What are your stims? (Title Pending)

My perennial/semi-permenant stims are playing with anything hard that can be rattled or clack/clicked together. Smooth pebbles, beads - gemstones and gemstone beads in particular because they just hit that nice hard/cold/smooth part of my brain. I'm currently playing with my collection of hagstones strung onto a piece of garden wire so I can roll them between my palms and rattle them and rub them on my teeth and skin.

I also like sewing and drawing random usually paisley-type patterns as stimming - colouring sometimes works as well but I have so many colouring books now that sometimes my brain shorts out trying to pick one - and I often make random noises including animal noises when I'm tired or stressed.

 

I like drawing spiral patterns over and over again. :> Coloring is good too but sometimes it bothers me because picking colors that match is hard.

I also just got this cute stuffed tiger while visiting friends this weekend that I like to pet because she's so soft. Her name is Piper.

Spoiler: large image of piper

 

Oh, I forgot stroking things as well! Usually I have Lupin my cat, but I also like to stroke rough/hard surfaces and in fact selected my current bedroom wallpaper because it has a grainy almost bark-like texture that's pleasant to rub when I'm tired XDD Interesting textures in general mean a lot to me - Lupin's usually so good with me clipping her claws because I've been feeling up her feet and nails since she was tiny, because the smooth-hard and smooth-soft of them helps me focus when stressed XD

(Also once I nearly missed a bus because I was so tired and it was first thing in the morning and there was some nice stroke-able moss on a rough stone wall.)

 

I do this! The knocking noise is indeed nice.

Other things i do:

• Rubbing my pointer finger and thumb together in little circles
• Hand flapping
• Spinning in an office chair/swinging on a swing (the weightless feel makes it easier to think)
• Braiding things
• Cooking/baking because of the methodical steps and repetitive motions
• Petting our floofy dog. Not really petting all animals, just her cause shes ridiculously soft and floofy, and she leans into it.

 

happy/excited stims: WILD uncontrollable hand flapping, face tapping/smacking, shaking hands near face

nervous stims: hair tugging/twisting, lip biting, cheek biting, spinning my charm bracelet, twisting my ring, face rubbing, knuckle cracking

absent stims: rubbing eyebrow, making a mustache with a chunk of hair, playing with nose piercing, putting literally anything in my mouth (hair pins, necklace, zipper handle thingies, anything metallic that will fit in my mouth basically?? why), braiding tiny chunks of hair, twisting my fingers into dozens of different positions, PETTING SOFT/SMOOTH THINGS...... rubbing smooth rocks on my face/lips.....

 

- Listening to songs on repeat
- Pacing (esp. in combination with the above)
- Rubbing my thighs or stomach. Usually depends on whether I'm in public or not
- Rubbing my right foot against the bed when I'm laying on my stomach and trying to go to sleep. That one's ... really specific, but I pretty much always do it when I get sleepy
- Chewing on things! I never ate them, but I didn't really outgrow that toddler habit of putting absolutely everything into your mouth until I was like 12. I used to put a lot of rocks in my mouth as a kid. Now I have chew toy and it is v nice
- Flapping my hands. Both a happy/excited stim and a stress stim
- Rocking back and forth. Pretty much only happens as a self soothing thing when I'm distressed and meltdown-y. I used to do it as a child, but it was Bad Wrong according to my mother and she would punish me for it. My bf is also autistic and does it a lot though when he's anxious, so I guess I've kinda picked it back up. Hilariously, it still gives me lowkey anxiety

 

I play with my hair, just sort of twist it around one or several fingers. Been doing it since I was in primary school I think.
I also finale with my earrings, and with my watch(strap).

When I am excited I do a sort of dimmed armflapping, and I clap my hands but generally without making any sound.

 

I'm probably gonna go back to this thread when I'm less tired and can think of more of my stims, but most of mine have already been mentioned, I just need to mention two right now:

• Wiggling my hips, it usually leads to shaking my legs, then my feet
• Fingers/thumb sucking????????????????

 

The majority of my stims are audio, so I'mma just link some of my biggest stims, though these do change from time to time.
- Imagine Dragons - Believer
- Tristam - Once Again
- Tristam - My Friend
- Sia - Elastic Heart

 

It's funny looking back how much stimming I already did as a kid and how my stims have changed. I'll just list the ones I used to do most often or do a lot now

-Chewing non-food stuff (I love chewing straws for some reason??)
-

Spoiler: TW Self harm

I used to put my fingertips into molten candlewax because I like/d peeling the wax off. I didn't really do that as self harm, but this is probably triggering for some people.
Also for some reason I stim by scratching at my back

-Spinning
-I do a sort of... flappy thing with my feet? Like super rapidly tapping my toes against the floor/my slippers
-Textures! I love, love touching super soft things like cat's bellies and plushies
-Video games, for some reason I love really grindy stuff, like match 3s. And farming games.
-Noises, I especially like making cat noises. I didn't even know that was weird for a very, very long time because my dad's (non diagnosed) autistic too and we used to/still do those little noises at each other. My wife thinks it's weird, but it's a nice way to say "I acknowledge your presence and I'm happy you're around but I don't feel like talking"
-Listening to the same songs again and again, currently I'm doing that with Hamilton and the Hamilton mixtape
-Cooking!! I really like cooking bc textures and I like just following the recipes and I really really like smells
-Stimmy gifs, I especially like anything glitter, my favorite are minerals and stones. And those paint mixing ones, unless the paint is really runny. There's some that have a really really puffy white paint as a base (almost like shaving cream) and I looove those.
-Sounds! I love mynoise.net because then I can have all the good sounds from thunderstorms and rain without the annoying parts

 

ooh nice. I like ratatat

Spoiler: video

for stimmy music, and I never know how to find other dubstepy(?) music that doesn't remind me of being a teenager. these are good

 

Tristan is one of my favorite dubstep artists. I also recommend Devotion and Before We Fade by him as well. Unfortunately I don't know any other artist that has his general style.

 

Idk if this is the right thread for this but I have a new stim thing and it is !!! excellent!
I treated myself to a tin of thinking putty today and it's so fun to play with or just watch it ooze and it has no smell which is great and it's sooo pretty to look at bc I got an iridescent one (super scarab). I've been playing with it for the last two hours or so.

 

I didn't know stimming was a thing until probably the past year and !!! it made me so incredibly happy to learn it's something other people do.

- playing with jewelry
- twirling hair/running hands through it
- swaying on feet
- rubbing my eyes
- rubbing sequin pillows
- clicking pens
- pacing
- rocking
- picking lips
- listening to songs on repeat
- watching movies on repeat

I'm afraid I feel terrible because a friend ??? bought me two stim goo things that make me more uncomfortable than feel calm because they are too sticky...

I'm also definitely checking out these dubstep music suggestions!

 

probably useless fact but I find that this thing is way less sticky than ...the only other one i've tried

 

Ooh, I just noticed this thread!!

Mine arrrrre...

• Wiggling my fingers and toes. I can't stand gloves or toe socks as a result, haha.
• Listening to music on repeat. A lot.
• Verbal stims! I usually do this in private, because I don't want people to look at me funny and I'm suuuuuper self-conscious, but I'll often make little mouth noises or quote things to myself.
• On a similar note, idk if it's a stim per se, but I really love lip-syncing to music I'm listening to! It feels really nice on my mouth?
• Hand-flapping! This is another one I mostly do in private because Stigma Bullshit, but it's SO NICE.
• Touching really soft things. I have a lot of plush throws because stroking them is SO COMFORTING.

 

Does it count that I read out loud to myself whenever I can?

 

I'd personally count that as a verbal stim, yeah!

 

I've been really exhausted and stressed this past week and have had to resort to rocking-bobbing movement stims to able to keep doing things like use my words in public.

Normally stimming like that in public is Unacceptable for both my mum and my own anxiety, but I discovered a loophole! If I put on thumpy music in my earphones, I can bop along to the beat and all the brain weasels stay quiet!

Hopefully that might help others on here with similar probelms!

 

Oh hey, I do this too! I bob my head to whatever I'm listening to. :D

Not sure why I didn't put that down as one of my stims (along with rocking, but that's more something I do during really bad depressive bits/anxiety times/meltdowns), but it's definitely one of them!