Published on 12, July, 2020
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.
I am 35 and I've sucked my thumb since I was in the womb. Literally, they have a sonogram of me sucking!
I sometimes wonder what people think about my thumb sucking, but 80% of the time I just don't care - they can stare if they like that's fine with me. I often (largely) don't notice I am doing it. The only time I stop and think 'this must look odd' is if I am sitting in traffic sucking my thumb, I worry it might be offputting for other drivers, so then I will make an effort to correct my behaviour.
Nobody seems to mind me sucking my thumb really, apart from my sister who sometimes tells me to take it out because she thinks I'm encouraging her children to do it too (they are both natural thumb suckers anyway - regardless of my influence).
I never thought of thumb sucking as a stim but I guess, the way I do it (rhythmically) it probably is. Useful to know!