Like can we talk about stims for a quick moment?
First off, what is a stim? By definition it’s referred to as “self stimulating behaviors, usually involving repetitive movements or sounds”.
Stims have a wide variety of choices depending on what people normally do, it’s not a definite autistic trait however most autistics do use stimming as a form of self calming or soothing.
However stimming can mean something else entirely, just because you stim does not mean you are autistic, there can be a variety of reasons why you stim. For example, you could just generally feel anxious or nervous, you could have restlessness, or you are just very energized.
There are a bunch of different kinds of stims too. The most common are nail biting, hair twirling, cracking knuckles or other joints, drumming your fingers, tapping a pen or pencil, jiggling your foot, tongue clicking or even whistling.
However there are also some more extreme stims such as head banging, like against an actual object, or biting whether it be on an object or a person. These stims are very prominent in young kids with adhd or autism.
Now there are some less severe but also not as common stims (some of which I didn’t even know until I looked this up) which could be rocking yourself back and forth, pulling hair, repetitive blinking, rearranging or moving things, scratching or rubbing your skin, licking objects, staring at moving fans or any other rotating object, flicking or snapping your hands and fingers, repeating words or phrases excessively, and smelling objects or people.
Now all of these stims you may have done at least a few times in your life, but not all of them relate to autism. The common stims are very prominent in neurotypical people and neurodivergent people. So stimming is not a for sure way of diagnosing your autism or not, however it’s always a start or a place to come back to that creates the foundation of autism.
Here are some examples of my stims as a self diagnosed autistic teen:
Repetitive blinking (I literally did not know this was an autistic thing I did until I looked it up and it blew my mind)
Repetitive noises (I make weird little grunts that sound like I’m clearing my throat and it drives my family insane)
Chewing pens and pencils (always gotta have something in my mouth)
Messing with the strands on my jackets. You know those things on the hoodie that you can pull and the hood gets smaller; I literally cannot stop rolling those strings up as I sit in class it’s become a habit now
Scratching/rubbing my skin (specially face)
Biting and punching (this is usually when I’m very overwhelmed and stressed. Kinda like when a child had a tantrum; this is what I do)
As I was writing this list I realized how much I do dear lord.
Stimming does not always equal neurodivergent or neurotypical, there’s a wide variety of stims and reasons for stimming.
If you are struggling with self diagnosing I would look at a variety of symptoms that autistic people have
If you’re realizing your autistic later in your life, it means you’re doing something called masking or camouflaging (I’ll explain this in my next post). In the meantime, do some research. I’ll try to help out as many of you as a can but doing your own research for your own symptoms really does help.
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