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Twitching and Stimming

Liam

Hi everyone!

I was just hoping some of you could give me any advice on how you deal with twitching and stimming in public?

I'm currently at my university library and because its quite cold my twitches keep on coming and it's making it pretty difficult to work, for some reason it takes a lot of my energy away.

Any advice would be great thank you!

  • Listening to music helps me and breathing exercises. Just five minutes does wonders for me.

  • I honestly thought I'd stopped stimming (at least big stims) in public for a long time and then it occured to be I'd been subconsiously rocking "behind my own back" (not literally) for quite sometime. When I turned my focus to it and started to keep a diary (more like a sheet of paper as it didn't take long) of when I was doing it and where and what happened before it I realised it was in stressful or  boring situations that had gone on too long that the thumb and finger rubbing stim wasn't enough to let out the nervous (or otherwise built up) energy.
    I know I shouldn't have to mask ofc, but I do have one for a reason, I don't need to "out" myself where it's not necesarily safe to do so.
     So now I've bought fidget toys that I play with literally behind my back in meetings and lectures: High texture stuff to get more feel out of the rub, or silent pop-its. So I can get more out of the smaller less noticeable stimms without resorting to big ones like rocking or swaying.

    Maybe you can buy an assortment of fidets and see what works for you?

  • Hi Liam - Some people find that listening to music helps.  If you’re studying maybe quiet classical on the headphones so it doesn’t interfere with study.

  • Inhale, hold as long as you can while tensing as many muscles a you can, exhale slowly, repeat cycle few times. I call it highlander's secret method, partly as a joke and partly because it baffles me to watch them shiver so I share the method, fancy name means it's more likely they will try it

  • Physical activity sometimes helps me. If there are stairs handy, run up and down them a few times. At least you will feel less cold.