Habits

Unfortunately, I'm having to re-type this as yesterday's one went into the spam filter and hasn't been retrieved Weary

So, do you have habits and are you able to differentiate your habits from stims?

For me, my diagnosis has put my habits into a new stimmy light.

Also, although not diagnosed with OCD, I know I have it and have always had it, so again, how do you differentiate habits from OCD.

I will for example do the same thing more than once and re-arrange things so they are properly aligned.

I also having controlling thought related OCD.

Here are some:

As a child I would eat everything in my hand including my toys, pencils, pens etc

I ate the whole trunk of a knitted elephant.

Biting my nails and skin, until they bleed.  My mum made me wear gloves in the house to try to stop this but I just ate the ends of the glove fingers.

I used to twiddle with and eat my hair when it was long.

Twiddling my toes.

Scratching, picking my scalp.

Rubbing my fingers together.

Blinking.

Biting my lip.

Grinding my teeth.

Making strange sounds + humming little tunes (I once got asked to stop by a work colleague because I was unconsciously humming the Funeral March).

I know I wrote more yesterday but can't remember them all at the moment.

Most of mine are lifelong.

With regard to habitual behaviour, I find this interesting:

'Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny'

Parents
  • Interesting indeed. Where does one draw the line? 
    I have a couple of ‘habits’ which only crop up when my mental health is poor:: repeatedly checking that I have keys, phone, and purse in my bag, double-checking the front door is locked, checking a glass is perfectly positioned on a coaster. These are definitely habits and not stims, and I class them as such because they only crop up when, as I said, my anxiety and depression flare up. I would say my stims are what I do most days to soothe myself when I’m otherwise mentally stable. 

Reply
  • Interesting indeed. Where does one draw the line? 
    I have a couple of ‘habits’ which only crop up when my mental health is poor:: repeatedly checking that I have keys, phone, and purse in my bag, double-checking the front door is locked, checking a glass is perfectly positioned on a coaster. These are definitely habits and not stims, and I class them as such because they only crop up when, as I said, my anxiety and depression flare up. I would say my stims are what I do most days to soothe myself when I’m otherwise mentally stable. 

Children
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