Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi. I've just joined. I'm male mid fifties & have finally concluded I'm most likely ASD1 / aspie. One thing remains puzzling me & that is I don't seem to be a stimmer. I may of course have been masking things for so long I don't remember. What I'd like to try & find out is how common it is for an assessed ASD 1 to not stim. I've found plenty of info here & elsewhere on stimming but nothing on not stimming. Love to find out more. (sorry for putting this in the intro forum but I thought I'd get a better response here.)
I have many stims. Some I'm more conscious of as I know they would be difficult to conduct in public, and happen in private such as rubbing my feet, torso. I manage to restrain, and probably replace with a neck scratch or a hair ruffle.
However, as some happen so regularly, and without thinking, I wouldn't necessarily recognise them as stims if I didn't know I was autistic. It was only after I was diagnosed that I realised that the rows and rows of ampersands and letters and numbers that I drew was a stim, or the descending steps I draw over and over in my mind whilst I watch TV, or the phrase from the programme I repeat to my wife over and over again, or the stairs I count each time I climb them.
I guess what I'm saying is you may well be stimming, but not realise that what you do are stims; written, verbal, thinking, body movements.....
Hope that helps.
Yes it has.