Mental internal stimming thoughts

I am still on the journey of self discovery and am wondering if one can stim with their mind? I have noticed a pattern of something in my thoughts which has cropped up before. Now I know more about myself im wondering if it's stimming,  I feel like with this thought I am "thinking for thinking's sake". It's a thought I enjoy to take part in. 

Can anyone help with comments or links?

Thank you . 

Parents
  • That's a really fascinating idea, and I certainly think there may be something to it. At the end of the day, even the obviously sensory stims are done for their effect on our mind one way or another, and it's well known now in cognitive science that thinking of a sensory stimulus activates many of the same brain regions as actually performing the action.

    If we define stimming as a form of self-regulation of our mental state, rather than as a kind of external behaviour (and I do think that this is a better definition), then I think there are certainly examples of what you're talking about. For example, I spoke once with an autistic guy who calmed anxiety using his obsession with numbers - he'd do calculations, recite the values of mathematical constants, or look for numbers with certain properties (e.g. prime numbers, squares, cubes, etc.) For me, a common stim is reciting words, usually ones which make sounds that I like; sometimes real words, sometimes made-up ones. While it's certainly more satisfying to say them out loud, it is still beneficial if I only think of the words or read them.

    Sadly, so much of the formal approach to defining autism suffers from it's origins in behaviourism - the idea that you just watch external behaviours without investigating the inner perceptions of the subject. That's why the diagnostic criteria focus so much on the social side of autism and repetitive behaviours - there's no mention at all of emotional regulation, shut-downs, burn-outs, nor many other things which autistic people experience as everyday aspects of being autistic. Thankfully, this is slowly changing now, and I think there is plenty of room to define stimming in a far broader sense than just sensory-seeking behaviours.

  • So stimming is a form to self regulate our mental state. It's interesting that I've noticed as my anxiety has come bsck recently, so have these thoughts. I don't know if I'm using them to calm myself. I don't know what is the cause or effect. I cannot switch off from this thought.  It's leaving my confused as I don't know what is a genuine feeling and what is just repetitive thoughts.

    I certainly do repeat words, phrases, accents just because I enjoy the sound and the feel of them in my mouth and the way they tickle my brain. But I do that anyway even if I'm not anxious.

    I cannot get songs out of my head. Usually just a rew lines over and over. It's not just that the song might be an ear worm. It's a case of, I wake up, it's there, it's in the background behind my current thoughts,  it's there when I go to sleep, it's there when I wake in the night. It'll be like this for a week or so then it'll be another song. I have to listen to it a lot. Not just because it's in my head but I want to just sing along and enjoy it and marry up what's going round in my head with the physical world. The singing of the song feels good. I think I have good pitch and like to try and harmonise or sing in tune.

    I suppose it makes sense that the approach to defining autism is about behaviours as this is a way to actually observe it. But there is a heck of a lot of internal stuff going on.

  • Everybody's anxiety has been coming back later with Covid-19, it seems.

    I usually end up getting a song out of my head by playing it on my Amazon Echo Dot.

Reply Children
  • Yes I suppose it has although my anxiety came back before coronavirus blew up. The anxiety behaviours and thoughts are following the same pattern as last year.

    I don't trust amazon echo dots. Don't they listen in to everything you say? It doesn't matter how many times I listen to the song. It doesn't go!!