Stimming, in particular Thumb Sucking.

Hello, I was only recently diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, It was six years ago and only recently have I taken the diagnosis very seriously.

Some sort of enlightenment has dawned but one behaviour I have that may or may not be stimming is thumb sucking, it is usually only something I do asleep, which is where my ego has no control, but, on public transport, which I use but little, I find I want to suck my thumb maybe to reduce stress, and I do feel that people bite their nails or smoke in public so why should I desist?

I know that the wider public considers the habit rather odd in a person of my age but would the enforced discontinuation of it be masking?

When using computers, which I hate, it is also better to suck rather than shout I find.

I have of course repeatedly had the New Year Resolution of  I really must stop sucking my thumb many times, except once in about 1998 in Eskdale where I pointedly sucked my thumb at a New Year's Day Party. Is it O.K. to do this, is it stimming or is it just flagrant attention seeking? The fact that I do it more often in private does suggest that it is more than an affectation but another inescapable fact is that it is corrosive to self esteem and that this is not entirely down to negative public reaction.

Some public reaction, funnily enough, was quite supportive, but never it there ever going to be a thumb sucking pride parade unless some toddlers get strangely politically aware.

Well I was just wondering if anyone else here had seen or heard of this as a stimming behaviour? The internet is very wide of course and so I have come across an autistic thumb sucker or two who was an adult, but that maybe nothing to do with autism.

Parents
  • I pick the skin around my fingers - quite severely and I make this really strange scratchy throat noise.  I've done both since I was a child (I'm now 45).  I can't stop either.  I also bite my nails because I hate the feeling of long nails touching things 

Reply
  • I pick the skin around my fingers - quite severely and I make this really strange scratchy throat noise.  I've done both since I was a child (I'm now 45).  I can't stop either.  I also bite my nails because I hate the feeling of long nails touching things 

Children
  • Yes, the sensory inputs are experienced differently by the autistic and so what looks like an unproductive and unsightly habit to some is necessary to others, and in my case, the urge or need to suck my thumb openly is yet more problematic than nail biting is. I could not make my whole life a crusade to explain this to every person who looked askance at me, people might tell you or ask you to get some nail clippers, but, that might lead to even worse, obsessive nail clipping perhaps,

    thank you for your reply.