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Stimming

NAS50499

Hi, 

I am an autistic adult had my diagnosis for over 10 years, I have noticed more awareness around "stimming"  and I not sure if some of the things I do are "stims" or not...such as repeatedly touching my cold ears which I find makes me very relaxed, hot ears make me very agitated, smelling things repeatedly especially my thumb and top lip this makes me feel calm, I used to self harm all the time from a child which I found soothing such as burning and cutting (I no longer do this as I have replaced it with weight lifting) but I am wondering if the self harm was also a "stim"?

A lot of the stims I have seen in the public domain is hand flapping, spinning etc 

Parents

  • Most definitely. I have no nails on three of my fingers and a scar on my left hand from biting the skin on my palms. I have severely bit my nails since I was a toddler (I am 23) and I feel like this is a response to the external world and its intensity. Interestingly, the periods in which I was able to briefly stop I then would scratch myself raw until instead. It feels very wired into me to repeat this behaviour and it feels like I have to do it to cope and it somehow soothes me. It is hard to explain but I feel like I understand what you mean about it being a stim.

Reply

  • Most definitely. I have no nails on three of my fingers and a scar on my left hand from biting the skin on my palms. I have severely bit my nails since I was a toddler (I am 23) and I feel like this is a response to the external world and its intensity. Interestingly, the periods in which I was able to briefly stop I then would scratch myself raw until instead. It feels very wired into me to repeat this behaviour and it feels like I have to do it to cope and it somehow soothes me. It is hard to explain but I feel like I understand what you mean about it being a stim.

Children
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