LOL, I knew he was going to say that one. It's probably better than what I tend to do stare at loading screens and lines of text as my command line operations continue. When I get a chance, I'm probably going to get a lava lamp and one of those lightning balls. But, I do think that as long as these things aren't harmful or blocking you from doing things to improve your life that it's best to just find some that don't cause any trouble socially. I'm so much more calm now that I'm aware that stimming is one of my needs the same as food and shelter are. I wish I had known years ago that much of the time my agitation goes away fairly quickly when I let myself stim. Obviously, a lack of stimming isn't likely to be fatal, but it definitely does stress me out and probably cut a bit of time off my life expectancy as a result.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade I also stare at loading screens, more as a patience test than anything else. Can I count to 300 before giving up and refreshing the program? Pipes was just so much fun, setting the speed, size, number and style until hitting that perfect balance of novelty, familiarity, complexity and simplicity. I would also like a lightning ball.
@@SarafinaSummers Hm, I remember one called Mystify, I think. Like a sheet that would fold and curl, made out of a bunch of parallel lines. Is one of us misremembering, or is Mystics a different one entirely?
I remember when I was a kid riding in the back of the car, following the power lines as they dip and go to the top of the pole and dip and just repeat it. I would imagine I was playing a video game where a guy would run and jump along. Just found out I was autistic in the last year. I knew I was diagnosed with adhd already but autism has filled in all the gaps that didn’t make sense with adhd
I just burst out laughing (with joy and relief) when you mentioned the "woo-woo" alarm sound you do when you think of something cringey. I have been doing this soo much the last few months, sometimes it's me blowing out air or making different sounds, but it's always when I think of some embarrassing/awkward memory. It's such a relief and so validating to hear someone else has done this
I do this too but I slap myself in the face or hit my head when it happens and it upsets my boyfriend which I understand. I try to replace it with other less harmful things it’s really hard to not do it sometimes.
I have an literal cringe reaction when I think of something that is embarrassing or uncomfortable to remember. Like a dramatic shudder kind of thing. I didn't know that could actually be a stim!
My son had a couple if years when his stimming was something akin to the sound sealions make. Everytime he was excited or tired or both he would do that. While it could be one annoying it was also very practical. One of his favourite activities was watching fish. So we went to zoos and animal shops and places like that. As long as I could hear him, he was there and alright!
I do this too, and never realized it was a stim. I have a couple of different ones depending on how embarrassed or ashamed I am of the thing I’m remembering. I also flip the bird at nothing when a memory makes me very angry.
You mentioning staring at a ceiling fan unlocked childhood memories for me, I used to do this all the time until I could 'catch' individual blades with my eyes and follow them around haa great video!
I am a 64-year-old male who was diagnosed with autism only ten years ago but the weird thing is that I have only started stimming just recently: in my case it takes the form of "chopping" movements with my hands (either vertically or horizontally) and I find that I do them when I am annoyed such as when I have to get up in the middle of the night to go for a pee!
Thanks very much for this video. As a high masking person who only recently recognized my Autism, it's been a bit challenging to try and figure out what I've repressed and what is natural and helpful for me as an Autistic person. This gives me some insight into what I may have been doing (or been pressured not to do) stim-wise, especially in my growing up years.
Yo Samdy Sam said in one of her videos, “you will reinterpret your entire life.” This has been true for me. Things I never would have imagined had anything to do with autism, in hindsight, should have been red flags. Thinking about my own past has yielded so many “aha” moments.
I will probably never unmask totally. I've been doing it for 55 years without knowing what or why I was doing. I'm very sensitive to criticism. And maybe the criticism and weird looks I would get will bother me more than whatever harm the masking is doing to me
Yeah, I understand that. I think part of why I went so long under the radar is because I am very aware of what other people may be thinking about me and have done a ton of image management even since I was a child. Because even then I knew that there *is* a cost to just letting the oddness show. Now I'm learning about the cost of repressing it. I think it's a balance that each person needs to figure out for themself!
in the same vein of the pipes screensaver, windows media player had a feature where u clicked different keys to produce a colorful.. wave? design? animation? while playing music. it was awesome. my brother and i would fuck with that for hours.
Driving in itself can be the ultimate stim, sortof. Or alternateively, riding a bicycle, train, whatever is available. It affects just about every sense at the same time.
Agreed! I don’t know if I’m just getting old or what, but driving seems to make me sleepy anymore. There’s something about the motion and the noise that relaxes me.
Thank you for this discussion! I’m very late diagnosed, and it’s been a struggle to understand my stims. Ive rarely found a video that gets into specific examples, and what is mentioned is frequently the best known forms. A few things you listed, like chewing pencils and pens, I recognize as stimming behaviors I have. The response to a cringey thought is a behavior I was aware of (I usually blurt out “we’re having fun now!” or make a few other sounds), but it was startling to me to discover others do it too. But the part of this discussion that provided a breakthrough moment for me is visual inputs, like the ceiling fan (something I have done when one was available). That provided the final piece of a puzzle that I’ve been working on for some time: basically, visual inputs connected to a place help regulate me. And the visual memories of places I’ve been do too. I’m not an easy traveler, and since COVID gone few places. In many respects this reduces my stress. But it’s meant the loss of new or infrequently seen “sense of place” visual sensory inputs, and this has tended to increase my dysregulation.
Oh god, chewing. I was /terrible/ with chewing when I was a kid. There were times where my jaws would feel like they needed me to chew. It didn't matter if I just ate, or not, I just HAD to chew. The worst incident, and I don't even think my parents know about this one, was when I chewed a lightbulb. It was one of those small ones you see in radios lighting the dial. The bulb shattered BUT, somehow, I did not end up getting cut, or swallowing any of the glass. Snapping is another one that I do to this day. If I'm walking across a building, or in a parking lot, I'm snapping. It's always a consistent time signature which likely comes from my years of playing musical instruments.
I loved chewing on popped balloons. The squeaky noise it made resonated inside my whole head and the smooth rubbery texture was sublime. I haven't done that in decades because I was afraid it was wierd, but now realize it for what it was.
I never had anybody put into words what I struggled with !! thank you. I thought I was the only one for repeatively saying words to get an uncomfortable thought out of my head, or making a funny noise to cringy thoughts. I control it when I'm with people but it's a stim im embarrased about
No wonder I liked Zippo lighters so much! They stimulate several senses -- sound (the classic Zippo 'clink'), smell (you can definitely smell its fuel), and sight (the flame dancing around).
I did the hand flapping alot, and I mean Ive seen videos of myself as a two year old toddler doing the hand flapping. I believe I have always been autistic, but nobody knew from that when I was a child, so it wasnt diagnosed. And I have a stim with my shirt where I focus on and play with the end of my shirt. Anyway, I just had an epiphany that I have asperger or autism or something like that. And I'm in my 40s and.... not really sure what to do with this information. Certainly it explains alot.
I'm on my journey to get digonose for autism as an adult and this video helped a lot! I'm really insecure about my prediction if I'm autistic or not and finding things like this video was really helpful and gave me a lot of insight. Thank you for this.
I'm autistic too. I stim-pick my face & neck--but trying to discover other stims too. The title in the thumbnail says, "Sims vs Stims." This is to be helpful not judgy-I swear. I have dyslexia reading comprehension & have to read things several times. I'm not trollin'--but supporting. Thanks for being on YT to show your version/story with us.
I am not diagnosed with autism, but I have had depression and anxiety for about two decades. I've had a particular stim for more than half my life where when I get excited and happy I feel like there is too much emotion in my body so I let it out by doing this stim. It's hard to describe, but it's this really fast shuffling or flicking of my fingers on both hands. Sometimes I do this right next to my ears because I like the noise. I also tap the top of my head while doing this sometimes. I do this with my toes regularly as well just because it calms me. My husband refers to these actions as tapping it out and encourages me to do them, because clearly they're coming from an overwhelming feeling of happiness. I do sometimes hurt myself accidentally, which is annoying. The stim I have for when I'm uncomfortable is covering my ears and shaking my head. I actually try to do these only when I'm alone or around my husband, because I know how awful some people can be. But unfortunately it's not really something I can just stop.
Wow!! I never realised that throwing items was a proprioceptive stim. 🤣 I am hyposensitive to proprioception, so it makes sense that my brain is sensory seeking that stimulus. I toss things a lot while walking, or spin them in my hands (and then usually drop them because of the aforementioned lack of proprioception 🤣)
Yep. As a kid, I used to play little league baseball. I wasn’t very good to be honest. Never been the athletic type. But one thing I’ve always enjoyed was playing catch with myself by throwing the ball up in the air and catching it. I sometimes will do that with fruit, too, especially apples and oranges.
Thanks, that communicated well some of the different stems my son and I do. I sometimes will share a video instead of trying to explain something myself. It is also always so wonderful and affirming to hear about other adults engaging in stems and their autism in general. I just subscribed and am looking forward to exploring your content🙂 thanks
I hum to myself very loudly in work settings as my stress level goes up, as everything turns to shit around me. Also, shifting my weight from foot to foot or heel to toe.
I can relate, though I try to hum quietly. When I have to stand in one spot, like standing in a queue, I’m constantly moving around and shifting my weight a lot. I don’t do standing around well.
Oh wow this is a great video, hearing you say stims you have and others you’re aware of without shame is fantastic to hear. I spent most of my time in school smelling my fingers and my arms and I felt ridiculous, trying to only do it when people weren’t watching but you would invariably get caught. It would have been wonderful to just be able to do those things and enjoy doing them, or even have a stim toy that I could smell without judgement! But it is not shameful, it’s just something that is very helpful and soothing
I agree! Definitely not shameful at all. I used to try to suppress my stims all the time, but these days I’m intentionally unmasking. Mostly, others just ignore me, but even when I get caught “being weird” I’m not embarrassed anymore.
See, I did like and subscribe and comment... I did quite enjoy your presentation, yes. I have done a lot over the years, most of the things you described, still do a lot of them... Prefect job, it was comforting to see the way you came across. And, I am older [66] than most of the presenters on this platform, so comforting it is, yes, to watch someone at least slightly older than 20 - 30!
My main verbal stim is saying stellar, but using an R with a rhotosim my main visual stim is Covering one eye or moving my hand back and fourth in front of my eye I also bite and tip toe
Wow. Everyone probably knows how autistic I am jeez. I didn’t know these things were odd to do! Especially the auditory Stims and hearing a sound and repeating it. I also have a noise that feels good to make, It’s like a purring sound (it made my future gf notice me and she thought it was a sexy noise 😏 a win for the gays and the neurodivergents in one day!) but I make all my noises out loud bc I am a musician and it’s the music we are performing/playing usually that I am making noises from. And I never thought of it being weird but I think my classmates are just used to me. Because, if I heard anyone else make the sounds and movements that I do, I would probably think they are hyped up on coke haha
I’m so glad you found something that works for you, and where you feel like you fit in. I understand a lot of autistic people play music. And how great is it that one of your stims helped you get a partner?! 😊
Could be worse. I ditched my stims before I knew I was autistic and people reacted badly to it. Since I started remembering them and doing them, I'm so much more relaxed. Even when I've been stressed recently the jumpiness in my belly is largely gone. I absolutely love my bottle of glitter. It's just so satisfying to turn it upside down and let the glitter settle to the bottom.
Thank you for this wonderful video! I'm currently working on getting to know and understand myself and my autism. Got diagnosed at 19 but then spent 5 years not really thinking about it, until this past winter. Now I'm 25 and slowly learning, knowing, feeling. Especially getting to know my stims! Again, thank you :D
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed my video. This is what I love about the autism community. You realize there are many others like you and you don’t feel alone anymore.
I have not particularly noticed any repetitive behaviour or noticeable stimming about my grandson. However, he is extremely focussed and ignores every thing around him. He has also not started communicating. He speaks many words and can count up to 20. He recognises the entire alphabet. He is by the way, 2 years and 4 months old.
i’m 14 and in the process (?) of getting diagnosed with autism. I’m not entirely convinced i have it because i scored the bare minimum of points on this assessment my therapist sent my parents, but it would let me get evaluated or see a psychiatrist. A lot of the stims you mentioned in the video i have done before/still do!
Thanks so much Shae, I've just found out I probably have Autism and ADHD and I'm 49. I've been trying to find out what stimming is and I've probably watched 10 or so videos on it and was no more aware of what stimming actually was and I thought I probably didn't have any, that I was overly masked. Your video is the first to actually run through a list and I do so many of these! I was stressing out that I was stressing myself by not stimming and apparently I was! Thanks for your video, it has really helped me. I hope all is well with you! I've spent so long watching the pipes screen saver!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad my video helped you. One of the things I noticed from watching other videos about stimming was that most just talked about them, but didn’t show them. I wanted to demonstrate the more visible ones so you could see what they look like. I’m so glad this was helpful to you. ☺️
(Preface: definitely not a medical doctor but did have to learn a few things in my previous military career and now as a criminologist-and overall nerd 🤓 lol) There’s certain pressure points (obviously nerve endings) in the hands (notably the fleshy part you referenced-that deals with the adductor pollicis and the interossesus manus of the first dorsal…) and nasolabial area(s); more specifically, the upper lip/philitrum, the columell (middle part of & under the nose - between the 👃 nostrils … in the paradigm of “self defense/tactical combat”, the “inter-maxillary suture” (another name for the point above the upper lip and nose), when properly struck with or applied pressure to, typically results in a ‘loss of consciousness’ (after a great deal of pain imo lol). I tangentially share this with you because it is quite fascinating how we might modify certain parts of ourselves to utilize or make alternative functions to what we are anatomically given. That is, the same thing that is used to make someone comply because they are behaving criminally deviant, can be used to make our own bodies “comply with” ourselves -or ‘calm’/self-soothe/stim/etc. It truly is all about the use and function-further proving that nothing authentically exists in the black and white; it gradient-ally exists 🤓🫶💥🧠🫶 Thank you for sharing and giving us all a safe space to share as well!
I do remember the pipes screensaver! I'm generation Z, so I suppose I'm not that old, but that was the best screensaver! It was so entertaining and satisfying to watch :)
I have really bad echolalia as a stim. If someone say something that sounds interesting or I think personally would be fun/funny to say, I repeat it. I used to try to smell my own breath as a stim, but I think my 'worst' stim is chewing on odd bits of plastic or rubber. I think I need to get a new chewing necklace for my desk because I had one a few years ago now that I liked but the consistency of the rubber wasn't great.
That’s one thing I strongly identified with from Atypical. I don’t tend to shout out embarrassing words like the young protagonist, but I do have words get stuck in my head and I sometimes repeat them under my breath.
Might be weird phrasing but it's cool to me to know other people do and have done stuff like this too. When something is really funny to me, I'll repeat the phrase and then chuckle lol. It gets worse in a group setting. I also used to chew on my clothes and bunches of my hair (like still on my head not literally consuming hair 💀) Maybe I'm so stressed now because I tried to stop doing all these things
When I was a kid, I would often think of something funny from earlier in the day and laugh at it again. Then everyone would wonder what I was laughing at.
Very informative. I’m 15. I was stimming throughout the video for some reason either because of the video or that I was engaging in my special interest earlier before seeing this video. I have a variety of stims including plenty of stereotypical stims which are my main ones such as rocking, hand flapping, and pacing. I love to stim especially when doing it when I’m happy, content, or need to make myself less overwhelmed. I also like that relief that I get from rocking especially when I need to which feels soothing.
This is so interesting! I also like to see this. It's also helping me understand autism better. About spinning, oh i loved to spin as a kid! I was spinning around the room xD, sooo fun
I grind my teeth and it has to be in a specific order. I am always counting in my head. Even numbers is where it has to stop. I count steps, bites, touching my tongue to teeth in a specific order, how many turns to take the cap off a drink.... everything. It gets exhausting. But it's so ingrained I can have whole conversations and go about my daily life and No one knows. Never told anyone about it. My chiropractor and dentist know I grind my teeth but that's it. 😅
I grind so bad that my dentist wants to put caps on my teeth. And it’s not just something I do in my sleep. I catch myself doing it during the day all the time.
You didn't mention if you're autistic so maybe you are and it's connected to that. But I thought your comment also reminded me of some of the compulsions I used to have (I have ocd).
Just wanna say this was a great video. 👍👍 I think I have autism so I am self diagnosing. I wish I can go to professional but I can’t right now. This video really helped me discover myself more and it was validating of my experience with autism. Thank you, -your subscriber
Does anyone remember the visual settings on Windows Media Player? The colorful moving lines or shapes that came in bursts along with the music? (Like those screensavers, but with the added benefit of audio stimming.) I used to put on my favorite albums, sit in front of my computer, and stare for hours.
I count. I’m counting all day. I was in kindergarten and I used to count the rivets on the school bus roof. I now work in anesthesia and count numbers most of the day. LOL I have other stims, like tapping my teeth together to the beat of any music in my head. My adult kids pointed out my reactions to overstimulation in public 😬 I’m happy they did. I’ve put that to bed. Peace 😊
I do the wa wa sound a lot with high voice suddenly i do it when i feel overwhelmed. Also that knocking with my fingers on my cheek doing that drum sound.. I still do many of the things you said... I remember now, when i was a kid i used to spin a LOT... Thanks for that video❤❤❤❤
I find that sometimes I bop my head back and forth, like I'm listening to music.. But there's none there. I think I just need the movement. it happens a lot when I work (I work front desk, patient-facing 100% of the time so I'm always watched).. and when you mentioned the CRINGEWORTHY MEMORIES I realized I do one every time - I sink my head into my shoulders and can't help but close my eyes and do the eyeroll, as if it was directed at my past self like "omg I can't believe I did that"
I work with patients, too. Actually, here they’re called “clients”, but they’re still getting treatment. I work at a residential treatment center for alcoholics and addicts.
I don't know whether i'm autistic or not, but I certainly do stim. I used to love chewing on straws, and I still do now. Its like a built up urge slowly over time to chew, which eases when I do so. I pace, though it is often specifically to music, with my mind going a hundred miles a minute, though I also do so when I get excited about something, or am talking, as I tend to think clearer, faster, and better in general while pacing. I will oftentimes, sometimes as an almost constant thing while sitting at least, bonce either one leg, (or a bit less commonly), both. Some other stims include: hair twirling, wrist flapping (specificaly wrist flapping, I do it really fast sideways in a circular motion, this is one I typically do when either letting out energy, typically happy energy, or gaining energy. It makes me rather happy when I do this stim), saying the word juice (I adore that word and the way it sounds, as well as feels when in the mouth), twitching/flexing of fingers, and probably a ton of others I don't know of yet, or don't remember at the moment. By how much I stim......yeah, I might be in the autistic spectrum 😅 Edit: bounce, not bonce! That means something far different, lol.
I’m like you. I used to chew straws all the time when they were plastic. I would bite the inside of my cheek several times a day, hum made up songs. I also hand flap sideways. Every so often when I get anxious I start rocking, but only mini rocks. Other stims like playing with my fingers, rubbing my arms, hearing the same song in my head over and over for days. I never officially got diagnosed, but several other common behaviors and watching videos for the last couple years, it’s safe to say I’m autistic.
One type of stimming I've done since childhood is somewhat similar to how you run your fingers across the inner arm. What I do specifically is hold something fuzzy up next to my arm like a stuffed animal and then lightly graze my arm with my fingers. Doing so kind of fools the brain into thinking the sensation is coming from the fur and thus results in a more relaxing sensation for me. I also used to walk on the balls of my feet all the time. I don't do it as much anymore but I'll catch it. I constantly scratch at my scalp and also the fuzz on my chin when I need to concentrate on something and then I'll sort of rub the fingers together after I'm done for no particular reason. I've never tried the sucking on the skin of the hand like you did but I just tried it and I can see the appeal :D I tend to not enjoy the feeling of saliva on my body so it's definitely not something I could see doing naturally. Sometimes I catch myself making random noises but it's typically more with my lips. If I have an unpleasant thought or memory I tend to make a sort of "tsh tsh tsh tsh" really quickly and it sort of helps me come out of the thought and calm down. And I heavily identify with staring at screensavers and ceiling fans for prolonged periods of time as well as repeatedly watching scenes I like from stuff.
Tactile stimming and stimulation of the sense of taste and the sense of smell. Except I didn't know it was autistic stimming. Or that I was autistic until just a few years ago. I have always been slightly on the heavy side and struggled with losing weight. And could never seem to quit comfort eating no matter how hard I tried (which in turn negatively affected my self perception and mental health). While in reality it was an unconscious attempt to suppress an autistic stim that actually brought me relief and joy.
I’m an early teenager, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s autism fairly early in life, and it is not a very severe autism. It’s more mild, and basically just issues in social situations, and I’ve fairly noticed I don’t seem to stim at all. I’m not sure if I don’t stim at all. Now I’m in a later part of this video and I think the spinning thing is accurate. I really like spinning chairs, and spinning in them, and spinning overall myself and spinning my body around and looking at everything and seeing it like it’s a pano in the camera app of my iPod. And my parents do tell me I used to take my dad’s glasses and throw them when I was a baby, so that might be it also. The spectrum is so diverse, who knows honestly. Like I said, my autism is fairly mild, and I am moving from my private school I’ve been in for 5 years to a public school. So maybe in the harsher condition of public school I might find my stim or another stim. Can one autistic individual have more than one stims?? just wondering
@@autism-philes2136 okay, also can biting fingers and fidgeting with fingers be a stim?? I noticed I tend to connect my thumb to my pinky finger and pointer finger a lot, especially when I’m waiting for stuff to stop, like a really long conversation or something.
My stims: Auditory: replaying a same song, movie or video. I like intricate rhythms and beats, i like sounds with a lot of overtones, and i also like certain revving sounds. I like listening to ASMR, though i am picky. Verbal: i like to sing, or rather hum and also i do a few types of overtone/throat singing, 2 styles of which i made myself. I like to repeat words or sounds with the B, P, G and K syllables, just plosives in general are very nice i like how they feel and sound to say. I also have echolalia, which is partly a stim and partly so i process what is being said to me or my own thought processes verbally but yeah. Even if i am not doing it externally, i do it using my inner monologue by reflex. There's also certain phrases or words i will just repeat that vary over time, sometimes it even becomes a bonding thing with friends and funny. Oral stims: i like to chew on things, eat little snacks, move my tongue in my mouth. Tactile stims: chewing, moving my tongue around my mouth, drumming on my collarbones and sternum with my fingers, tapping/flicking my fingers together, gently applying pressure to various parts of my body, touching rubbing and cupping my face, lips, touching my hands, rubbing my palms together. I also like rubbing my nails on my upper lip, lips or with my thumb. I also do skin picking, which isn't good. A lot of things with my fingernails really, though not biting or picking them mostly. I like to rub, bend and press on them, tap them on things and so on. Proprioception and vestibular: hand flapping, pacing, flicking/twiddling my fingers, jumping running, rocking, bobbing my head, shaking my head, falling over forwards in a controlled manner, wiggling my body, tilting my hips alternatingly, and a lot to do with how i position my head and neck and movements with that. I really like getting myself to shiver and move my head with it. Smell:smelling my hands and skin and clothing, smelling soaps, and smelling my food while i eat it Taste: i really like salty, umami(the fat/meat/protein/dairy taste) and sweet tasting foods Visual: i really like a lot of repeating mechanism gifs, i also like to replay vidoes/movies on loop, and i do some things with my hands. Shiny smooth solid colors are nice, i go for something stimmy when i paint my nails. Colors in general are very stimulating for me, at a certain point colors becomes overwhelming but i really enjoy colors. Miscellaneous and mixed: Joint and knuckle cracking, temperature stims (running in cold humid air, cold water, warm water, pressing my hands on my face), a number of multi-sense stims (burrying my face in my hands and wiggling, falling over, wiggling my fingers if i put the backs of my hands on my face, and closing my eyes shaking my head while doing these. Its hard to describe the stim to be honest, its a happiness one for me, i also get it when flustered and when i am having cuteness overload, and sometimes when something is funny.) The notorious Leg Bounce. I like to do it with both legs and vary the speed between them.
I’m big on smells, myself, especially clean smells. There’s this particular type of soap they use in the bathrooms at the airport, so whenever I have a flight I love smelling my hands after washing them in the bathroom.
@@autism-philes2136 ooo thats nice! C: Also clean smells are really good i agree, they put my mind at ease about everything being clean (though i guess cleaning/sanitizing does that, and the smell is just there XD) There's a few soaps my family buys and one of them smells so so so good, it almost smells like cake/icecream or rather, they smell how those should taste in my opinion c: I love it so very much, smells are good I also got some moss yesterday (and now have a lil jar for it to live in) and when its wet it smells super good, also moss had a nice texture to pet/caress and press/squish
@Mp if i might ask, how old is your child? Also herbs can be nice, lot of them smell good and are very calming, some have soothing or stimulating effects when ingested. A good sensory environment helps a lot Though eye contact isn't really that important, i wouldn't try and push for that especially since avoiding it might be normalized fairly soon, and trying to force eye contact adds a lot of stress and overwhelm for autistic people. In the right sensory environments with the right levels of stimulation or if they are interested, it makes eye contact easier to do and less intrusive feeling, or atleast more tolerable if there is less things stressing them out. What things do you do for your child's sensory needs?
@Mp depending where you live, blending in and being socially normal might be needed to survive and live a good life (many places in asia, places in the american south (tenesee, texas, etc) are like this) But if it isn't needed to avoid bullying descrimination or violence, then social normalcy isn't needed and is an unhelpful goal. Most of the time pushing for your autistic child to act in ways that are seen as normal and acceptable actually harms the child, causing issues with having a sense of self, acknowledging or understanding their emotions, and getting tired from interacting with people because the autistic person is essentially pretending or "masking" as a non-autistic person, and living inauthentically is harmful for pretty much anyone. With social skills, i would focus on empathy (understanding your childs feelings, and teaching your child to understnd other people's feelings using direct examples for every possible situation, since autistic people are bad at generalizing what we learn to apply in other situations.) Other social skills like eotional regulation (not supression! But being able to express and communiate their emotions to other people and teaching you child to be aware of how themself feels rather than reacting blindly, i also recommend encouraging their non-injurious repetitive and stimming behaviors since that is the way autistic people naturally self-regulate) I would recommend teaching your child how to interact appropriately (even if non-normally) and effectively with customer service, what to do with phone calls and how to ask for help from people. Politeness is a part of that, but less important than making sure your child understands the situation and how to get what they need, or how to recognize other peoples needs.
So my daughter went through a period where she CONSTANTLY made this odd clicking/gurgling sound and it irritated me to the point where I would get so annoyed I couldn’t even think straight. I would ask her to stop and she just couldn’t. Now she makes a constant repetitive ‘hm’ sound that is easier for me to tolerate. She also used to spin a lot but not anymore. I think a lot of it has been redirected by playing video games. She has a hard time reading social situations and understanding what behaviours are acceptable and so did I as a kid. I’m realizing that we may both be on the spectrum because I stimm/obsess over things a lot too and have done so ever since I was a child( nail biting, lip/cheek biting, scalp picking, counting license plates, repeating words or phrases in my head). Sigh
A lot of adults actually get their diagnosis after their kids do, so if you’re noticing how much you’re like your daughter it might be time to consider an evaluation for you, too.
ANYONE ever do Hallucinogenic Stimming? For a few years, I got more and more into just visualizing complex moving patterns like fractals / screen savers etc. I could see these much clearer than something I'd visualize otherwise. They became so occupying, I lost the habit of an internal dialog and replaced it with doing this. I called it "The Vortex".
I have not heard of that until just now, but I’m sure someone else has done it, too. In my experience, no matter how unique you think you are, there’s always someone out there who can relate because they’ve done that, too.
I honestly don't know if I am on the spectrum, have ADHD, or both. I did a lot of those stimming techniques (and others) that can be seen as odd as a kid like making repetitive weird noises to myself, chewing on my fingers, rapidly blinking for no particular reason, repeating words verbally or internally until they sound weird, etc. I have done away with many of those and have added new ones... I have a really strong need for certain textures of food. I will deal with a lot of others, but some I can't stand. I have an oral fixation where I need to be chewing my cheek, biting on my lip ring, chewing gum, etc. I love squishy things, but they have to be the right amount of feedback and material. Does this sound familiar to any that has been diagnosed?
My parents stopped me from any self-soothing activity, so I would stick to stims that no one could point out, like biting the inside of my cheek, messing with my toenails, twirling a lock of hair, chewing on that same lock of hair, pinching my chin to get air bubbles under it and squelching out the air (had to do this one when alone), rubbing my thumb and index finger together. I have ADHD and believe I have a mild form of autism, but have spent my entire life masking. Btw...I'll be 60 in a few months. Ha ha...I just saw you making the popping noise. I do that all the time!
Idk, my daughter walks back and forth in her room while listening to idk what but she hides and does this a lot. One time she hit her foot at the bed because she’s walking back and forth really fast. She’s been doing it since she was a toddler and it has not stop. I ask her why she does it and she said that it stimulates her mind and it feels like her brains overload with fun creative things and it makes her better at drawing. She would prefer to stim than watch a movie with me or she would stim and then watch the movie. Idk what in the world is that but I allow her to do it. I’m trying to figure out if she’s on the autism spectrum but idk the stims describe above doesn’t seem like it.
I work a sedentary overnight job, so several times a night I get up and pace around for a bit. Not only does it help me get some exercise, but I seem to think better when I’m in motion. Sometimes, my best ideas come to me when I’m walking around at night.
@@autism-philes2136 thank you for that, makes me feel like at least there is someone out there that is experiencing somewhat of same thing, so it’s not abnormal lol
I chewed my nails, pens, pencils, the corners of books ( not now, but as a child, the fingers of my gloves on and on lol!) I still rock slightly if stressed and kick my foot when sitting, the more stressed or even involved I am in what I am doing or saying, the more I kick or twitch my upper foot, you know when hour legs are crossed, the upper foot has a mind of its own, it sometimes kicks to emphasise points or, much like an angry cats tail, to channel some anger. I don't bite my nails any more but do pick at the skin around my nails and peel layers off of my nails, which eventually has the same results, awful looking hands! I twirl my hair constantly too. Its weird but when I get started on these traits I have it's never ending, as are specific ASD Traits since my late diagnosis, I seem to have SO many, you wonder why I wasn't diagnosed as a child but, as you know, in the late 1950s and 60s it was considered a boy thing.
Thanks so much for sharing that. I grew up in the 1980s when few people knew about autism. I was a boy, yes, but not one who often caused trouble. I think if I had been more of a behavior problem, I might have gotten diagnosed.
The woo woo. I don’t have autism but I remember a LOT of cringy moments in my life. Sometimes it’s just bad things that happened to me like a rejection. I usually shake my head “no” or say something to snap out of it: “Ah!” “BLAH!” “Hmm!”
I would suck on my fingers, and suck on water paper towels , picking at my nails , picking and biting my cuticles, repeatedly singing to myself, tapping fingers,
When i was a kid i loved to eat crayons specifically the fat green ones, would put coins in my mouth to suck on i liked the metallic taste ( i know gross right) would hand flap and also had a favorite blanket with a satin edge that i loved to rub between my fingers. My stims are now different as an adult although i still hand flap in private on occasion when concentrating on something. I just found out i have asd last year and im in my 40s
I do a lot of humming, singing, whistling (under my breath) to myself - this links to what I call my "tape-loop" which seems to be a piece of memory I have which picks up e,g, a section of the last tune I heard on the radio in my car going to work, and then replays it on loop in the back of my head all day. When my mind has free time, this resurfaces into my conscious and comes out as the above... It can even be a tune that I consciously (but maybe not subconsciously?) dislike. Sometimes I literally have to deliberately go and listen to another tune to over-record the first ! I wonder whether this is a form of photographic memory - but for sounds rather than images ? Does anyone else have this ? Is there a name for it ?
….like I haven’t already typed enough…😂😂😂😂 I forgot to mention, I ONLY do the random noise thing like “srippp” or some other kind of noise or sound when I’m alone. It’s just never seems to happen when I’m with others. I don’t suppress the sounds or try not to make them when around others, it just doesn’t enter my mind to make them. For some reason it’s only when I’m alone. This is why I feel a lot of my “thangs” are ways of managing being alone etc. ok I’m gonna shut up now…ha ha Lisa
I'm so much laughing now cause they are days when it's really hard not to repeat Berlin subway sound and the voice in the speaker...when I'm drunk it's easy to just let it out. But when I'm not....eh, it's like holding breath inside that wasn't supposed to be hold 😅
As soon as screen-savers were mentioned, I thought of Pipes. I used to stare at that one for ages.
LOL, I knew he was going to say that one. It's probably better than what I tend to do stare at loading screens and lines of text as my command line operations continue. When I get a chance, I'm probably going to get a lava lamp and one of those lightning balls.
But, I do think that as long as these things aren't harmful or blocking you from doing things to improve your life that it's best to just find some that don't cause any trouble socially. I'm so much more calm now that I'm aware that stimming is one of my needs the same as food and shelter are. I wish I had known years ago that much of the time my agitation goes away fairly quickly when I let myself stim. Obviously, a lack of stimming isn't likely to be fatal, but it definitely does stress me out and probably cut a bit of time off my life expectancy as a result.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade I also stare at loading screens, more as a patience test than anything else. Can I count to 300 before giving up and refreshing the program? Pipes was just so much fun, setting the speed, size, number and style until hitting that perfect balance of novelty, familiarity, complexity and simplicity. I would also like a lightning ball.
Mystics was mine!
@@SarafinaSummers Hm, I remember one called Mystify, I think. Like a sheet that would fold and curl, made out of a bunch of parallel lines. Is one of us misremembering, or is Mystics a different one entirely?
@@Larissa_aus316 I remember seeing something like that at a local market about a decade ago now. Bubbles was also a fun screen-saver.
1:35 Tactile - rub arm, touch face, chew mouth, suck/bite thenar web space, Chew nails/pens/eraser
3:12 Auditory - music, finger snap, pops, bubbles, tap, hum, sing, woo
4:52 Visual -
Taste/Touch
Vestibular
Proprioceptive - pace, throw & catch
I remember when I was a kid riding in the back of the car, following the power lines as they dip and go to the top of the pole and dip and just repeat it. I would imagine I was playing a video game where a guy would run and jump along. Just found out I was autistic in the last year. I knew I was diagnosed with adhd already but autism has filled in all the gaps that didn’t make sense with adhd
I don’t recall doing that, specifically, but it sounds so me. It’s exactly the kind of thing I might imagine.
Damn lol, it's a gift
You described my experience exactly as I remember it. I could do that for hours without feeling bored. Was that not normal?
Omg, that's exactly what I used to do (sometimes still do some things similar to that lol)
I just burst out laughing (with joy and relief) when you mentioned the "woo-woo" alarm sound you do when you think of something cringey. I have been doing this soo much the last few months, sometimes it's me blowing out air or making different sounds, but it's always when I think of some embarrassing/awkward memory. It's such a relief and so validating to hear someone else has done this
I do this too but I slap myself in the face or hit my head when it happens and it upsets my boyfriend which I understand. I try to replace it with other less harmful things it’s really hard to not do it sometimes.
There’s so much cringe it’s embarrassing to think about. Luckily, cringe happens less often these days.
I have an literal cringe reaction when I think of something that is embarrassing or uncomfortable to remember. Like a dramatic shudder kind of thing. I didn't know that could actually be a stim!
My son had a couple if years when his stimming was something akin to the sound sealions make. Everytime he was excited or tired or both he would do that. While it could be one annoying it was also very practical. One of his favourite activities was watching fish. So we went to zoos and animal shops and places like that. As long as I could hear him, he was there and alright!
I do this too, and never realized it was a stim. I have a couple of different ones depending on how embarrassed or ashamed I am of the thing I’m remembering. I also flip the bird at nothing when a memory makes me very angry.
You mentioning staring at a ceiling fan unlocked childhood memories for me, I used to do this all the time until I could 'catch' individual blades with my eyes and follow them around haa great video!
I just moved recently, and I have a ceiling fan in my new room. I have now started doing exactly what you’re describing.
I still do that at times but I never thought it was stimming.
I did this too lol
There are times I still do it. I never thought it had anything to do with autism but it might as it is a form of stimming.
Same
I used to love to watch my computer defragment. All those differences colored little squares!💖
Me, too! I forgot all about that, though. It’s amazing what we had to do with our computers back in those days.
5:10-5:20 visual stims
I always thought I had an odd fascination with things like fans, fire, riverdance, and top secret drum core. Mesmerizing!
I am a 64-year-old male who was diagnosed with autism only ten years ago but the weird thing is that I have only started stimming just recently: in my case it takes the form of "chopping" movements with my hands (either vertically or horizontally) and I find that I do them when I am annoyed such as when I have to get up in the middle of the night to go for a pee!
That annoys me, too. Why can’t my bladder just hold it all night? 😑
Love it🤣 I kinda do happy karate chopping when extremely pleased or excited.
I do that whenever I listen to "Once in a Lifetime."
Talking Heads? I love that song!
Thanks very much for this video. As a high masking person who only recently recognized my Autism, it's been a bit challenging to try and figure out what I've repressed and what is natural and helpful for me as an Autistic person. This gives me some insight into what I may have been doing (or been pressured not to do) stim-wise, especially in my growing up years.
Yo Samdy Sam said in one of her videos, “you will reinterpret your entire life.” This has been true for me. Things I never would have imagined had anything to do with autism, in hindsight, should have been red flags. Thinking about my own past has yielded so many “aha” moments.
Me too. It’s a whole-life reassessment process and rather unexpected.
I will probably never unmask totally. I've been doing it for 55 years without knowing what or why I was doing. I'm very sensitive to criticism. And maybe the criticism and weird looks I would get will bother me more than whatever harm the masking is doing to me
Yeah, I understand that. I think part of why I went so long under the radar is because I am very aware of what other people may be thinking about me and have done a ton of image management even since I was a child. Because even then I knew that there *is* a cost to just letting the oddness show. Now I'm learning about the cost of repressing it. I think it's a balance that each person needs to figure out for themself!
in the same vein of the pipes screensaver, windows media player had a feature where u clicked different keys to produce a colorful.. wave? design? animation? while playing music. it was awesome. my brother and i would fuck with that for hours.
Oh, yeah! I remember that now. It was nice to look at while listening to music.
The visualizer. I love that feature.
Hair twirling. Blanket edge rubbing. Foot shaking, tapping. We have 3 gemerations with those going on. Btw, those pipes were awesome...
Driving in itself can be the ultimate stim, sortof. Or alternateively, riding a bicycle, train, whatever is available. It affects just about every sense at the same time.
Agreed! I don’t know if I’m just getting old or what, but driving seems to make me sleepy anymore. There’s something about the motion and the noise that relaxes me.
I did use to stare at screensavers but what I really couldn't get enough of and wish I could still do is watching the computer defrag.
That was always fun, wasn’t it?
Thank you for this discussion! I’m very late diagnosed, and it’s been a struggle to understand my stims. Ive rarely found a video that gets into specific examples, and what is mentioned is frequently the best known forms. A few things you listed, like chewing pencils and pens, I recognize as stimming behaviors I have. The response to a cringey thought is a behavior I was aware of (I usually blurt out “we’re having fun now!” or make a few other sounds), but it was startling to me to discover others do it too.
But the part of this discussion that provided a breakthrough moment for me is visual inputs, like the ceiling fan (something I have done when one was available). That provided the final piece of a puzzle that I’ve been working on for some time: basically, visual inputs connected to a place help regulate me. And the visual memories of places I’ve been do too. I’m not an easy traveler, and since COVID gone few places. In many respects this reduces my stress. But it’s meant the loss of new or infrequently seen “sense of place” visual sensory inputs, and this has tended to increase my dysregulation.
Many autistic people have problems with travel, so you’re definitely not alone.
Wow, I haven't realized that sucking and biting that part of my hand is a stim as well. Thanks for making me realize!
Oh god, chewing.
I was /terrible/ with chewing when I was a kid. There were times where my jaws would feel like they needed me to chew. It didn't matter if I just ate, or not, I just HAD to chew.
The worst incident, and I don't even think my parents know about this one, was when I chewed a lightbulb. It was one of those small ones you see in radios lighting the dial. The bulb shattered BUT, somehow, I did not end up getting cut, or swallowing any of the glass.
Snapping is another one that I do to this day. If I'm walking across a building, or in a parking lot, I'm snapping. It's always a consistent time signature which likely comes from my years of playing musical instruments.
when i was a kid my worst stim was me pressing my teeth together so hard until they would either chip or move, felt like i couldn’t stop myself.
I loved chewing on popped balloons. The squeaky noise it made resonated inside my whole head and the smooth rubbery texture was sublime. I haven't done that in decades because I was afraid it was wierd, but now realize it for what it was.
I never had anybody put into words what I struggled with !! thank you. I thought I was the only one for repeatively saying words to get an uncomfortable thought out of my head, or making a funny noise to cringy thoughts. I control it when I'm with people but it's a stim im embarrased about
You’re definitely not alone. That is the great thing about the autism community. You find out how many others there are like you. 🙂
No wonder I liked Zippo lighters so much! They stimulate several senses -- sound (the classic Zippo 'clink'), smell (you can definitely smell its fuel), and sight (the flame dancing around).
One of my friends from high school used to call me “pyro” because I’d play with his lighter until he finally took it away from me. 😂
I did the hand flapping alot, and I mean Ive seen videos of myself as a two year old toddler doing the hand flapping.
I believe I have always been autistic, but nobody knew from that when I was a child, so it wasnt diagnosed.
And I have a stim with my shirt where I focus on and play with the end of my shirt.
Anyway, I just had an epiphany that I have asperger or autism or something like that. And I'm in my 40s and.... not really sure what to do with this information. Certainly it explains alot.
I'm on my journey to get digonose for autism as an adult and this video helped a lot! I'm really insecure about my prediction if I'm autistic or not and finding things like this video was really helpful and gave me a lot of insight.
Thank you for this.
You’re welcome! I’m so glad my video was helpful to you. ☺️
I'm autistic too. I stim-pick my face & neck--but trying to discover other stims too. The title in the thumbnail says, "Sims vs Stims." This is to be helpful not judgy-I swear. I have dyslexia reading comprehension & have to read things several times. I'm not trollin'--but supporting. Thanks for being on YT to show your version/story with us.
Thanks so much! I’ll take a look at that. I do make mistakes sometimes. I’m so glad you enjoyed the video. 😊
Thank you for this video and that you showed examples! 🙌
You’re welcome! Glad it was helpful! 🙂
I am not diagnosed with autism, but I have had depression and anxiety for about two decades. I've had a particular stim for more than half my life where when I get excited and happy I feel like there is too much emotion in my body so I let it out by doing this stim. It's hard to describe, but it's this really fast shuffling or flicking of my fingers on both hands. Sometimes I do this right next to my ears because I like the noise. I also tap the top of my head while doing this sometimes. I do this with my toes regularly as well just because it calms me. My husband refers to these actions as tapping it out and encourages me to do them, because clearly they're coming from an overwhelming feeling of happiness. I do sometimes hurt myself accidentally, which is annoying. The stim I have for when I'm uncomfortable is covering my ears and shaking my head. I actually try to do these only when I'm alone or around my husband, because I know how awful some people can be. But unfortunately it's not really something I can just stop.
I feel like I should try that. Maybe it could help me, too.
Wow!! I never realised that throwing items was a proprioceptive stim. 🤣 I am hyposensitive to proprioception, so it makes sense that my brain is sensory seeking that stimulus. I toss things a lot while walking, or spin them in my hands (and then usually drop them because of the aforementioned lack of proprioception 🤣)
Yep. As a kid, I used to play little league baseball. I wasn’t very good to be honest. Never been the athletic type. But one thing I’ve always enjoyed was playing catch with myself by throwing the ball up in the air and catching it. I sometimes will do that with fruit, too, especially apples and oranges.
Just finished the video---AMAZING. This is the best stimming video I've ever seen.
Thanks so much! 😊
Thanks, that communicated well some of the different stems my son and I do. I sometimes will share a video instead of trying to explain something myself. It is also always so wonderful and affirming to hear about other adults engaging in stems and their autism in general. I just subscribed and am looking forward to exploring your content🙂 thanks
Thanks so much for subscribing! I’m planning to shoot another video soon. 🙂
Amen!
omg yes the pipes screensaver 😆 and the one where it goes through a maze
I liked that one, too!
Oh, the sucking on the skin between the thumb and pointy finger feels really good! Thank you for introducing me to this stim ✨
You’re welcome! 🙂
I hum to myself very loudly in work settings as my stress level goes up, as everything turns to shit around me. Also, shifting my weight from foot to foot or heel to toe.
I can relate, though I try to hum quietly. When I have to stand in one spot, like standing in a queue, I’m constantly moving around and shifting my weight a lot. I don’t do standing around well.
Pleasantly surprised with the content of this video. Simple, concise and with examples. Yhanks
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Lol the second you started talking about screensavers i knew which one was going to come up. Yes I've stared at the pipes screensaver.
@Mp Lol what
Oh wow this is a great video, hearing you say stims you have and others you’re aware of without shame is fantastic to hear. I spent most of my time in school smelling my fingers and my arms and I felt ridiculous, trying to only do it when people weren’t watching but you would invariably get caught. It would have been wonderful to just be able to do those things and enjoy doing them, or even have a stim toy that I could smell without judgement! But it is not shameful, it’s just something that is very helpful and soothing
I agree! Definitely not shameful at all. I used to try to suppress my stims all the time, but these days I’m intentionally unmasking. Mostly, others just ignore me, but even when I get caught “being weird” I’m not embarrassed anymore.
See, I did like and subscribe and comment... I did quite enjoy your presentation, yes. I have done a lot over the years, most of the things you described, still do a lot of them... Prefect job, it was comforting to see the way you came across. And, I am older [66] than most of the presenters on this platform, so comforting it is, yes, to watch someone at least slightly older than 20 - 30!
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed my video. I’ll be 50 in March, so yeah, I am quite a bit older than most autistic TH-camrs.
My main verbal stim is saying stellar, but using an R with a rhotosim my main visual stim is Covering one eye or moving my hand back and fourth in front of my eye
I also bite and tip toe
Wow. Everyone probably knows how autistic I am jeez. I didn’t know these things were odd to do! Especially the auditory Stims and hearing a sound and repeating it. I also have a noise that feels good to make, It’s like a purring sound (it made my future gf notice me and she thought it was a sexy noise 😏 a win for the gays and the neurodivergents in one day!) but I make all my noises out loud bc I am a musician and it’s the music we are performing/playing usually that I am making noises from. And I never thought of it being weird but I think my classmates are just used to me. Because, if I heard anyone else make the sounds and movements that I do, I would probably think they are hyped up on coke haha
I’m so glad you found something that works for you, and where you feel like you fit in. I understand a lot of autistic people play music. And how great is it that one of your stims helped you get a partner?! 😊
Could be worse. I ditched my stims before I knew I was autistic and people reacted badly to it. Since I started remembering them and doing them, I'm so much more relaxed. Even when I've been stressed recently the jumpiness in my belly is largely gone.
I absolutely love my bottle of glitter. It's just so satisfying to turn it upside down and let the glitter settle to the bottom.
Excellent communication! Musician too, and never heard this addressed.
You are so funny and so awesome ♥️♥️♥️♥️ I totally get you 100%. ♥️ I’d say big hugs but you probably would die if a stranger touched you! 😂😂
@Sunshine Lindsay I need diagnosis because I don't check all of the boxes. Being touched has never bothered me, unless creepy 🤣
It was nice to hear and talk about differentiating sensory stims -
Thank you for this wonderful video! I'm currently working on getting to know and understand myself and my autism. Got diagnosed at 19 but then spent 5 years not really thinking about it, until this past winter. Now I'm 25 and slowly learning, knowing, feeling. Especially getting to know my stims! Again, thank you :D
I've also very recently discovered that I can stim in text, in example by using emojis or writing the same things I'd say outloud in person :)
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed the video. Welcome to my channel. 🙂
Comprehensive thank you. Miss 8 enjoyed comparing Stims.
Awww, thanks so much! I’m glad you and Miss 8 enjoyed the video. 🥰
Thank you sir . I already knew these facts but I really liked the way you explained it . I subscribed .
Thanks so much! ☺️
Thanks. It's great to have others share their perspective. As an Aspie myself, I relate to almost all of the stims that you mentioned in the video.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed my video. This is what I love about the autism community. You realize there are many others like you and you don’t feel alone anymore.
I have not particularly noticed any repetitive behaviour or noticeable stimming about my grandson. However, he is extremely focussed and ignores every thing around him. He has also not started communicating. He speaks many words and can count up to 20. He recognises the entire alphabet. He is by the way, 2 years and 4 months old.
When I was a kid, I’d get so focused I would ignore my bladder and then, oops, accident.
Thank you, Sir. Wonderfully presented information!!
Thanks so much! I’m glad my video was helpful to you. 🙂
Amazing vid once again 💯
i’m 14 and in the process (?) of getting diagnosed with autism. I’m not entirely convinced i have it because i scored the bare minimum of points on this assessment my therapist sent my parents, but it would let me get evaluated or see a psychiatrist. A lot of the stims you mentioned in the video i have done before/still do!
Best of luck with your evaluation! 🙂
❤ thanks so much for sharing. Very helpful
Such a great video, thanks loads for sharing!! 👏🏼
You're so welcome! Glad you enjoyed it! 🥰
Thank you! Very helpful.
Love this. Thank u for making this video
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Thank you! Most helpful.
You're welcome! 🙂
Really well branded channel! Well done mate😊
Thanks so much! 🙂
Thanks so much Shae, I've just found out I probably have Autism and ADHD and I'm 49. I've been trying to find out what stimming is and I've probably watched 10 or so videos on it and was no more aware of what stimming actually was and I thought I probably didn't have any, that I was overly masked. Your video is the first to actually run through a list and I do so many of these! I was stressing out that I was stressing myself by not stimming and apparently I was! Thanks for your video, it has really helped me. I hope all is well with you! I've spent so long watching the pipes screen saver!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad my video helped you. One of the things I noticed from watching other videos about stimming was that most just talked about them, but didn’t show them. I wanted to demonstrate the more visible ones so you could see what they look like. I’m so glad this was helpful to you. ☺️
Very interesting, thank you for this video !
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
(Preface: definitely not a medical doctor but did have to learn a few things in my previous military career and now as a criminologist-and overall nerd 🤓 lol)
There’s certain pressure points (obviously nerve endings) in the hands (notably the fleshy part you referenced-that deals with the adductor pollicis and the interossesus manus of the first dorsal…) and nasolabial area(s); more specifically, the upper lip/philitrum, the columell (middle part of & under the nose - between the 👃 nostrils … in the paradigm of “self defense/tactical combat”, the “inter-maxillary suture” (another name for the point above the upper lip and nose), when properly struck with or applied pressure to, typically results in a ‘loss of consciousness’ (after a great deal of pain imo lol). I tangentially share this with you because it is quite fascinating how we might modify certain parts of ourselves to utilize or make alternative functions to what we are anatomically given. That is, the same thing that is used to make someone comply because they are behaving criminally deviant, can be used to make our own bodies “comply with” ourselves -or ‘calm’/self-soothe/stim/etc. It truly is all about the use and function-further proving that nothing authentically exists in the black and white; it gradient-ally exists 🤓🫶💥🧠🫶
Thank you for sharing and giving us all a safe space to share as well!
I recently learned about EFT tapping and some of those tapping points are where I just naturally tap as part of my stims.
Very useful video, thank you! I recognized quite a few!
Thanks for watching! I’m glad it was helpful. 🙂
I do remember the pipes screensaver! I'm generation Z, so I suppose I'm not that old, but that was the best screensaver! It was so entertaining and satisfying to watch :)
I have really bad echolalia as a stim. If someone say something that sounds interesting or I think personally would be fun/funny to say, I repeat it. I used to try to smell my own breath as a stim, but I think my 'worst' stim is chewing on odd bits of plastic or rubber. I think I need to get a new chewing necklace for my desk because I had one a few years ago now that I liked but the consistency of the rubber wasn't great.
That’s one thing I strongly identified with from Atypical. I don’t tend to shout out embarrassing words like the young protagonist, but I do have words get stuck in my head and I sometimes repeat them under my breath.
Might be weird phrasing but it's cool to me to know other people do and have done stuff like this too. When something is really funny to me, I'll repeat the phrase and then chuckle lol. It gets worse in a group setting. I also used to chew on my clothes and bunches of my hair (like still on my head not literally consuming hair 💀)
Maybe I'm so stressed now because I tried to stop doing all these things
When I was a kid, I would often think of something funny from earlier in the day and laugh at it again. Then everyone would wonder what I was laughing at.
I also loved those classic Microsoft screensavers. So sad they don't still have them!
This was great! Than you for sharing.
You’re welcome. Thanks for the comment. ☺️
thanx for the video!
Very informative. I’m 15. I was stimming throughout the video for some reason either because of the video or that I was engaging in my special interest earlier before seeing this video. I have a variety of stims including plenty of stereotypical stims which are my main ones such as rocking, hand flapping, and pacing. I love to stim especially when doing it when I’m happy, content, or need to make myself less overwhelmed. I also like that relief that I get from rocking especially when I need to which feels soothing.
Stimming feels good to most autistic people. In addition to using it to self-regulate, most of us do it just for the enjoyment as well.
@@autism-philes2136 Thanks for correcting me.
the pipes screensaver is cool
Very informative video!
Thanks! I’m glad it was helpful! 🙂
This is so interesting! I also like to see this. It's also helping me understand autism better.
About spinning, oh i loved to spin as a kid! I was spinning around the room xD, sooo fun
I grind my teeth and it has to be in a specific order. I am always counting in my head. Even numbers is where it has to stop. I count steps, bites, touching my tongue to teeth in a specific order, how many turns to take the cap off a drink.... everything. It gets exhausting. But it's so ingrained I can have whole conversations and go about my daily life and No one knows. Never told anyone about it. My chiropractor and dentist know I grind my teeth but that's it. 😅
I grind so bad that my dentist wants to put caps on my teeth. And it’s not just something I do in my sleep. I catch myself doing it during the day all the time.
You didn't mention if you're autistic so maybe you are and it's connected to that. But I thought your comment also reminded me of some of the compulsions I used to have (I have ocd).
Great video!
Just wanna say this was a great video. 👍👍
I think I have autism so I am self diagnosing. I wish I can go to professional but I can’t right now. This video really helped me discover myself more and it was validating of my experience with autism.
Thank you,
-your subscriber
You’re welcome! This is why I started this channel. I’m so glad it helped you. 🙂
Thank you.
You're welcome! 🙂
Does anyone remember the visual settings on Windows Media Player? The colorful moving lines or shapes that came in bursts along with the music? (Like those screensavers, but with the added benefit of audio stimming.) I used to put on my favorite albums, sit in front of my computer, and stare for hours.
I remember that! Those were fun!
Its so funny, when you started talking about mouth and lip stims i started doing lip pops literally five seconds before you demonstrated them
Thanks
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found the video helpful. 😊
Great video, hope you get more subscribers.
Thanks so much! ☺️
I count. I’m counting all day. I was in kindergarten and I used to count the rivets on the school bus roof. I now work in anesthesia and count numbers most of the day. LOL I have other stims, like tapping my teeth together to the beat of any music in my head. My adult kids pointed out my reactions to overstimulation in public 😬 I’m happy they did. I’ve put that to bed. Peace 😊
Oh, I relate to the counting in my head. 😊
I do the wa wa sound a lot with high voice suddenly i do it when i feel overwhelmed. Also that knocking with my fingers on my cheek doing that drum sound.. I still do many of the things you said... I remember now, when i was a kid i used to spin a LOT... Thanks for that video❤❤❤❤
Thanks so much for watching! ☺️
@@autism-philes2136 thank you for helping me 🙏
I find that sometimes I bop my head back and forth, like I'm listening to music.. But there's none there. I think I just need the movement. it happens a lot when I work (I work front desk, patient-facing 100% of the time so I'm always watched).. and when you mentioned the CRINGEWORTHY MEMORIES I realized I do one every time - I sink my head into my shoulders and can't help but close my eyes and do the eyeroll, as if it was directed at my past self like "omg I can't believe I did that"
I work with patients, too. Actually, here they’re called “clients”, but they’re still getting treatment. I work at a residential treatment center for alcoholics and addicts.
I don't know whether i'm autistic or not, but I certainly do stim. I used to love chewing on straws, and I still do now. Its like a built up urge slowly over time to chew, which eases when I do so. I pace, though it is often specifically to music, with my mind going a hundred miles a minute, though I also do so when I get excited about something, or am talking, as I tend to think clearer, faster, and better in general while pacing. I will oftentimes, sometimes as an almost constant thing while sitting at least, bonce either one leg, (or a bit less commonly), both. Some other stims include: hair twirling, wrist flapping (specificaly wrist flapping, I do it really fast sideways in a circular motion, this is one I typically do when either letting out energy, typically happy energy, or gaining energy. It makes me rather happy when I do this stim), saying the word juice (I adore that word and the way it sounds, as well as feels when in the mouth), twitching/flexing of fingers, and probably a ton of others I don't know of yet, or don't remember at the moment. By how much I stim......yeah, I might be in the autistic spectrum 😅 Edit: bounce, not bonce! That means something far different, lol.
You might have autism, ADHD, or both. If you’re able to get an evaluation, it might be worth it.
I’m like you. I used to chew straws all the time when they were plastic. I would bite the inside of my cheek several times a day, hum made up songs. I also hand flap sideways. Every so often when I get anxious I start rocking, but only mini rocks. Other stims like playing with my fingers, rubbing my arms, hearing the same song in my head over and over for days. I never officially got diagnosed, but several other common behaviors and watching videos for the last couple years, it’s safe to say I’m autistic.
Very informative
Thanks, Ebony! 🙂
I would just call it "The webbing of my hand"
One type of stimming I've done since childhood is somewhat similar to how you run your fingers across the inner arm. What I do specifically is hold something fuzzy up next to my arm like a stuffed animal and then lightly graze my arm with my fingers. Doing so kind of fools the brain into thinking the sensation is coming from the fur and thus results in a more relaxing sensation for me.
I also used to walk on the balls of my feet all the time. I don't do it as much anymore but I'll catch it.
I constantly scratch at my scalp and also the fuzz on my chin when I need to concentrate on something and then I'll sort of rub the fingers together after I'm done for no particular reason.
I've never tried the sucking on the skin of the hand like you did but I just tried it and I can see the appeal :D I tend to not enjoy the feeling of saliva on my body so it's definitely not something I could see doing naturally.
Sometimes I catch myself making random noises but it's typically more with my lips. If I have an unpleasant thought or memory I tend to make a sort of "tsh tsh tsh tsh" really quickly and it sort of helps me come out of the thought and calm down.
And I heavily identify with staring at screensavers and ceiling fans for prolonged periods of time as well as repeatedly watching scenes I like from stuff.
Tactile stimming and stimulation of the sense of taste and the sense of smell. Except I didn't know it was autistic stimming. Or that I was autistic until just a few years ago.
I have always been slightly on the heavy side and struggled with losing weight. And could never seem to quit comfort eating no matter how hard I tried (which in turn negatively affected my self perception and mental health).
While in reality it was an unconscious attempt to suppress an autistic stim that actually brought me relief and joy.
I hope you are no longer suppressing that stim and that your life is better. 🙂
I cover both ears with my hands and make circular movements. Sometimes I hum at the same time.
I’m an early teenager, I was diagnosed with Asperger’s autism fairly early in life, and it is not a very severe autism. It’s more mild, and basically just issues in social situations, and I’ve fairly noticed I don’t seem to stim at all. I’m not sure if I don’t stim at all. Now I’m in a later part of this video and I think the spinning thing is accurate. I really like spinning chairs, and spinning in them, and spinning overall myself and spinning my body around and looking at everything and seeing it like it’s a pano in the camera app of my iPod. And my parents do tell me I used to take my dad’s glasses and throw them when I was a baby, so that might be it also. The spectrum is so diverse, who knows honestly. Like I said, my autism is fairly mild, and I am moving from my private school I’ve been in for 5 years to a public school. So maybe in the harsher condition of public school I might find my stim or another stim. Can one autistic individual have more than one stims?? just wondering
Yes! I have many stims. And they’re constantly changing, too.
@@autism-philes2136 okay, also can biting fingers and fidgeting with fingers be a stim?? I noticed I tend to connect my thumb to my pinky finger and pointer finger a lot, especially when I’m waiting for stuff to stop, like a really long conversation or something.
My stims:
Auditory: replaying a same song, movie or video. I like intricate rhythms and beats, i like sounds with a lot of overtones, and i also like certain revving sounds. I like listening to ASMR, though i am picky.
Verbal: i like to sing, or rather hum and also i do a few types of overtone/throat singing, 2 styles of which i made myself.
I like to repeat words or sounds with the B, P, G and K syllables, just plosives in general are very nice i like how they feel and sound to say.
I also have echolalia, which is partly a stim and partly so i process what is being said to me or my own thought processes verbally but yeah. Even if i am not doing it externally, i do it using my inner monologue by reflex.
There's also certain phrases or words i will just repeat that vary over time, sometimes it even becomes a bonding thing with friends and funny.
Oral stims: i like to chew on things, eat little snacks, move my tongue in my mouth.
Tactile stims: chewing, moving my tongue around my mouth, drumming on my collarbones and sternum with my fingers, tapping/flicking my fingers together, gently applying pressure to various parts of my body, touching rubbing and cupping my face, lips, touching my hands, rubbing my palms together. I also like rubbing my nails on my upper lip, lips or with my thumb.
I also do skin picking, which isn't good.
A lot of things with my fingernails really, though not biting or picking them mostly. I like to rub, bend and press on them, tap them on things and so on.
Proprioception and vestibular: hand flapping, pacing, flicking/twiddling my fingers, jumping running, rocking, bobbing my head, shaking my head, falling over forwards in a controlled manner, wiggling my body, tilting my hips alternatingly, and a lot to do with how i position my head and neck and movements with that. I really like getting myself to shiver and move my head with it.
Smell:smelling my hands and skin and clothing, smelling soaps, and smelling my food while i eat it
Taste: i really like salty, umami(the fat/meat/protein/dairy taste) and sweet tasting foods
Visual: i really like a lot of repeating mechanism gifs, i also like to replay vidoes/movies on loop, and i do some things with my hands. Shiny smooth solid colors are nice, i go for something stimmy when i paint my nails. Colors in general are very stimulating for me, at a certain point colors becomes overwhelming but i really enjoy colors.
Miscellaneous and mixed:
Joint and knuckle cracking, temperature stims (running in cold humid air, cold water, warm water, pressing my hands on my face), a number of multi-sense stims (burrying my face in my hands and wiggling, falling over, wiggling my fingers if i put the backs of my hands on my face, and closing my eyes shaking my head while doing these. Its hard to describe the stim to be honest, its a happiness one for me, i also get it when flustered and when i am having cuteness overload, and sometimes when something is funny.)
The notorious Leg Bounce. I like to do it with both legs and vary the speed between them.
I’m big on smells, myself, especially clean smells. There’s this particular type of soap they use in the bathrooms at the airport, so whenever I have a flight I love smelling my hands after washing them in the bathroom.
@@autism-philes2136 ooo thats nice! C:
Also clean smells are really good i agree, they put my mind at ease about everything being clean (though i guess cleaning/sanitizing does that, and the smell is just there XD)
There's a few soaps my family buys and one of them smells so so so good, it almost smells like cake/icecream or rather, they smell how those should taste in my opinion c:
I love it so very much, smells are good
I also got some moss yesterday (and now have a lil jar for it to live in) and when its wet it smells super good, also moss had a nice texture to pet/caress and press/squish
@@autism-philes2136 also in general smelling hands after washing them is great, i love that
@Mp if i might ask, how old is your child?
Also herbs can be nice, lot of them smell good and are very calming, some have soothing or stimulating effects when ingested. A good sensory environment helps a lot
Though eye contact isn't really that important, i wouldn't try and push for that especially since avoiding it might be normalized fairly soon, and trying to force eye contact adds a lot of stress and overwhelm for autistic people. In the right sensory environments with the right levels of stimulation or if they are interested, it makes eye contact easier to do and less intrusive feeling, or atleast more tolerable if there is less things stressing them out.
What things do you do for your child's sensory needs?
@Mp depending where you live, blending in and being socially normal might be needed to survive and live a good life (many places in asia, places in the american south (tenesee, texas, etc) are like this)
But if it isn't needed to avoid bullying descrimination or violence, then social normalcy isn't needed and is an unhelpful goal. Most of the time pushing for your autistic child to act in ways that are seen as normal and acceptable actually harms the child, causing issues with having a sense of self, acknowledging or understanding their emotions, and getting tired from interacting with people because the autistic person is essentially pretending or "masking" as a non-autistic person, and living inauthentically is harmful for pretty much anyone.
With social skills, i would focus on empathy (understanding your childs feelings, and teaching your child to understnd other people's feelings using direct examples for every possible situation, since autistic people are bad at generalizing what we learn to apply in other situations.)
Other social skills like eotional regulation (not supression! But being able to express and communiate their emotions to other people and teaching you child to be aware of how themself feels rather than reacting blindly, i also recommend encouraging their non-injurious repetitive and stimming behaviors since that is the way autistic people naturally self-regulate)
I would recommend teaching your child how to interact appropriately (even if non-normally) and effectively with customer service, what to do with phone calls and how to ask for help from people. Politeness is a part of that, but less important than making sure your child understands the situation and how to get what they need, or how to recognize other peoples needs.
So my daughter went through a period where she CONSTANTLY made this odd clicking/gurgling sound and it irritated me to the point where I would get so annoyed I couldn’t even think straight. I would ask her to stop and she just couldn’t. Now she makes a constant repetitive ‘hm’ sound that is easier for me to tolerate. She also used to spin a lot but not anymore. I think a lot of it has been redirected by playing video games.
She has a hard time reading social situations and understanding what behaviours are acceptable and so did I as a kid.
I’m realizing that we may both be on the spectrum because I stimm/obsess over things a lot too and have done so ever since I was a child( nail biting, lip/cheek biting, scalp picking, counting license plates, repeating words or phrases in my head).
Sigh
A lot of adults actually get their diagnosis after their kids do, so if you’re noticing how much you’re like your daughter it might be time to consider an evaluation for you, too.
ANYONE ever do Hallucinogenic Stimming? For a few years, I got more and more into just visualizing complex moving patterns like fractals / screen savers etc. I could see these much clearer than something I'd visualize otherwise. They became so occupying, I lost the habit of an internal dialog and replaced it with doing this. I called it "The Vortex".
I have not heard of that until just now, but I’m sure someone else has done it, too. In my experience, no matter how unique you think you are, there’s always someone out there who can relate because they’ve done that, too.
You forgot the classic leg shake under the desk lol
Indeed!
That was helpful.
@2:30 reminded me I did this too how funny. I do it now every once in awhile when my hands are dry
I don't think if I'm on spectrum but as a kid I was wrapping my legs on chair legs while sitting a lot. Felt nice.
I used to stare at the old pen plotters for far too long. I do the same with 3d printers now.
I honestly don't know if I am on the spectrum, have ADHD, or both. I did a lot of those stimming techniques (and others) that can be seen as odd as a kid like making repetitive weird noises to myself, chewing on my fingers, rapidly blinking for no particular reason, repeating words verbally or internally until they sound weird, etc.
I have done away with many of those and have added new ones...
I have a really strong need for certain textures of food. I will deal with a lot of others, but some I can't stand. I have an oral fixation where I need to be chewing my cheek, biting on my lip ring, chewing gum, etc. I love squishy things, but they have to be the right amount of feedback and material.
Does this sound familiar to any that has been diagnosed?
My stims also change over time. Some fall from favor and are replaced by others, only to re-emerge at a later time.
My parents stopped me from any self-soothing activity, so I would stick to stims that no one could point out, like biting the inside of my cheek, messing with my toenails, twirling a lock of hair, chewing on that same lock of hair, pinching my chin to get air bubbles under it and squelching out the air (had to do this one when alone), rubbing my thumb and index finger together. I have ADHD and believe I have a mild form of autism, but have spent my entire life masking. Btw...I'll be 60 in a few months. Ha ha...I just saw you making the popping noise. I do that all the time!
I often do the curling-my-toes-in-my-shoe one because no one sees it.
@autism-philes2136 I do that too, but have to be careful because I'll catch a cramp.
I read "autistic Sims" and was wondering when the game became so inclusive 😂
Same difference right? Lol
I would love to see autistic Sims. 😂
Idk, my daughter walks back and forth in her room while listening to idk what but she hides and does this a lot. One time she hit her foot at the bed because she’s walking back and forth really fast. She’s been doing it since she was a toddler and it has not stop. I ask her why she does it and she said that it stimulates her mind and it feels like her brains overload with fun creative things and it makes her better at drawing. She would prefer to stim than watch a movie with me or she would stim and then watch the movie. Idk what in the world is that but I allow her to do it. I’m trying to figure out if she’s on the autism spectrum but idk the stims describe above doesn’t seem like it.
I work a sedentary overnight job, so several times a night I get up and pace around for a bit. Not only does it help me get some exercise, but I seem to think better when I’m in motion. Sometimes, my best ideas come to me when I’m walking around at night.
@@autism-philes2136 thank you for that, makes me feel like at least there is someone out there that is experiencing somewhat of same thing, so it’s not abnormal lol
I chewed my nails, pens, pencils, the corners of books ( not now, but as a child, the fingers of my gloves on and on lol!) I still rock slightly if stressed and kick my foot when sitting, the more stressed or even involved I am in what I am doing or saying, the more I kick or twitch my upper foot, you know when hour legs are crossed, the upper foot has a mind of its own, it sometimes kicks to emphasise points or, much like an angry cats tail, to channel some anger. I don't bite my nails any more but do pick at the skin around my nails and peel layers off of my nails, which eventually has the same results, awful looking hands! I twirl my hair constantly too. Its weird but when I get started on these traits I have it's never ending, as are specific ASD Traits since my late diagnosis, I seem to have SO many, you wonder why I wasn't diagnosed as a child but, as you know, in the late 1950s and 60s it was considered a boy thing.
i have never felt so seen
Thanks so much for sharing that. I grew up in the 1980s when few people knew about autism. I was a boy, yes, but not one who often caused trouble. I think if I had been more of a behavior problem, I might have gotten diagnosed.
The woo woo. I don’t have autism but I remember a LOT of cringy moments in my life. Sometimes it’s just bad things that happened to me like a rejection. I usually shake my head “no” or say something to snap out of it: “Ah!” “BLAH!” “Hmm!”
I would suck on my fingers, and suck on water paper towels , picking at my nails , picking and biting my cuticles, repeatedly singing to myself, tapping fingers,
When i was a kid i loved to eat crayons specifically the fat green ones, would put coins in my mouth to suck on i liked the metallic taste ( i know gross right) would hand flap and also had a favorite blanket with a satin edge that i loved to rub between my fingers. My stims are now different as an adult although i still hand flap in private on occasion when concentrating on something. I just found out i have asd last year and im in my 40s
I do a lot of humming, singing, whistling (under my breath) to myself - this links to what I call my "tape-loop" which seems to be a piece of memory I have which picks up e,g, a section of the last tune I heard on the radio in my car going to work, and then replays it on loop in the back of my head all day. When my mind has free time, this resurfaces into my conscious and comes out as the above... It can even be a tune that I consciously (but maybe not subconsciously?) dislike. Sometimes I literally have to deliberately go and listen to another tune to over-record the first ! I wonder whether this is a form of photographic memory - but for sounds rather than images ? Does anyone else have this ? Is there a name for it ?
I have the same problem with songs stuck in my head!
@@autism-philes2136 do you think it is an autistic trait ?
….like I haven’t already typed enough…😂😂😂😂
I forgot to mention, I ONLY do the random noise thing like “srippp” or some other kind of noise or sound when I’m alone. It’s just never seems to happen when I’m with others. I don’t suppress the sounds or try not to make them when around others, it just doesn’t enter my mind to make them. For some reason it’s only when I’m alone. This is why I feel a lot of my “thangs” are ways of managing being alone etc.
ok I’m gonna shut up now…ha ha
Lisa
I'm so much laughing now cause they are days when it's really hard not to repeat Berlin subway sound and the voice in the speaker...when I'm drunk it's easy to just let it out. But when I'm not....eh, it's like holding breath inside that wasn't supposed to be hold 😅