So, this is more a “what are you like” discussion.
How do you stim? do you stim? do you not stim? anything like that.
😋
I like to:
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Rock left and right at the hip if I’m standing still. Similarly, I will rock from my toes to my heels.
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Change my body weight from one leg to the other.
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Play beats! I’ll play by banging on things. I also like to tap my fingers to my thumb while moving my hand like a conductor. I can do this while also playing the beat while clicking my tongue in my mouth.
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I pretend I’m dancing by rocking.
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Hum music really low so that mostly no one can hear it.
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In times I’m very overwhelmed, I will play music at 100% volume, pace to the beat, flap my hands out as if I was shaking water off of my hands to the beat, and just walk in my house for a few hours. It helps get the energy out.
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At max overwhelm, I will put music at 100% volume and bang on the walls to the beat really hard. I’m surprised the cops haven’t shown up, but luckily, my neighbors kinda get it, and I do this rarely.
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I usually stim by pacing and flapping my hands.
Some sort of motor issue I always had.
Chewing gum. Loudly. People hate me for it.
Amongst other things for different kinds of stimulation, I am occasionally able to get my wife to do tippy taps when I can make her delightfully surprised, and it’s the most adorable thing ever.
I usually bend my fingers to the inside of my hand or play with my phone case (since I have a cover case, i can open and close it, but before I had this one broke a lot of them, because i was pulling off and reataching the corner) plus making sounds corellated with doing things.
Bend your fingers to the inside?
This:
I do not think I ‘stim’ in the way that others in this thread seem to.
I have a nicotine addiction.
Feeling ancy? Feeling uncomfortable, restless? Stressed out after a ludicrous social encounter?
Puff on a vape for me.
I do not recommend this, by the way. I have been trying to quit for a decade now and still can’t do it.
Move to a country where it’s prohibitively expensive. I used to smoke where it was <$1 for a pack (mine were $1.25 because I was ‘fancy’), but decided to do the working holiday visa in Australia on the advice of a mate living there. Another friend brought me a vape from the US (maybe in 2017?) and a load of juice. I ran out within a few months and went on the hunt for more. I had started at a pretty high mg and went from 18mg down to half that by mixing with 0mg stuff, but then found that none of the available juice had any nicotine whatsoever, even in the half-dodgy stores. I tried 0mg… it was like breathing flavoured air with no kick. I stopped. Cigarettes were no longer an option because they absolutely stank after not puffing on one for months, and they were over $20 a damn pack.
Interesting advice, unfortunately I have been made homeless by my criminal and delusional family who decided that my therapist and psychologist telling me that I am Autistic is actually me being delusional to the point I should be thrown into a long term mental health care facility in the middle of nowhere.
Dont have my passport any more, nor any possessions save literally the clothes on my back.
Hooray!
I’ve been thinking about telling my parents/siblings of my diagnosis, but haven’t for fear they’ll suddenly think of me as “other”, “subhuman”. Happily, my husband knows and supports me utterly.
I wish I knew you irl, and could help. How old are you?
In my 30s. Dont want to be too specific.
I appreciate your concern, but hopefully at this point I will probably be able to resume more normal living soon.
Somewhat ironically, I am living off of SSDI.
Though through being homeless I lost my phones and contents of my wallet and sustained many injuries, many times…
… I am currently about halfway across the country, in a relatively shitty, but heated and plumbed sort of crap tier motel, that I basically lucked on on finding, as it allows month to month leases, as opposed to basically every motel in America that at some point will tell you that you have to find somewhere else to stay, even if you can afford otherwise.
Basically because we hate the homeless here in America.
But yeah. I have a bed, shower/tub, fridge and microwave, ive got enough food stamps (EBT) to live off of, and whats better is I managed to find a nearby low income apartment community thats within walking distance, and, assuming I can manage to replace my ID or get a new one in this new state, I should qualify for it.
Stay there a year, maybe two, using money saved from its low rent to fix up my ruined credit score (got cards stolen a lot, got scammed a lot, amd sometimes needing to eat or not freeze to death is more important than your credit score), and then maybe move somewhere else, who knows.
Its a good thing I am more or less totally fine with minimal social interaction face to face and will more than be able to occupy myself when I can afford to get a Steam Deck… main actual problem with that is, basically no motel in America will let you use them as an address for mailing anything to or registering as ‘I live here’.
Which of course creates a hilarious paradox: the vast, vast majority of federal and state programs that exist to help the homeless?
You need to have a permanent address.
Anyway, after nearly a year and a half at this point being mostly outdoors and walking stupendous distances, all my torn ligaments and muscles have now had some time to heal in the last roughly two months I have been in my current locale.
Just have to not freeze to death outside.
Yeeeeehaw, basically.
Good luck to you! I am impressed with your resilience. Hang in there.
Thanks!
My data plan finally refreshed, and the thunder client times out and wont let you use it without a high speed connection.
So, its been two weeks, and I managed to talk to the manager here and basically by my blind luck or good fortune, this place lets tenants receive mail, and also my state of origin updated their procedures for replacing a drivers license such that it is at least actually possible for them to mail me a replacement, after a long stupid snail mail process.
Cant do it online. Because… ???
So yeah. If I had not found this place, I would have frozen to death in the -30 F winter. Shelters around here are night only, and warming centers are day only, and I am very likely to have been assaulted or had my phone or wallet stolen from me again, which would also basically have resulted in my death, or at the very least much, much more painful and hopeless wandering, unable to actually live anywhere.
Also if my state of origin hadnt updated its policies, or if this random place i found by wandering the streets hadnt also been affordable and most importantly, let me recieve mail here, I would basically also never be able to live anywhere, as i cant afford to bus back to where im from and get the id in person without, you guessed it, becoming homeless again.
Basically America hates the homeless, and the worst part is most of the solutions to a great many of these problems are known and relatively cheap and easy fixes. But no one votes for or much less advocates for them because either they dont know, care, or more usually, despise any effort being put toward something that doesnt have an immediate visible benefit.
Oh well. I tried. I was a data analyst for a non profit helping the homeless and well crime happened to me and they didnt give a fuck about me.
Anyway… I will probably be at this place another month or two while I wait to get my ids, and then so far I have figured out two possible affordable apartments i can live at for cheaper than this motel, once my ids come in.
At least ive been able to basically take baths and massage my ungodly sore and taut muscles and tendons for 2 weeks now. I can actually walk without immense pain now, for a short while. Still got some healing left to do.
My budget just barely works out to be able to afford Feb, but it looks a lot better there on out.
Long term I hope to get out of this hell hole of a country.
Not sure where Id go, but hopefully somewhere relatively peaceful.
Thanks for the update. I hope you manage to get out of the U.S. eventually. I feel this place is going down fast.
solving Rubik’s cubes is how I keep my hands busy, it’s extremely satisfying and tactile. I do it constantly at my desk, basically whenever I’m thinking or watching something.
I also love putting a blanket between my legs and rubbing them together, it feels like it releases all of my stress and anxiety and gets me super cozy.
I practice card tricks in zoom meetings! keeps my hands from flapping around
The Rubik’s cube is more of a hobby, not a stim
I can see how you would think that, but it’s really both. The mechanical sensation of turning the cube is very satisfying and I make a lot of quick flicking motions with my fingers in predefined patterns. I solve pretty much passively, automatically by now, and never time myself.
I think nearly anything can be a stim. It’s really about what the experience is like to the person doing it, not whether it looks like stimming to you from the outside. Please try not to invalidate anybody’s stim. If you’re confused, ask questions about their experience.
Mainly with my touch through musics by synesthesia.
But the best are with my vestibular system, the more I’m out of breathe the best it is.
sweet
