Different Types of Autistic Stims

What are the different types of stims that autistic people do? Check out this week’s episode of Autism-Philes.

[hughcaldwell]

As soon as screen-savers were mentioned, I thought of Pipes. I used to stare at that one for ages.

[colby_chezzz]

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

[digneglatzel]

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

[sleepybear]

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!

[GrahamDickins]

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

[ninconnue]

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.

[MrAdriancooke]

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!

[dustistreet]

I used to love to watch my computer defragment. All those differences colored little squares!💖

[rockernessi]

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.

[williamgerke]

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!

[jimwilliams]

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.

[courtney]

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

[JAK]

i stim on so much levels for my 40 years of life, been diagnosed at 39! and on all the videos I watched about stimming this is the most simple accurate concise precise!thanks

[Lord_Lexion]

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.

[findingthebroom]

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

[quietfox]

Wow, I haven't realized that sucking and biting that part of my hand is a stim as well. Thanks for making me realize!

[Jalaliel]

I didn’t realize there was a name for twirling or spinning- that’s my favourite stim, twirling back and forth! Also used to play music really loud on the computer while staring at the windows media player visualizer for hours after school to decompress

[burritocodes]

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.

[motorcyclehair]

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.

[skittlepuff]

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