Stimming manifestation list: which form does yours take? Please add to list

-Hair twirling and smoothing. Observation of the texture visually and through touch

-Trichotillomania and skin picking (? unsure if this is stimming or not)

-Foot and knee bobbing

-Tapping with fingers or objects

-Repeating useless phrases, sounds or parts of songs

Parents
  • Ah-hah, I see other people toe scrunch. That was probably the first thing I wondered might be a stim because I knew I did it a lot and could identify it as something I've definitely done since I was a kid (because I have a distinct memory of being self conscious about it on an occasion at school). Also do foot and knee bobbing, rub my thumb and index finger together or my thumbnail repeatedly across the back of all my fingers, bounce on the balls of my feet, swivel my feet back and forth. Sometimes catch myself walking in small circles or tilting my head from side to side, but I do try not to do those especially not in public. Also repeat phrases and sounds but that's the one thing I usually only do when I'm by myself when I'm relaxed (rather than as a response to anxiety).

Reply
  • Ah-hah, I see other people toe scrunch. That was probably the first thing I wondered might be a stim because I knew I did it a lot and could identify it as something I've definitely done since I was a kid (because I have a distinct memory of being self conscious about it on an occasion at school). Also do foot and knee bobbing, rub my thumb and index finger together or my thumbnail repeatedly across the back of all my fingers, bounce on the balls of my feet, swivel my feet back and forth. Sometimes catch myself walking in small circles or tilting my head from side to side, but I do try not to do those especially not in public. Also repeat phrases and sounds but that's the one thing I usually only do when I'm by myself when I'm relaxed (rather than as a response to anxiety).

Children
  • Mention of school reminds me of a couple of things that I occasionally did in the classroom when bored: firstly, rubbing my index finger up and down on a desk to produce warmth, and doing this so much I got a nice blister; and secondly rolling a ballpoint pen under my shoe back and forth along a hard floor - because the pen is hexagonal in cross-section, it produces a particular vibration.

    Now, these things were done for the sensation, but I got bored with them quickly and didn't repeat them more than once or twice. So I don't know if they'd really count. In fact, other than a few vocal mannerisms that I'm unaware of most of the time, nothing stim-like has been anything like lifelong. I'm thinking of myself as mostly typical in the sensory dimension (as per my RDOS graph).