Talk about stimming. Do you stim? How? What are your favorite stims? Do you have different stims for when you are happy or agitated?
Stimming, short for self-stimulatory behavior, is the most commonly accepted word for autism specific fidgeting. Stimming is a way for autistic people to self regulate, it helps us to manage anxiety, regulate emotions and, block out or provide sensory input.
Here’s my haiku I wrote for the stimtastic giveaway a few days ago
Stim, don’t stop stimming
Arms flap, body rocks, feet bounce
Never stop stimming
Stimming is basically the best thing ever. I stim all the time in one way or another. Generally, I never stop moving, I’ll bounce my legs or rock or rotate my shoulders. Sometimes I hum or listen to a metronome. I have a ton of stim toys. A whole 20 gallon bucket full of tangles, stress balls, klixxs, puffer balls, spikey animals, boinks, pop tubes, the fidget cube, chewies. Outside of rocking, chewing is my favorite stim. I will chew on nearly anything, except fabric which I have a horrible sensory reaction to.
When I was little I used to bite my nails and chew off the skin around my fingers until they bled and my fingers were always sore and horrible looking. I finally managed to stop though I’m still prone to chewing my fingers if I’m stressed and not paying attention. I was so happy to learn that oral sensory seeking is a common autistic thing and that they have special safe things to chew on. I used to chew on pretty much anything; metal, wood, plastic, paper. My favorites (which I do still chew on when I come across them) were the little plastic pieces that attached tags to clothes, straws and, the little orange juice sealer thing that was used to seal the cartons. It used to be great at work because we had entire strips of plastic clothing tags, I didn’t really take very many (maybe 7 or 8 in the entire time I worked there) as it was easy enough to find loose tags all over the place. I used to get nervous or bored and pick things up off the floor to chew on, which I’m sure was horribly unsanitary. I’ve been told I have a distinctive look that I get when debating whether I should put something into my mouth. Thankfully now that I have some proper chew toys my propensity to chew on random items has gone down.
Another stim, which endlessly annoyed my parents, was my habit off tearing off tiny bits of paper and rolling and rerolling it until the paper basically disintegrated or I dropped it on the floor and was unable to find again. My bedroom and the living room was always littered with tiny bits of paper. For the most part this has stopped now that I have proper stim toys, though if I’m sitting somewhere without one I’m still prone to start tearing up paper.
I have a few vocal/echolalial stims. When I had my dog it was ‘Nicky Nicky Nicky’ which I would say all the time. When he died, I would catch myself saying it for months afterword and I couldn’t figure out why I felt compelled to keep saying it, it was like I couldn’t stop. It took me ages before I was able to force myself to stop. Lately I’ve taken to making a ‘chih chih chih’ noise or saying ‘bah bah bah bah bologna’ (this annoying 2 second jingle from Psych which I can’t get out of my head).
I also love weighted things and deep pressure stimming. I have several weighted toys and blankets. I love my little crow and pentapus and smol bean. I really like to have some pressure on me when I’m sleeping, before I found out weighted blankets were a thing I used to sleep with about 12 blankets on my bed; two comforters, a quilt, a heavy fleece blanket, and as many throw blankets as I could find. It was ridiculously hot and it always took forever to wash my bedding. Now I sleep with a quilt or comforter and a weighted blanket. I have two weighted blankets. A smaller, softer, lighter one made by Isaac from autistic rabbit on etsy. It’s a great blanket and just the right size for traveling or for if its warmer out. I also have a larger, comforter size blanket from sensacalm, which is great but I only really get to use it in the winter as it gets really hot due to the polyfill. I love cocooning myself into the blankets. It’s always so nice and warm and safe feeling. When it’s too hot for the blankets I like to pile them up next to me to make a little wall to snuggle into, I have the actually wall on one side and my blanket wall on the other, it’s so nice and cozy.
I don’t really think my stimming differs when I’m happy or agitated. I don’t have specific happy stims or anything. I would say the only thing that changed would be the intensity. I rock most of the time anyway but it gets a bit faster and more aggressive when I’m agitated. And I have a tendency to hum a bit more and more loudly.
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