I made an account just to ask this. In the past two weeks or so, I've been stimming by hand flapping, either by my waist or at about shoulder height. I don't know why I started. I know it's pretty usual for other people to hand flap, but I haven't before. Usually I'll rub my sternum, which I've done since I was eleven or twelve (I'm 28 now), but recently I've been flapping one hand instead. I don't know if it's a comforting measure in response to everything that's been going on in the last three months or what.
It's not hurting me or anything, other than my wrist aching a bit from the rapid movement (which is doubly annoying since I draw), but I don't know if it's just something I'm doing to comfort myself like my more usual stimming behavior or if it's more serious or what. I honestly have no clue. It does calm me down like my other stims, but it's just the fact that it's something that developed so recently and it's something that I've been doing all the time, even more than I usually stim (though I don't know if I'm actually stimming more than usual or if I just notice it more because I'm doing something different). I think it might be a response to what's all been going on because I've been rocking a lot more intensely as well. I've always rocked from time to time, but that's increased as well and it started a bit before the hand flapping.
Is this something that happens with other people? I've never had my stimming change this much before so rapidly. Is anyone else changing how they stim with everything that's been going on? How common is this? Again, it's not hurting me and I've always stimmed before, it's just the rapid change in how I've been doing it that's been bugging me. It's not so much I want it to stop so much as I want to understand what's going on.
