I spin my headphones around in the air a lot and sometimes it hits my head pretty hard... anyway can you think of a stim that would be useful for me?
Hey, anon! Are you me? Because if I can grab something, spin it and hit myself in the face with it, well, I will.
The problem here is - which part of the stim do you crave? The spinning of the headphones or the hitting of the headphones against your head?
I’ll be honest: replacing the feeling of hitting myself (thunking my knees into the desk, say) is difficult. I don’t have a lot of good answers for this. You may be better to merely adapt this and look at things that can be covered with a pillow before hitting. I’ve had some success with dropping a bean bag on my legs from as high as my arms can reach for that thud feeling, but it’s not quite the same, and since this stim of mine is quite unconscious, I’m struggling to do more than stop and try to redirect.
If you’re after objects you can twirl more safely, without the hitting-oneself-in-the-face aspect, I have a few offerings. (Because twirling is good.) Note that these are not subtle stims; these are, for me, Really Autistic stims that don’t involve moving things in my hands in gentle, quiet or allistic-esque ways. They’re the kind of stims that will make folks stare in public in a way that pressing a fidget cube is less likely to provoke. But they are so satisfying.
(All links go to the item’s tag with posts about finding or making said item.)
- A roller bead fidget/lanyard. I put the split ring over one finger and twirl it around the base of said finger.
- Tangles: either twisted around one finger into a line and used the same way as the bead lanyard or spun with the opposite end held in my opposite hand, turning the Tangle over and over.
(Note: Don’t spin your Tangle around your wrist; it will fly off your fingers and smash into something. Trust me on this. I’ve done it so you don’t have to!)
- Slime! Mould your slime into a ball, poke your hand through it, let it sit on your wrist, spin your wrist until the slime forms a long, drooping loop, then just remould your slime and repeat. I can do this for an hour, easy.
(Note: putty with stretch will also do this to varying degrees, but I find it works best with handmade slime.)
- DIY spin band: the bottom of an old T-shirt, cut off a few inches (say 10 centimetres, although it doesn’t much matter) to make a loop of cloth. You can spin this in two ways: either around your wrist or on a finger (it will rise up over your hand like the tangle, but if this flies off, it’s less likely to damage, break or hurt) or looped over both hands and twisted (like the tangle) allowing you to spin your hands around. You can also just twist the fabric and then spin it - there’s many ways to stim with this, and all you need is an old T-shirt and a pair of scissors. If you can sew a basic running stitch, you can cut up the rest of the T-shirt and make loops in all sorts of sizes.
- The tassel keychains (literally anything long with a ring attachment) can be spun on a finger like the bead lanyards.
(Note: the keychains, Tangles and bead lanyards should not be held close to your face! These things stay well on my finger, but they need a little bit of space for safety.)
Now, you’re going to be in places where it isn’t safe to stim like this. Some of the toys above (Tangle, slime, tassel keychains, bead lanyards) are more often discussed as being subtler stims (toys used a little less visibly in one’s hands). So they’re likely worth getting, making or having for the dual purpose (I coil or just twist my Tangle in public; I use the bead lanyard for the normal pushing of the beads up and down the cord). You might also wish to look at, additionally, chain fidgets (turn them over and over in your hand), bead rings (and bead ring necklaces), spinner fidgets and spinner rings, which don’t offer the same sort of spin, but do spin and turn.
I hope this gives you some ideas. Like always, if folks think of something I’ve forgotten, please let us know!
ETA: @zephyrantha says,
I don’t suppose something like a yoyo would be useful to anon? I used to be able to spin a yoyo around my finger pretty well and it might be closer to the weight/feel of headphones than some of these?
Awesome thought! Thank you! Just make sure there’s lots of space if using a full-size yoyo, although the smaller/party-bag-style yoyos might be gentler for spinning, too, as they usually weigh a lot less.