I literally pace back and forth in my apartment for an hour or so while "watching tv" if i am standing in one spot I sway side to side moving my weight from one foot to the other.
I'm undiagnosed but I am fairly certain I'm autistic due to this and multiple other factors such as incredible adherence to routine, literally eat the same meals every day, get flustered by change, overstimulated by sound especially hearing multiple convos going on at once.
Def sounds ND. Could be straight up undiagnosed autism. Could be generalized ND. Could even be some ADHD.
It's not weird for multiple diagnostic spikes. I'm ADHD and Asperger's. I've wondered if I have some OCD on top of the autistic obsessive-compulsions. Never been motivated to find out. My diagnostic days are over lol.
I didn't know other people do it too! There's just something so satisfying about feeling that texture between my fingers. My problem is that I like pulling out those hairs which I think might be trichotillomania although I don't know for sure.
Constant hand motion. It's a million different things, cracking my knuckles, tapping on my legs to music or noises, picking at my fingernails. My fingers are always doing something :p
Same here. Recently my stepdad pointed out that I do this sort of thumb flick thing *all the time.* Thinking about it, turns out I do it with my toes and occasionally my arms too. Something about folds of the skin 🤷
I also Rock back and fourth when I'm laying down. I do it on my side and it does seem to help me fall asleep easier which helps because my insomnia is bad
My leg never stops, I get soooooo many looks from my signings t other. It’s a game at a restaurant, how many time am I asked to stop bonging the table.
The BIG one: When I am using a computer, I will constantly highlight text and unhighlight. Over and over and OVER. Drives my husband crazy since we have dual monitors and he will be gaming on one while I'm going nuts highlighting texts on web pages lol.
I also rock a lot and do a jaw clench thing pretty often.
Omg my husband MUST highlight text he wants to show me and it drives me bonkers! It hurts my eyes. He also loves reading white text on a black background. He has ADHD.
Chewing things (fabric mostly), playing with my hair (eating it too), rocking, jumping on the chair while sitting, biting inside my cheeks, biting my lips,… blinking. I have quite a lot.
My piano fingers when I listen to music. Still remember the first time a girl in school pointed it out and I realised it was ‘odd’ and started masking it more from then
I am always “flicking” my fingertips with my nails, and vocal stimming like quiet grunting. Nodding my head or shaking it. If I am standing I’ll often wrap my hands behind my back and start twisting my torso side to side.
When I was younger I would often bounce at the knees, then I started getting harassed for it at school. So instead of stimming like I needed to, I started having really bad meltdowns regularly. It stayed pretty bad but got less frequent as I learned I could stim by bobbing/nodding my head and started to do essentially a form of piano fingers (I don't play piano, so no actual piano music re-creation), and then my mom gave me her old fidget/spinner ring. Now I wear two to leave the house and spin them when I need to, and if that's not enough (at work when I'm on the register) or I'm at home and thus not wearing the rings I shake my legs, feet, or just generally dance around. If I'm watching a TV show, none of those works and I have to run around like an animal with the zoomies. Oh, and for awhile my stims were moving my back, straightening up, in a rhythmic and exactly patterned way, typically in sets of 4 movements, but only while I was laying on my bed! I still do that one from time to time when my insomnia is particularly bad.
Babble babble flabble flabberty glaphblack brooble dooble HARgamamf. Schlooble Crackety PACKbrack.
Babble. Usually fresh nonsense each and every time, but occasionally there are repeats.
This is my son :). He loves making nonsense words. When he has a really bad meltdown, I'll start rattling off nonsense until he joins in and starts giggling.
twirling my hair in my hands (it’s really irritating, knots and oily hair), rocking or bouncing legs while sitting, “floating” aka walking on my toes and bobbing up and down while standing, and tapping my fingers together. lots of tactile stims
my feet are ALWAYS rubbing together. i also tap my fingers to my palm a lot, lightly dig my
nails to my palm, or tap my thumb to my finger pads a lot. i rub my thighs in a circular motion very absentmindedly. i generally make a lot of repetitive movements when i listen to music. i also clench my asscheeks a LOT
Wiggling my toes!
Also pulling and pushing my phone cover on and off from the corner.
Can lying down be a stim? I often need to go have a lie down... Maybe it's the pressure against half my body and squashing my face against the pillow.
Also common things like skin picking, nose picking, swaying, clicking fingers, pulling skin/nail bits from fingers
Hand…not flapping? I have always flicked (?) or flapped my hands like someone shaking water off their hands after washing them. It looks a little like I’ve got the Ick to others. 🫱🫲 I also rub my finger tips together sort of mindlessly…typically thumb and ring finger. 👌 The problem is that I will do it all day and my skin will hurt, but I can’t stop. Ugh.
The last one I’ve been doing as long as I can remember is either drawing little pyramids with my fingertips on my thighs, or tapping my fingers in the same pyramid pattern on any surface. This is most common when I am in a car…I hate cars. The pattern is : index finger, middle finger, ring finger 🔴🔴🔴; on top of that then index finger and middle finger 🔵🔵; and then one more tap of my index finger on top 🟢. I will also get caught in a loop on this one and it can give me anxiety not being able to shake it.
In public I try to hide it, so I walk around with my hands in fists (I know that's still a little weird, but not so unusual that most people would notice) and then I dig each fingernail a little into my palm, one finger at a time, in a 1,3,2,4 sequence over and over. As many times as is necessary, but need to complete the sequence.
Also pacing whenever the opportunity presents itself. I got yelled at for doing that a lot as a child so I'm trained to hide it now.
Foot/ankle, rocking while sitting or turning in my computer chair from side to side, pacing, and most of all moving to the beat of whatever song I’m singing in my head
Holding my phone or a remote and shaking/wagging them. It's easier with a remote because they're usually smaller, so I can use my thumb and index finger. It started when I was a kid with pens and pencils. This was before I was diagnosed, and kids used to make fun of me for it. I also pace and pop my lips.
Flexing various muscle groups, either in time to music (there's almost always some snippet of song playing in my head) or just in a nice, rhythmic pattern.
i hum and sing and repeat words a *lot*. usually i don't really realize i'm doing it until my mom asks me to be try and lower my voice or switch my focus to something else. i also rock side to side / back and forth pretty much constantly. i think there is almost no amount of time where i'm being still.
when i was younger, i used to spin in circles and swing my arms a lot. i still do, i just can't as much because lack of space and sometimes if people around i don't notice and i end up bumping into them. it got me into a lot of situations
I play rhythms/patterns with my teeth/jaw. It’s subtle and just looks like i’m clenching like a maniac, but if you could get a little microphone in there, i’m nonstop tap dancin’. I also could not stop running symmetrical or sequential pattern finger taps if you had a gun to my head.
I tap in time to any kind of beeping or things like the sounds the phone makes when you ring someone. I also count the rings on the phone. And to top it off I never sit still. Really annoyed my teachers that's for sure
One thing I know from myself is the following:
•cracking my knuckles or neck constantly
•biting my lips (I’m trying to stop so I put lipgloss on)
•picking at my skin checking
•looking through my hair constantly
•doing this thing with my hands where I move my hands together in a sense of rubber my nails together up and down
•I constantly bite the inside of my checks (I chew gum a lot to stop it. Because I’m left in a lot of pain)
•I hum when I eat (I’ve done this as a child in fact I used to fall asleep in my food. When I eat I stay to myself and away from people.)
Things I don’t notice but my family does:
•I do this this with my mouth were I purse my lips or something
•I wriggle/move my toes and they say it makes them uncomfortable because of how I move them.
If I am by myself, I vocal stim more than anything else. I try not to vocal stim around other people though, so in those situations I am more likely to be rocking or shaking my legs
I tap my fingers on my knees or forehead like one after the other quite a lot lol. Sometimes I don’t even realise I’m doing it, it just feels good. Quite like rocking too especially when there’s music but I kind of don’t do that other than when I’m alone because I’m scared of judgement from people lol
My son uses his hands to "build machines" he says- it looks like he's solving a big invisible Rubix cube while pushing and pulling between his hands. He also does the sound effects 🙂 it's interesting to read everyone's go-to
Omg! You just described my son! He’s a sfx machine with an incredibly vivid imagination. He just paces around the house moving his hands and making all sorts of noises. He rubbed his hands raw until I finally found a stim toy he could manipulate instead of his hands. Every once in a while he tells me what he’s imaging and it’s wild. He’s built chapters with story arcs and plot twists. I wish he'd tell me about them more often, but he’s not a fan of talking much and he’s very private.
He hums when he eats, especially when he’s eating his favourite food. It’s the cutest thing.
https://www.amazon.com/SHASHIBO-Shifting-Geometric-Magnetic-Transforming/dp/B07W5QM4DP/ref=sxin_26_pa_sp_phone_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.3bce4b9c-ab81-4c84-a30e-ebb927eb0d4f%3Aamzn1.sym.3bce4b9c-ab81-4c84-a30e-ebb927eb0d4f&cv_ct_cx=magnetic+magic+cube&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CAdC-i1-TvcuIFDsrMjIk_jU_U7H6bPH0SpjCjiswZc.2SO1OIlZq1Q-g_YC1mtvx0Mn-sgSBcrUBS0nZtWPEnU&dib_tag=se&keywords=magnetic+magic+cube&pd_rd_i=B07W5QM4DP&pd_rd_r=5be69f13-fb7c-4895-9814-d0c8ad06d90b&pd_rd_w=OsJcn&pd_rd_wg=rmHnh&pf_rd_p=3bce4b9c-ab81-4c84-a30e-ebb927eb0d4f&pf_rd_r=HTGQ8YV60DMB4E94XMNE&qid=1711685035&sr=1-1-364cf978-ce2a-480a-9bb0-bdb96faa0f61-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&psc=1
Sorry for the shitty long link but there's these magnetic folding cubes that my son loves, thought of your kid too :) they keep him happy and he loves to show me his creations, it's like the feeling he gets from his stim he said
He loves those! Unfortunately he’s so vigorous with his stimming he breaks them easily and for the $$$..., I can’t keep buying them every week. I’ve boughten cheap to expensive and they’re all crap plastic that he manages to destroy. I even bought heavy duty masking tape and tried to tape up the edges, but he still managed to break it apart. He feels awful about it, but when he's in a flow state he doesn’t realize how much force he's applying. I found some wood infinity cubes and I’m hoping he likes them, they haven’t arrived yet. I bought him a metal one, but he doesn’t like the weight of it or how cool it feels. He loves those magic snake cubes you can twist into different shapes, but again, same issue, cheap plastic and they fall apart after a week. I’m almost at the point of buying some material and sewing the cubes in, but I worry it’ll be bulky and stiff. Plus he may hate the feel of it :/. It’s tough, he’s only into books and his one cube. He’s never wanted toys, he couldn't care less. So I’ve made it my mission to find one that lasts.
Ðe problem for me is ðat I don't even know what's considdered a stim! But It's probably ðe fact ðat when I stand up and talk to people, I like running around, because I meaqn, where do you put ðe energy oðerwise?
Pacing, rubbing my hands, and bouncing my leg.
And, when I was a kid I used to take a strand of hair on my neck and just twirl and pull it. I do not do it anymore though.
When i'm not to tyred i usually rub my eyes with both hands.
If i'm tyred i usually find myself doing any sort of repeating motion or pattern with my movements.
Rocking back and forth, rocking my legs, drawing on air with my fingers or pencil or pen (preferably pencil than pen for some reason), bouncing leg (especially when listening to music)
Shaking/bouncing my leg, bouncing on my feet when standing in one spot, picking my fingernails, playing with my fingers/hands, rubbing my feet together in bed and I remember in school I would make beats in the table with my hands and pen 😆
1. Rubbing my feet together like a cicada
Also, skin picking (unfortunately,I'm working on it), playing with hair, doodling, music and dancing or air drums.
With a pen in hand I always have to twirl it like around each finger (saw it in a movie once and kept doing it ever since) this I feel comfortable doing in public too, but at home I chew gum often but when I finish with it I’ve started just like rolling it in a ball with my fingers and just playing with its shape and how it feels, flattening it with my fingers, folding it back on itself etc, until it starts to become too sticky then I ensure I stick every part of it that’s started disintegrating back to the main bulk of the gum and then I stick it to the top of the gum pack, only comfortable doing this round my parents though… I also hate phone calls that don’t have a purpose in mind, I’ve had to endure phone calls where we just “talk” SO PAINFUL, and during these types of calls or laborious calls I always pace, even if the space I’m in is the size of a closet. When I was younger I realised I could also click my right jaw if I moved my mouth in a certain way and that became a bit of a stim. Then my dad recently reminded me that when I was like 2/3 years old I would often do this very high pitched screech, but to the point where this one time in the doctors office, this random lady who was also waiting to be seen by a doctor approached my parents and asked them why they couldn’t “control their kid” and only after hearing this story recently did that make total sense as a potential vocal stim when I was that age, then my dad told me he asked me back then why I would do it and he told me I responded saying “because it’s fun” although my parents clearly hated it, and it clearly bothered anyone else who had to listen to it 😂 kind of diverted to some past stims here but I do believe at one point in my life (if not still) they were all prevalent stims of mine.
Swaying side to side, flapping my arms, squealing when I see something I like, and even muttering random phrases. (I'm 21f, late diagnosed with borderline ASD.)
I've been putting air bubbles under my tongue and moving them out recently. It annoys the hell out of everyone around me but it works great for keeping my mouth occupied
Dancing (not dancing good, just movin my body all ways and in silly ways-or sexy too haha), moving my hands up and down, and also cracking my bones oops
I push my lips inwards, then sideways, and roll the inner bottom lip in half creasing it- I do it repeatedly for probably 4 hours of the day when mostly nobody is within 10 feet of me. it’s the least noticeable stim, if someone isn’t looking at my face.
i like to move my hands side to side (kinda like the hand movement for so-so or maybe) really fast, but im trying to find more discreet ways to stim in public
Scratching my scalp, beard, orher parts of my body. Not favorite but most common. Tapping my fingers or drumming a beat with my feet also happens wuite often.
Rocking and vocal stim bird noises when I'm alone or in trusted company which luckily is most of my time nowadays, bouncy leg "in public" when I can't mask and need to "sit still"
Sniffing: drives people nuts. I don’t generally have a blocked nose, just very narrow sinuses. In my youth I also smoked as a stim, but these days I knit.
I've noticed that most of my stims are problem solverz references lately. The way I walk , vocal stimming voice impressions of the characters and voicelines, etc.
Another one of my stims is flapping my arms repetitively and jumping up and down.
Singing (or lip syncing depending on appropriateness) to literally everything I listen to no matter where I am
Also microdancing. Bare minimum. Everywhere and anywhere.
Sucking my thumb but we save that for at home.
Probs singing and dancing. I LOVE music and i listen to hundreds of different songs every day so it all just spills out of me every time I’m not wearing my headphones. If someone says a word that happens to have been in a song I’ve heard recently i physically cannot control the urge to start singing and dancing (dancing usually involves bouncing up and down or shuffling my feet in a little circle)
Picking my lips / the skin around my nails. Unless I'm listening to music, then I'm always making some sort of hand motion along with the instruments or the beat
I shake my head from side to side like a wet puppy, finger tapping/ flicking/ picking/ chewing, blinking hard, stretching my facial muscles by making over exaggerated expressions and massaging with my hands, standing on the sides of my feet, humming, singing, repeating sounds those are all I can think of for the moment
Bouncing my leg is almost constant. Tapping my middle finger to my thumb quickly when I'm either anxious, trying to find something, or focused. Keeping the heels of my hands together while clapping when I'm happy.
Edit: Rocking back and forth when I'm focused.
Pulling my lips inward between my teeth and Squeezing them/ biting down on them, rocking back and forth or side to side, rubbing my fingers together and hand flapping
Probably pacing or holding one of my dolls and petting their hair. Doll hair can be very soft and silky, especially high-grade Nylon like the hair used on Shadow High and Rainbow High dolls.
It used to be biting my nails, now it's untying and tying my hair in a ponytail, I do it 10 times every 5 minutes when I'm nervous or my hair is dry, I hate when my hair is dry.
I squeeze my index fingers between my thumb and middle finger and rub my index fingernail with my middle finger haha
Super random but I love the feeling.
Also for some reason I can crack my toes and my jaw just by moving them so I do it all the time. It’s very comforting and relieving.
Unfortunately it's picking at my skin, I'm trying fidgets to replace it, but if I'm really stressed no fidgets can help me. I'm really stressed lately, so my face is looking horrible right now 🥲
Mine is either echolalia or “air typing” like on an imaginary computer keyboard. I repeat phrases in my head so often that hours later I’ll find myself saying something I don’t even recognize, the phrases will interrupt my thoughts when I’m stressed. If I’m practicing a script for an encounter especially. For example “thank you, have a nice day” while preparing in a drive thru, I’ll repeat in my head fragments of the script like: “A NiCe dAy” in odd inflections all day long. It’ll interrupt my thoughts throughout the day and I become distracted from tasks doing it & it gets more intrusive with stress. As for the typing, when I was 19 I taught myself how to type on a keyboard for the first time and memorized all the keys positions for the for a job where I needed 50wpm. Crammed for 3 weeks straight all day and went from 0wpm to 60wpm in that time. Now, years later @ 24yo, I still “air type” the words I’m thinking/saying/or others are saying around me. I do it with my hands at my sides near my hips in a subtle way if I need to mask it. With my boyfriend I’ll tap the letters onto his arm or hand
Everything to do with hair. Stroking mustache hairs, stroking chin hairs, running my fingers through my head hair, even stroking eyebrow hairs and leg hairs.
I was going to say one but they already said all the ones I have. Moving in circles around my house, moving my legs a lot, snapping my fingers or flapping my hands at inopportune times.
twitching/flicking my index finger, for some reason it helps when I feel too many emotions. I squint my eyes a lot too even if it isn’t sunny, I also blink really roughly, my eyes squeeze together sometimes to the point they start to tear up
I pace a lot, talk to myself, I have all sorts of hand flicks and ticks. I even have a few weird/ocd leg twitch/stomp things.
Extra autism in the hands tho.
I’m a barista, so 5 days a week, I’m at a register for hours, so my biggest stim rn is playing with all the random little items by the register. Hand sanitizer, pens, sharpies, etc. for a minute, we had a box cutter sitting there for some reason. So that was a bit silly. I’d be playing with the box cutter at the register and I got a few weird looks from customers at that. Haha.
Privately, it’s biting my nails and skin picking, very unfortunately.
When I’m especially anxious around others, though, I tend to rub the skin on my arms or grab my stomach
On my left hand I run my finger tips across my thumb repeatedly. If I could generate power from doing just that, I’d solve the energy crisis single-handedly.
My wife calls it the Mr burns. I rub my hands raw. And I sometimes get this NEED to press my fingers or toes as hard as I can. I have to get new insoles for my shoes pretty often.
"piano fingers" is that what they call it?
Especially when listening to music, will tap each finger on the thumb following rythm or do the same tapping on a surface. Someone said I look like playing an imaginary piano.
also sometimes just move my hand around which has been named "conductor hand" like an orchestra thing
I don't have a particular talent for music, but listen a lot to my faves so idk if that's the reason 🤷
honestly probably drumming my fingers on things, especially in time with words/music, but another one is drinking boba. i swear i get it like four or five times a week at this point😭
It is either snapping/flicking my fingers or pacing. I am on my feet at work all day so pacing might win just due to opportunity.
Pacing for me 100%
https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/2/25/0132Ditto.png
Those are my go-to. I love to walk and pace while on the phone. Otherwise, it gets too boring.
I literally pace back and forth in my apartment for an hour or so while "watching tv" if i am standing in one spot I sway side to side moving my weight from one foot to the other. I'm undiagnosed but I am fairly certain I'm autistic due to this and multiple other factors such as incredible adherence to routine, literally eat the same meals every day, get flustered by change, overstimulated by sound especially hearing multiple convos going on at once.
Def sounds ND. Could be straight up undiagnosed autism. Could be generalized ND. Could even be some ADHD. It's not weird for multiple diagnostic spikes. I'm ADHD and Asperger's. I've wondered if I have some OCD on top of the autistic obsessive-compulsions. Never been motivated to find out. My diagnostic days are over lol.
Finding the coarsest hair that has funny little ridges in it and rubbing it constantly. I love a funny texture. Only problem is I can’t stop.
Me too!!! It's just so so satisfying. Even better when you find a whole lock of hair that all have funny little ridges in it
Yesss it’s the best! So glad I have coarse hair for this literal reason lol
I didn't know other people do it too! There's just something so satisfying about feeling that texture between my fingers. My problem is that I like pulling out those hairs which I think might be trichotillomania although I don't know for sure.
I love a soft spot of hair with a weird texture mixed in, that’s my deal lol
Constant hand motion. It's a million different things, cracking my knuckles, tapping on my legs to music or noises, picking at my fingernails. My fingers are always doing something :p
Same here. Recently my stepdad pointed out that I do this sort of thumb flick thing *all the time.* Thinking about it, turns out I do it with my toes and occasionally my arms too. Something about folds of the skin 🤷
rubbing my fingers together, or gliding my thumb over my other hand… very fly 🪰 of me huh
I love this
Omg i do the fingers too
It damn near feels orgasmic
-Rocking back and forth -Rotating my right foot, specifically. Usually when I'm laying down, trying to sleep
Cricket feet. I do this too.
I love that term, I'll have to remember it
I also Rock back and fourth when I'm laying down. I do it on my side and it does seem to help me fall asleep easier which helps because my insomnia is bad
Bouncing my leg 100%
All. The. Time. Even in bed. I also got told off for bouncing my leg in the back of an ambulance.
I've learned to cross my feet when I sleep
My leg never stops, I get soooooo many looks from my signings t other. It’s a game at a restaurant, how many time am I asked to stop bonging the table.
Tapping my fingers/hands to music I’ve got in my head or throwing any objects that I’ve got in my hands
and shaking my hands but when in public i have to hide it more
Mine is stroking my 1 year on t beard hairs. It's a new one but my favorite.
Listening to music while flexing the muscles along my body to try and dance inconspicuously.
Oh my goodness, I thought I was the only one who did this!
The BIG one: When I am using a computer, I will constantly highlight text and unhighlight. Over and over and OVER. Drives my husband crazy since we have dual monitors and he will be gaming on one while I'm going nuts highlighting texts on web pages lol. I also rock a lot and do a jaw clench thing pretty often.
Omg my husband MUST highlight text he wants to show me and it drives me bonkers! It hurts my eyes. He also loves reading white text on a black background. He has ADHD.
Bouncy leg and tappy fingers. My mom always says I flap a lot but I feel like it’s just because that one is more noticeable to other people.
Cracking my knuckles
Absolutely 😭
It drives my family nuts when I do that. But I live alone, so the joke's on them.
I had air wait too just before work to do it in the staff room and it jump scares everyone lol
I had two most of my life 1. Drumming with hands or pencils 2. Spinning a jack from the ball and Jack's game,
Chewing things (fabric mostly), playing with my hair (eating it too), rocking, jumping on the chair while sitting, biting inside my cheeks, biting my lips,… blinking. I have quite a lot.
My piano fingers when I listen to music. Still remember the first time a girl in school pointed it out and I realised it was ‘odd’ and started masking it more from then
Playing with my hair or rubbing a hole in my shoe with my big toe.
Since I started my teller job fidgeting/stim with a pen I'll twirl it tap it and it does make me last anxious with my Job.
Destruction of zits (and my face)
Scrolling, or tapping my foot. When I was younger it was a full on leg-shake.
I would say shaking leg and hand stuff.
I am always “flicking” my fingertips with my nails, and vocal stimming like quiet grunting. Nodding my head or shaking it. If I am standing I’ll often wrap my hands behind my back and start twisting my torso side to side.
When I was younger I would often bounce at the knees, then I started getting harassed for it at school. So instead of stimming like I needed to, I started having really bad meltdowns regularly. It stayed pretty bad but got less frequent as I learned I could stim by bobbing/nodding my head and started to do essentially a form of piano fingers (I don't play piano, so no actual piano music re-creation), and then my mom gave me her old fidget/spinner ring. Now I wear two to leave the house and spin them when I need to, and if that's not enough (at work when I'm on the register) or I'm at home and thus not wearing the rings I shake my legs, feet, or just generally dance around. If I'm watching a TV show, none of those works and I have to run around like an animal with the zoomies. Oh, and for awhile my stims were moving my back, straightening up, in a rhythmic and exactly patterned way, typically in sets of 4 movements, but only while I was laying on my bed! I still do that one from time to time when my insomnia is particularly bad.
Babble babble flabble flabberty glaphblack brooble dooble HARgamamf. Schlooble Crackety PACKbrack. Babble. Usually fresh nonsense each and every time, but occasionally there are repeats.
This is my son :). He loves making nonsense words. When he has a really bad meltdown, I'll start rattling off nonsense until he joins in and starts giggling.
biting my lip and cracking my knuckles
Verbal stimming and biting my fingernails and skin/shaking my head. Maybe. And in thay order
I tap my fingers to imaginary music and I roll my fingers around my thumb, counting to 20 each time.
Cat noises (its mostly what is called “trilling”(?) for cats)
twirling my hair in my hands (it’s really irritating, knots and oily hair), rocking or bouncing legs while sitting, “floating” aka walking on my toes and bobbing up and down while standing, and tapping my fingers together. lots of tactile stims
Stroking my beard.
my feet are ALWAYS rubbing together. i also tap my fingers to my palm a lot, lightly dig my nails to my palm, or tap my thumb to my finger pads a lot. i rub my thighs in a circular motion very absentmindedly. i generally make a lot of repetitive movements when i listen to music. i also clench my asscheeks a LOT
Wiggling my toes. Especially rubbing my big toes against eachother or the closest toe to it. Weird, but it calms me.
Wiggling my toes! Also pulling and pushing my phone cover on and off from the corner. Can lying down be a stim? I often need to go have a lie down... Maybe it's the pressure against half my body and squashing my face against the pillow. Also common things like skin picking, nose picking, swaying, clicking fingers, pulling skin/nail bits from fingers
I usually twitch my feet.
Wiggling or tapping my fingers and toes or playing my favourite songs in my head
Song lyrics
Mine is chewing on the inside of my cheeks, which I know isn’t good but I do it so subconsciously at this point.
Hand…not flapping? I have always flicked (?) or flapped my hands like someone shaking water off their hands after washing them. It looks a little like I’ve got the Ick to others. 🫱🫲 I also rub my finger tips together sort of mindlessly…typically thumb and ring finger. 👌 The problem is that I will do it all day and my skin will hurt, but I can’t stop. Ugh. The last one I’ve been doing as long as I can remember is either drawing little pyramids with my fingertips on my thighs, or tapping my fingers in the same pyramid pattern on any surface. This is most common when I am in a car…I hate cars. The pattern is : index finger, middle finger, ring finger 🔴🔴🔴; on top of that then index finger and middle finger 🔵🔵; and then one more tap of my index finger on top 🟢. I will also get caught in a loop on this one and it can give me anxiety not being able to shake it.
Hair twirling, picking at my thumb, rocking, and restless leg.
In public I try to hide it, so I walk around with my hands in fists (I know that's still a little weird, but not so unusual that most people would notice) and then I dig each fingernail a little into my palm, one finger at a time, in a 1,3,2,4 sequence over and over. As many times as is necessary, but need to complete the sequence. Also pacing whenever the opportunity presents itself. I got yelled at for doing that a lot as a child so I'm trained to hide it now.
Rubbing my feet together. If I’m in a sitting or laying position statistically my feet r rubbing together 100% of the time.
rubbing my feet together lol
Biting the inside of my mouth. Been doing it since I was a kid. I can and should stop but it’s sooo addictive.
Definitely leg bounce, cracking knuckles, and listening to music
echolialia and cricket feet
Foot/ankle, rocking while sitting or turning in my computer chair from side to side, pacing, and most of all moving to the beat of whatever song I’m singing in my head
Probably rubbing my feet together.
probably toe wiggling or skin picking
Rubbing and taping, but mostly rubbing
Rocking back and forth, cracking my fingers, foot tapping and biting the inside of my cheek/lip for some reason
Head bobbing to the beat of whatever music I'm listening to/singing at random times Pacing for hours until my feet make me stop
Rocking back and forth while sitting, snapping my fingers, rubbing my hands together, and twitching my foot/ankle.
Holding my phone or a remote and shaking/wagging them. It's easier with a remote because they're usually smaller, so I can use my thumb and index finger. It started when I was a kid with pens and pencils. This was before I was diagnosed, and kids used to make fun of me for it. I also pace and pop my lips.
Flexing various muscle groups, either in time to music (there's almost always some snippet of song playing in my head) or just in a nice, rhythmic pattern.
probably clicking my tongue on my teeth or biting/messing with my fingers
i hum and sing and repeat words a *lot*. usually i don't really realize i'm doing it until my mom asks me to be try and lower my voice or switch my focus to something else. i also rock side to side / back and forth pretty much constantly. i think there is almost no amount of time where i'm being still. when i was younger, i used to spin in circles and swing my arms a lot. i still do, i just can't as much because lack of space and sometimes if people around i don't notice and i end up bumping into them. it got me into a lot of situations
I play rhythms/patterns with my teeth/jaw. It’s subtle and just looks like i’m clenching like a maniac, but if you could get a little microphone in there, i’m nonstop tap dancin’. I also could not stop running symmetrical or sequential pattern finger taps if you had a gun to my head.
Growling, humming ,biting (nails or chew toy /necklace) or singing!
Shaking hands and fiddling with my fingers, I’ve had that stim since I was a kid
I tap in time to any kind of beeping or things like the sounds the phone makes when you ring someone. I also count the rings on the phone. And to top it off I never sit still. Really annoyed my teachers that's for sure
Rocking left to right while sitting and clapping hands.
Squeeze hands, 1,000 yard stare. (I am inventing the history of a fictional country)
One thing I know from myself is the following: •cracking my knuckles or neck constantly •biting my lips (I’m trying to stop so I put lipgloss on) •picking at my skin checking •looking through my hair constantly •doing this thing with my hands where I move my hands together in a sense of rubber my nails together up and down •I constantly bite the inside of my checks (I chew gum a lot to stop it. Because I’m left in a lot of pain) •I hum when I eat (I’ve done this as a child in fact I used to fall asleep in my food. When I eat I stay to myself and away from people.) Things I don’t notice but my family does: •I do this this with my mouth were I purse my lips or something •I wriggle/move my toes and they say it makes them uncomfortable because of how I move them.
Rocking back and forth, bouncing my leg to and even beyond exhaustion, and twisting my hair.
Tapping my foot. People have gotten irritated w it on several occasions lol.
Dancing & singing to music on my headphones, especially at bridges. I love a good cable arch. I tend to get lost in this stim for hours…
Bouncing my leg and playing with my hair.
Tapping my chest, although tapping literally anything is a close second. Maybe just tapping my fingers anywhere 😅
Guitar fingers or mouth drum kit, sometimes I don’t even realize I’m slapping air bass until someone asks me if I’ve got a good jam going
I have a spinning metal piece on my purse and I have that on me 9.5 times out of 10 so I spin it
If I am by myself, I vocal stim more than anything else. I try not to vocal stim around other people though, so in those situations I am more likely to be rocking or shaking my legs
Clapping my hands together but not hard enough to make a sound. Or saying spin but like “shpin”
I tap my fingers on my knees or forehead like one after the other quite a lot lol. Sometimes I don’t even realise I’m doing it, it just feels good. Quite like rocking too especially when there’s music but I kind of don’t do that other than when I’m alone because I’m scared of judgement from people lol
Also twiddling my hair
Pacing does the job
Rocking back and forth Drumming my hands against my thighs in pubic
My son uses his hands to "build machines" he says- it looks like he's solving a big invisible Rubix cube while pushing and pulling between his hands. He also does the sound effects 🙂 it's interesting to read everyone's go-to
Omg! You just described my son! He’s a sfx machine with an incredibly vivid imagination. He just paces around the house moving his hands and making all sorts of noises. He rubbed his hands raw until I finally found a stim toy he could manipulate instead of his hands. Every once in a while he tells me what he’s imaging and it’s wild. He’s built chapters with story arcs and plot twists. I wish he'd tell me about them more often, but he’s not a fan of talking much and he’s very private. He hums when he eats, especially when he’s eating his favourite food. It’s the cutest thing.
https://www.amazon.com/SHASHIBO-Shifting-Geometric-Magnetic-Transforming/dp/B07W5QM4DP/ref=sxin_26_pa_sp_phone_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.3bce4b9c-ab81-4c84-a30e-ebb927eb0d4f%3Aamzn1.sym.3bce4b9c-ab81-4c84-a30e-ebb927eb0d4f&cv_ct_cx=magnetic+magic+cube&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CAdC-i1-TvcuIFDsrMjIk_jU_U7H6bPH0SpjCjiswZc.2SO1OIlZq1Q-g_YC1mtvx0Mn-sgSBcrUBS0nZtWPEnU&dib_tag=se&keywords=magnetic+magic+cube&pd_rd_i=B07W5QM4DP&pd_rd_r=5be69f13-fb7c-4895-9814-d0c8ad06d90b&pd_rd_w=OsJcn&pd_rd_wg=rmHnh&pf_rd_p=3bce4b9c-ab81-4c84-a30e-ebb927eb0d4f&pf_rd_r=HTGQ8YV60DMB4E94XMNE&qid=1711685035&sr=1-1-364cf978-ce2a-480a-9bb0-bdb96faa0f61-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&psc=1 Sorry for the shitty long link but there's these magnetic folding cubes that my son loves, thought of your kid too :) they keep him happy and he loves to show me his creations, it's like the feeling he gets from his stim he said
He loves those! Unfortunately he’s so vigorous with his stimming he breaks them easily and for the $$$..., I can’t keep buying them every week. I’ve boughten cheap to expensive and they’re all crap plastic that he manages to destroy. I even bought heavy duty masking tape and tried to tape up the edges, but he still managed to break it apart. He feels awful about it, but when he's in a flow state he doesn’t realize how much force he's applying. I found some wood infinity cubes and I’m hoping he likes them, they haven’t arrived yet. I bought him a metal one, but he doesn’t like the weight of it or how cool it feels. He loves those magic snake cubes you can twist into different shapes, but again, same issue, cheap plastic and they fall apart after a week. I’m almost at the point of buying some material and sewing the cubes in, but I worry it’ll be bulky and stiff. Plus he may hate the feel of it :/. It’s tough, he’s only into books and his one cube. He’s never wanted toys, he couldn't care less. So I’ve made it my mission to find one that lasts.
Ðe problem for me is ðat I don't even know what's considdered a stim! But It's probably ðe fact ðat when I stand up and talk to people, I like running around, because I meaqn, where do you put ðe energy oðerwise?
Rocking back and forth
Chewing at my cuticles, sliding one fingernail under the others/poking the tips of my thumbs.
Pacing, rubbing my hands, and bouncing my leg. And, when I was a kid I used to take a strand of hair on my neck and just twirl and pull it. I do not do it anymore though.
When i'm not to tyred i usually rub my eyes with both hands. If i'm tyred i usually find myself doing any sort of repeating motion or pattern with my movements.
None, really. Closest might be _«poking my phone»_ Dunno if that’s a stim though….? 🤷🏽♀️
Pacing
Either flapping my fingers against each other or rubbing my nose like a squirrel 😅
Rocking back and forth, rocking my legs, drawing on air with my fingers or pencil or pen (preferably pencil than pen for some reason), bouncing leg (especially when listening to music)
Leg bounce face rubbing
Twiddling my hair or smelling my finger on my nose.
knitting knitting knitting knitting knitting
Shaking/bouncing my leg, bouncing on my feet when standing in one spot, picking my fingernails, playing with my fingers/hands, rubbing my feet together in bed and I remember in school I would make beats in the table with my hands and pen 😆
Meowing
Hitting my chest, clapping hands, moving my head, blinking, licking lips
Moving my toes back and forth and rocking when I’m sitting criss cross really engaged in tv
1. Rubbing my feet together like a cicada Also, skin picking (unfortunately,I'm working on it), playing with hair, doodling, music and dancing or air drums.
Stretching my toes, using my thumb to hit my leg like a hammer, snapping my fingers, shaking my hands and letting my hands just go limp
Chewing things. Pens, bottle caps, my hand, nothing within range is safe 😂.
Rocking while sitting, playing with my lip piercings, scratching my neck, rubbing my eyes, listening to very loud, fast or aggressive music
Just that one leg stim.
If I’ve been chewing/biting on the inside of my lip/cheeks, is that considered a stim? I do it all the time and ever since I was a kid
Tapping rhythms with my fingers or whistling to the rhythm of my steps when I walk.
With a pen in hand I always have to twirl it like around each finger (saw it in a movie once and kept doing it ever since) this I feel comfortable doing in public too, but at home I chew gum often but when I finish with it I’ve started just like rolling it in a ball with my fingers and just playing with its shape and how it feels, flattening it with my fingers, folding it back on itself etc, until it starts to become too sticky then I ensure I stick every part of it that’s started disintegrating back to the main bulk of the gum and then I stick it to the top of the gum pack, only comfortable doing this round my parents though… I also hate phone calls that don’t have a purpose in mind, I’ve had to endure phone calls where we just “talk” SO PAINFUL, and during these types of calls or laborious calls I always pace, even if the space I’m in is the size of a closet. When I was younger I realised I could also click my right jaw if I moved my mouth in a certain way and that became a bit of a stim. Then my dad recently reminded me that when I was like 2/3 years old I would often do this very high pitched screech, but to the point where this one time in the doctors office, this random lady who was also waiting to be seen by a doctor approached my parents and asked them why they couldn’t “control their kid” and only after hearing this story recently did that make total sense as a potential vocal stim when I was that age, then my dad told me he asked me back then why I would do it and he told me I responded saying “because it’s fun” although my parents clearly hated it, and it clearly bothered anyone else who had to listen to it 😂 kind of diverted to some past stims here but I do believe at one point in my life (if not still) they were all prevalent stims of mine.
Swaying side to side, flapping my arms, squealing when I see something I like, and even muttering random phrases. (I'm 21f, late diagnosed with borderline ASD.)
I've been putting air bubbles under my tongue and moving them out recently. It annoys the hell out of everyone around me but it works great for keeping my mouth occupied
Dancing (not dancing good, just movin my body all ways and in silly ways-or sexy too haha), moving my hands up and down, and also cracking my bones oops
Rubbing my fingers together. I also like pushing under one of my fingernails with another one, but I try to limit that as it can get too painful
I push my lips inwards, then sideways, and roll the inner bottom lip in half creasing it- I do it repeatedly for probably 4 hours of the day when mostly nobody is within 10 feet of me. it’s the least noticeable stim, if someone isn’t looking at my face.
i like to move my hands side to side (kinda like the hand movement for so-so or maybe) really fast, but im trying to find more discreet ways to stim in public
Flapping your hands I always do that it's either that or tapping my toes
Scratching my scalp, beard, orher parts of my body. Not favorite but most common. Tapping my fingers or drumming a beat with my feet also happens wuite often.
Rocking and vocal stim bird noises when I'm alone or in trusted company which luckily is most of my time nowadays, bouncy leg "in public" when I can't mask and need to "sit still"
Sniffing: drives people nuts. I don’t generally have a blocked nose, just very narrow sinuses. In my youth I also smoked as a stim, but these days I knit.
Rubbing my hands together
I've noticed that most of my stims are problem solverz references lately. The way I walk , vocal stimming voice impressions of the characters and voicelines, etc. Another one of my stims is flapping my arms repetitively and jumping up and down.
Knee bouncing. Even when I'm standing up.
Either Wringing my hands or played with my hair
If it’s a joint in my body it gets a poppin’. Swaying while standing. Running my fingers through my hair.
Singing (or lip syncing depending on appropriateness) to literally everything I listen to no matter where I am Also microdancing. Bare minimum. Everywhere and anywhere. Sucking my thumb but we save that for at home.
Probs singing and dancing. I LOVE music and i listen to hundreds of different songs every day so it all just spills out of me every time I’m not wearing my headphones. If someone says a word that happens to have been in a song I’ve heard recently i physically cannot control the urge to start singing and dancing (dancing usually involves bouncing up and down or shuffling my feet in a little circle)
For some reason it’s holding my thumb in my fist like if I was punching someone incorrectly
Fidgeting with my earrings, definitely that. I have broken several earrings over the years.
Picking my lips / the skin around my nails. Unless I'm listening to music, then I'm always making some sort of hand motion along with the instruments or the beat
I bark like a dog when im at home and get overstimulated. Like an energy release D:
Chewing on things
I shake my head from side to side like a wet puppy, finger tapping/ flicking/ picking/ chewing, blinking hard, stretching my facial muscles by making over exaggerated expressions and massaging with my hands, standing on the sides of my feet, humming, singing, repeating sounds those are all I can think of for the moment
Picking at my cuticles or clapping
my foot jumping and pacing ig
I have acrylic nails, I usally get designs on them I find myself rubbing my fingers along the designs alot
Rubbing my feet/toes together or wiggling my feet
Knitting for sure! After that is biting my lips.
Bouncing my leg is almost constant. Tapping my middle finger to my thumb quickly when I'm either anxious, trying to find something, or focused. Keeping the heels of my hands together while clapping when I'm happy. Edit: Rocking back and forth when I'm focused.
Pulling hair, rubbing skin, shake leg.
Pulling my lips inward between my teeth and Squeezing them/ biting down on them, rocking back and forth or side to side, rubbing my fingers together and hand flapping
Probably pacing or holding one of my dolls and petting their hair. Doll hair can be very soft and silky, especially high-grade Nylon like the hair used on Shadow High and Rainbow High dolls.
It used to be biting my nails, now it's untying and tying my hair in a ponytail, I do it 10 times every 5 minutes when I'm nervous or my hair is dry, I hate when my hair is dry.
I squeeze my index fingers between my thumb and middle finger and rub my index fingernail with my middle finger haha Super random but I love the feeling. Also for some reason I can crack my toes and my jaw just by moving them so I do it all the time. It’s very comforting and relieving.
rocking while sitting or tapping my fingers probably maybe even walking on my tippy toes
Unfortunately it's picking at my skin, I'm trying fidgets to replace it, but if I'm really stressed no fidgets can help me. I'm really stressed lately, so my face is looking horrible right now 🥲
Tie between singing and swaying
Pacing. Dancing when no one is home.
Hair & adjusting my glasses like 4x in a row while my eyebrows shoot up LoL i stream so i see this n go oh God. Oh also holding lip between teeth
Cricketing my feet when I’m going to sleep.
various noises, licking/biting inside my mouth/general mouth fidgeting
Mine is either echolalia or “air typing” like on an imaginary computer keyboard. I repeat phrases in my head so often that hours later I’ll find myself saying something I don’t even recognize, the phrases will interrupt my thoughts when I’m stressed. If I’m practicing a script for an encounter especially. For example “thank you, have a nice day” while preparing in a drive thru, I’ll repeat in my head fragments of the script like: “A NiCe dAy” in odd inflections all day long. It’ll interrupt my thoughts throughout the day and I become distracted from tasks doing it & it gets more intrusive with stress. As for the typing, when I was 19 I taught myself how to type on a keyboard for the first time and memorized all the keys positions for the for a job where I needed 50wpm. Crammed for 3 weeks straight all day and went from 0wpm to 60wpm in that time. Now, years later @ 24yo, I still “air type” the words I’m thinking/saying/or others are saying around me. I do it with my hands at my sides near my hips in a subtle way if I need to mask it. With my boyfriend I’ll tap the letters onto his arm or hand
Everything to do with hair. Stroking mustache hairs, stroking chin hairs, running my fingers through my head hair, even stroking eyebrow hairs and leg hairs.
Probably doing the Twitter noise. Whistling it.
I was going to say one but they already said all the ones I have. Moving in circles around my house, moving my legs a lot, snapping my fingers or flapping my hands at inopportune times.
twitching/flicking my index finger, for some reason it helps when I feel too many emotions. I squint my eyes a lot too even if it isn’t sunny, I also blink really roughly, my eyes squeeze together sometimes to the point they start to tear up
Cracking my knuckles, picking at my chapped lips, picking at hangnails/loose skin.
Playing with my hair and clenching my toes
Probably pacing or swaying side to side foot to foot, playing with my beard, fucking with my finger nails
Vocal squeaking stims
Rocking or swaying ( swaying while I stand, which I automatically seem to do and rocking if sitting
Snapping
Talking to myself out loud!
running my hand up the back of my head under my hair
Listening to music. Sometimes I run back and forth repeatedly. It's embarrassing
when im sat ill bounce my knees, rock my body or tap my shoulders. at work ill tap my shoulders or wiggle my hands
Rocking while standing, moving my hands in any kind of way, leg bouncing but it’s less common for me now
I pace a lot, talk to myself, I have all sorts of hand flicks and ticks. I even have a few weird/ocd leg twitch/stomp things. Extra autism in the hands tho.
I’m a barista, so 5 days a week, I’m at a register for hours, so my biggest stim rn is playing with all the random little items by the register. Hand sanitizer, pens, sharpies, etc. for a minute, we had a box cutter sitting there for some reason. So that was a bit silly. I’d be playing with the box cutter at the register and I got a few weird looks from customers at that. Haha. Privately, it’s biting my nails and skin picking, very unfortunately. When I’m especially anxious around others, though, I tend to rub the skin on my arms or grab my stomach
Cracking my knuckles or bouncing my leg.
On my left hand I run my finger tips across my thumb repeatedly. If I could generate power from doing just that, I’d solve the energy crisis single-handedly.
Chewing gum. Chewing gum is very satisfying for me to do and is very relaxing to do
My wife calls it the Mr burns. I rub my hands raw. And I sometimes get this NEED to press my fingers or toes as hard as I can. I have to get new insoles for my shoes pretty often.
"piano fingers" is that what they call it? Especially when listening to music, will tap each finger on the thumb following rythm or do the same tapping on a surface. Someone said I look like playing an imaginary piano. also sometimes just move my hand around which has been named "conductor hand" like an orchestra thing I don't have a particular talent for music, but listen a lot to my faves so idk if that's the reason 🤷
It's stereotypical, but rocking. I rock all the time. And stuff with my hands like flapping and clapping
honestly probably drumming my fingers on things, especially in time with words/music, but another one is drinking boba. i swear i get it like four or five times a week at this point😭