stim for me. I wish my hair would grow faster, so I can go more often to the barber shop.
I’ve heard this from quite a few people. We either love it or hate it!
You just made me realize I tend to sort things by random categories whenever I'm anxious and it helps to calm my mind down, I never really noticed that, and I do that since when I was a kid. Damn.
I actually do quite a lot of these, specially finger tapping and fidgeting. I used to throw objects upwards and catch it (or rather let it land on my hand), until I missed the catch with my old phone and it went all the way down some stairs just like a slinky toy. Not gonna lie, though, it was mesmerizing and I stood there watching as the tragedy unfolded lol
:: Edit ::
I closed my app and then came back bc I forgot to like the video 😂
I calm myself down by writing the same thing over and over. Some words feel better than others, and I have favorite writing utensils. I also have a piece of cloth I carry with me everywhere. It feels nice.
Your voice sounds really nice, and thank you for all these examples. 😊
Is listening to music a Stim? I’m very picky in the music I like, but it does not have to be any specific style. The more complex the patterns and richness in sound the better the music is for me. I like trying to pick out the patterns an imagine what they would look like on a oscilloscope. I also love watching swirling patterns, which may tie into my preference for music. The stim I do most is watch how the soap suds swirl when filling the kitchen sink. It’s always different, one time they formed a question mark which was very satisfying
I've always loved the word guppy! That's my "shy" echolalia word.
Chris and Debby, I can't express enough how grateful I am for your channel. It's not just educational, but also incredibly entertaining for both Autistic and non-autistic individuals.
Now I know why I could not sit still in classrooms or office environments but constantly felt the need to pace-for the same reasons you stated. It happens on other occasions, too. However, when there is no door or place to go or when I'm sandwiched between people, it's torture.
I also sing earworms, like signature tunes to TV programmes (the latest is the 1960s cult spy series The Avengers).
PS: I can't wait to have a dog in my life again, which will help with the stims.
I rock back and forth to music every day. It's my way of coping with stress and my little paradise.
I do this but with swinging, I’ll literally swing on a swing set for hours at a time listening to music
@@allycat3992 Same!! I used to spend all day like that as a kid. It also involves my imaginary world so it's even more fun. Too bad I'm an "adult" now and also..too bad I lost the joy of things I enjoyed before. I still walk in circles around my room listening to music though (the thing with my inner world still remains and I cannot listen to music any other way).
@@3Okami.the.werewolf97 Yess, especially when I was younger it was a great way to get absorbed in your imaginary worlds! I'm probably "too old" for it too, but as long as I'm still not getting motion sickness from it or anything I don't know if I'll ever stop lol
@@allycat3992 I recently tried to swing again, but I didn't do that for a long time so I did get motion sick." But the biggest problem is the feeling that it's childish and I shouldn't do that(I already got weird looks and questions when I did that on public swings). Well, I've been doing it for already 8-9 years so it would be hard to get rid of it and I don't want to.
Skin picking, scanning my sk8n and cricketing, baths, talking to myself outloud in conversation like way for me
I have always been pacing while brainstorming and thinking about ideas, I've been diagnosed with adhd and autism for a few years now and just now via this video realized it's common for others to also do it. Thats pretty wicked, in a good way that we all have similar ways of carrying out tasks
Thank you for putting out a video that explains the behavior and the terminology around it. It's like when I learned about masking for the first time: it's so liberating to actually know what I'm doing is not only not weird, but so common among neurospicy folks that it's well understood. It makes learning about how I tick so fulfilling.
When you're in your fifties before you really start to come apart and start thinking 'Huh, I wonder if I might be autistic.' - it's difficult to know what is/was stimming in order to tell a therapist in order to get diagnosed in order to make the now unbearable life a bit easier. I've only got the 'touch typing on my knees' (my dad's dad was an incessant finger drummer, and I thought it was because he was a pianist, but I drum too only my drummings make whole sentences) and the 'twirling the feet together' on my therapist's list. Holy hell, though, when I think about it I have/had many more potentially autistic stims. The spinning one - I stopped doing that when it started to make me feel dizzy but I did it all the time in childhood. Not just spinning - I'd twirl things. The reckoning seems to be that autistic people can't be dexterous (let alone graceful and accomplished with it) but anything baton shaped I could and would twirl like a pro. I wanted to be in a marching band so much, when I was little, but the local one wouldn't have me (might have been my rebellious/bad attitude). I really like the marching. Hated those damned kazoos but I liked the marching and the drums so, all things considered, I wanted to be in a marching band more than I didn't.
These days - no time to dedicate to twirling sticks/batons/tubular things.. Except for pens. Give me a pen, and put me in a pensive state, and I will twirl it. Wouldn't be effective if I kept dropping it - perhaps that's why it's not a commonly cited stim.
One of the things I thought of once it was too late to tell the therapist about it... Does this count? I have a pre-molar on the bottom left. It's not loose but it is constructed and situated in such a way that it almost feels like it's moving back and forth when I probe it with my tongue. I have done that for decades. I particularly like to push against the crevasse where it meets with the tooth behind it. I don't think we like having loose or extraneous things on us (hence the cutting off labels and tags etc. and the scratching and scraping of the skin) and I suspect the 'feels loose but is probably not' tooth is filling that niche for me (but I've been a monster with the tags, too). Don't like things being where they're not supposed to be, I think.
When I was in hospital, last, eventually I had the tube pulled out of my gullet and some nerve damage resulted. My tongue became 'L' shaped. I spoke with a profound lisp (for a while - it eventually healed itself) and I couldn't say 'ostler' any more. I couldn't 'wiggle' my tooth any more, either. Just as I was getting used to sounding like Chrissie Hynde, and getting over the shyness my new sound was causing me, it reverted.
Also, I have never seen anyone as capable of totally mutilating tissues and beer-mats as me. Even tables - if I'm not distracted, and that table isn't beautifully lacquered to an impervious shell, I will pick bits off it. Apparently, I don't like it when surfaces are friable and they're not supposed to be. I turn damp tissues into strings by hand spinning them as if they were a lump of fleece and if I've been crying I end up with tiny balls of tissue falling off me for hours afterwards.
Does doodling count? I mean the really elaborate, somewhat Norse, doodling of patterns of intertwining semi organic shapes? Put the phone down and look at the message pad - covered in patterns that I hadn't been particularly conscious of making. I kind of thought everybody did this.
I have subscribed to this channel, now, as this was all profoundly charming and autistic people are supposed to be a bit flat and charmless. I'm capable of being delightful (and extremely animated), too, believe it or not. Thanks for shattering the stereotype. You've made me think there may actually be a way through and that just because I can make people smile and laugh (when I feel like it) it doesn't mean I'm not autistic.
Oh... Ear-worms. Chronic ear-worms (until I put the headphones on with actual music) and there are certain things I do (like gardening) where I breathe the tunes. It's not normal breathing that I do. A keen ear would be able to tell that it's at least an over and over repeated motif from a song. Honestly, I could really do without the ear-worms. Thank heavens for noise cancelling headphones and bluetooth.
I have been discovering that an awful lot of undiagnosed adults, including myself, started coming apart in our fifties. For women, perimenopause may play a role. Men, I’m not sure. I do know that ambient inflammation increases in older adults. Various life demands increased for me, including a job with much more contact with people, and this made me much more aware of my social issues. And I think my coping strategies and internalized shames started to catch up with me.
I rub or stroke my lips all the time, since I can remember. When I can't do it, I feel a little lost or... naked.
I have a friend who does that too - and I feel the same with twirling certain pieces of hair. Feels so unnatural not to do it when I need to 😬
I used to do this while sucking my thumb, until I was shamed into stopping the latter. It felt so incredibly comforting to stroke the skin between nose and mouth.
@eh6454 hey - that's exactly what I did when I was a child. I stopped it when I was 11, because other children said that it's weird. So I only rubbed my lips from then on when I was alone.
When I think back to that, it makes me mad. It indeed was so comforting that i missed it, but I was too ashamed to do it ever again (at least the thump sucking)
@@Amylaemia it’s good to know that you did this, too, and I feel sad that we were both made to feel bad about it. I do revert occasionally when under stress (and in private) and needing some self-care. Another habit I had, which may be a stim, was to identify individual wiry hairs on my head and pull them out. I stopped after many years when I realised that my hair was thinning somewhat, from pulled hairs not growing back. Oh Lordy!
@eh6454 oh no! I hope it got better!
I just been diagnosed with autism by my psychiatrist and your videos are soothing to the ear 🤗
I study linguistics. When you want to study how a sound is made, nowadays they have computers and cameras to break down all the details of the sound. But in the old days, linguists would hyper-focus on a sound and try to observe how it feels in their mouth in order to describe the qualities of that sound. One of my favorite stims is to do that. It kinda looks like echolalia, but I'm really focused on the sound and trying to identify patterns. It's a lot of fun
Love this video. I stim by balancing eg. On one leg, or stepping on rocks while walking. I shook my head around on all 4s as a kid, which was amazing until my Dad made me stop. I visual still by looking at bulletin boards & the aisles in stores, not shopping, but looking which feels good & soothes me. I sit in my car to regulate. Definitely pace while on the phone. I find in order to be able to talk to someone I have to be physically doing something or everything gets “stuck “, & I get overstimulated & can’t think & lose words. I love Nedo squishies, but it was to be the right texture for the time. Sparkles, rainbows, all good smells reaallly stim my brain. All bad smells are really adverse I make little songs or occasionally make little noises that summarize things. I massage my arms, hands, & neck, twist my hair, & wiggle in my chair. Not a foot shaker, but a rubber. I squint my eyes & squish up my face, which I realize is managing tension. Online shopping
Fire is a big visual stim for me, similar to your experience with the bath bomb. Moving into an apartment with a fireplace was a game changer for me. I would try to keep it going as long as possible and just stare at it and feel the heat. My girlfriend was a little bit alarmed, needless to say, so I try to limit this one.
Another "visual" stim that I don't hear about is moving my eyes to trace certain patterns that I visualize in my head.
I love making "drum" rhythms with my teeth, or by blinking, or moving other parts of my face like my nostrils sometimes. This is one I have done constantly since I was a kid.
Chewing my cheeks is another one I do often.
Hair/head stuff is a big one for me. When I had longer hair, I would get a lock of my hair between by index and middle finger and fold it over on top of itself and just feel it. Looks ridiculous to anyone who doesn't "get it," but the smooth feel of hair that is packed tightly together and pulled back feels amazing. Once I started cutting my hair shorter, this evolved into scratching at my scalp with my fingernail or just doing more of a rubbing motion on my head.
When I was a kid I had a blanket with a certain texture (that waffle weave thing that long underwear are made from) and would rub or feel it constantly. Now as an adult I love my comforter and will rub and squish it especially when it's cold. It's so satisfying.
Stimming & sensory sensitivities are separate "symptoms" of autism but I feel a lot of my autistic stims are closely related to sensory issues like the way things feel or look.
Just got the junior Ono roller and bring it everywhere now. It really helps replace the more socially unacceptable stims such as scratching.
I had a few experiences where I see things on fire that I shouldn’t have as a kid. It took me 50 years to realize it wasn’t pyromania, it’s a powerful stim. I have a fire pit in the backyard now.
When I was about 4, I discovered the sensation of rubbing my tongue on the bed sheet. It was amazingly hypnotic. Did it for probably half an hour or more. Unfortunately I got seriously disciplined, because my parents thought I wet the bed.
I absolutely love fire gazing. Preferably a rL bonfire. But any old candle will also do. I will also turn my tv into a fireplace. 🔥
@@peekaboo7424 I love watching (controlled) fire, too. Delighted with my electric room heater - that looks like fireplace, with logs / adjustable flames.
@@rjparker2414 At or around 4, your parents were seriously disciplining you for wetting the bed??!! 😡 It doesn't matter that you hadn't, you were STILL abused.
Have you been able to get back to that type of stim since nobody can control you now, or was it ruined? Just curious. 🤔 😊
Yes lay flat on you back and watch stars 🤩… really cool with shooting stars. Do the same with clouds… lay on the ground or better yet - float in a pool and watch the clouds!😶🌫️ When I was a kid, I used to lay on my back in the yard and watch blimps float by😊! Also as a kid, whenever I was sick in bed-I had my crazy quilt with all the different fabric swatches to look at and find any matching🤗
LOVE your channel! I've just started working as an aide with elementary autistic kids. I've been looking for this exact content - don't need all the medical jargon, just help me understand so I can help these kiddos learn and be motivated to learn. Your videos are awesome - funny, insightful and loaded with information I can use! THANKS!!
A type of stimming that I do a lot, and I've done all my life, and I don't see a lot of people talking about is contracting my muscles. Most of the time, if I'm not stimming in another way, or moving some other way, I'm contracting different muscles in a sequence / pattern. For example, one side of my hips and the other, over and over again. Or, a bit more embarrasing to mention, the front part of both my thighs, then the inner part, then my butt. I'll just keep repeating this for a long time, and it's often very tiring after a while.
For context, I'm diagnosed with ADHD, and my last therapist, my current psychiatrist and some people in my life think I'm probably autistic too, but I'm not sure. Either way, I don't see people in the ADHD community talking about this type of stim with the muscle contractions either. I've only talked to one person who said they do it too, someone who is most likely autistic, but not confirmed, that I know irl.
Can anyone else relate?
I recently have been thinking I am autistic. Self tests on embrace autism all say highly probable. Anyway I am in the process of getting a psychiatrist. I have a million stims and I am the worlds best masker. Anyway I do this muscle thing all the time because it's something I can do rather discreetly. In my easy chair I flex my butt cheeks to a beat. Or I might do it with my quads or calves. but yes other people do do it. I never even realized I did it til this video.
How comforting it is to know that someone else does this. Sometimes I get a lot of muscles involved in a rhythm. My tongue will move along with the rhythm too without my mouth moving. It can all be very complicated and yet somehow seems to help my focus.
@@rhondamoine4550 Thank you for replying! Glad to know I'm not alone. Personally, while it's a satisfying stim to me, and helps me focus too, it also tires me and makes me me feel tense, I guess? Like, sometimes, I can'y relax my body because contracting my muscles makes my body feel tense, you know? Do you ever feel like that?
You bet I relate. It is tiring. I tend to pick a body part and move it in a circle.
Thank you for educating us on the various things that Autistic people do. I am very interested in learning this, as it will help me relate to Autistic people in a way that is non threatening and hopefully helpful to them. . Cheers from Michael. Australia.
Thanks for the comment and also the reminder that there are so many amazing people out there learning in order to support those around them. You're awesome for being one of those people - and Australia is still one of my favorite places I've visited almost entirely because of the fabulous people I met there! Debby and I hope to get back there in the next couple years again. But thanks for being here and for this perspective!
Oh oh oh, watching river flow is such great visual (and auditory) swimming for me