Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m very stressed, constantly, harmfully. I’m 56 and stopped stimming as a child because I was told not to by my mother. I only remember rocking and eating toothpaste off a tissue. I feel I would benefit from letting myself stim but can’t think of the ways I used to do it. Can people please tell me how they self soothe so I can try different things? Thanks Steph
Fidgets are great and well worth getting some. If you’ve suppressed stimming for a long time, a small innocuous fidget can help you feel more comfortable with it at first. My favourite are marble meshes (almost silent, small, easy to carry around) but there’s a lot of different types out there. I also found ‘calming stickers’ (didn’t know they were a thing) but can provide an accessible source of olfactory stimulation.
It sounds like you might also appreciate some form of taste/oral stimulation- I just got a ‘chew’ and I really like it, again there’s lots of different types out there.
i also stim by lying on a large gym ball and rocking back and forth, or very discreet rocking in time with my heartbeat. As a lot of my stims require my whole body it’s a challenge to find something that I can do while typing/working!
I like to lie down flat on the floor, head down, resting on my hands. If one of the kids sits on me, even better.