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I like to chew things.

Amy

Hello

I am someone with Autism but I have only just been diagnosed and this is my first post here. I have noticed this site is very complicated and confusing so I hope I have done everything correctly.

I am 16 and left school on Friday. I am hoping to go collage next year. 
Now I know that I have autism not much has happened to help me. I have done research and learnt a lot about myself that I never knew and worked out why I have always felt different from everyone else. 

One of the things I always do is to chew things. At the moment it is these rubber bracelets. No-one knows about it because I am too ashamed to tell them so I only ever do it when I am alone. It really helps me because if I do not chew then my mouth hurts sometimes-but if I chew too much my teeth hurt. I think it hurts if I do not chew because I am shy and do not talk very much at school so I do not use my mouth. 

I have found these things online which are made in Canada and designed for children with sensory issues. Without trying to 'promote' them in any way because I do not know if this is allowed or not. Basically they are necklaces that have a rubber shape on the end for a child to chew or fidget with. 

I think one of these sounds amazing.. I could wear it to collage and it would help me so much. But, the problem is that I would have to talk to someone about it (like my mum) and ask her to buy one for me. 
Another problem is that if people picked on me for it. I have been bullied all my life so I am used to it, but it still scares me that new people will do it and I do not know why. 
I am not trying to look like the best teenager around and I do not want to have friends, but I think that to do the best in collage I will need to join in with people sometimes and this will be hard anyway but made even harder if everyone thinks I am a baby.

Can I have some suggestions for what I should do about this please?

Amy 

Parents

  • Hi Amy.

    I was very interested to hear your post because our grandson who is 11 and who is autistic also likes to chew things. This, I believe, is a very normal thing for people with autism to do and I can believe that it helps you a lot.

    If you have a good look around you at people without autism you will see that many of them also do things that make them feel comforted. Some people bite their nails, chew their fingers, pen tops or tap their fingers all the time, and other really quite unpleasant things sometimes. So you see, you are not so different just because you find it comforting to chew things. Its not true that only babies chew things..its a natural habit that many people feel the need to do.

    Perhaps you could keep something to chew in your pocket and just nip into the toilets every so often when you feel the need to do it. Also you can get see through pen toppers to chew for people with autism.You can get several types at Amazon.

    I wish you the very best of luck with your college studies.

    Blossom

Reply

  • Hi Amy.

    I was very interested to hear your post because our grandson who is 11 and who is autistic also likes to chew things. This, I believe, is a very normal thing for people with autism to do and I can believe that it helps you a lot.

    If you have a good look around you at people without autism you will see that many of them also do things that make them feel comforted. Some people bite their nails, chew their fingers, pen tops or tap their fingers all the time, and other really quite unpleasant things sometimes. So you see, you are not so different just because you find it comforting to chew things. Its not true that only babies chew things..its a natural habit that many people feel the need to do.

    Perhaps you could keep something to chew in your pocket and just nip into the toilets every so often when you feel the need to do it. Also you can get see through pen toppers to chew for people with autism.You can get several types at Amazon.

    I wish you the very best of luck with your college studies.

    Blossom

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