"Nah, I don't stim!"
"Is THIS stimming?"
"I stim, therefore I am"
-from "Initiation Rites for the Late-Identified #ActuallyAutistic "-
I really thought I don't stim. I don't rock or flap my hands or jump or chew things or make stimmy sounds.
Of course, I do softly grind my teeth (sometimes I may wear night guard during daytime too), wiggle my toes or legs, enjoy knitting simple patterns (= the same repetitive motion), fidget like there's no tomorrow with any small object I can get my hands on and may start picking my nails if I can't find anything else, doodle, I might undo my hair and braid it while watching TV, or braid tassels of my throw blanket...
Stimming is healthy and good for you. Do it.
If -as is the case with many late-identified autists- you have suppressed your stims or been pressured to stop and feel like you have forgotten how to stim, then try to start again. Learn about different stims and just try different ones until you find something that does the trick for you.
@ReimanSaara It’s the same issue we often face just being recognized by NT. “You can’t be autistic… you can speak and look into my eyes…” There may certainly be commonalities but we are diverse in our #neurodivergence. It makes sense that the way we #stim doesn’t fit into neat preconceived boxes.
So, I've decided to get and try out some mouth stim toys because I've been smoking/vaping increasingly and I've theorized it's due to my AuDHD and needing something in my mouth.
I used to chew my nails but I stopped after putting on acrylic tips until I started biting the skin around my nails. I keep biting the inside of my cheek, which apparently is "a sign of mouth stimming" but I'm not sure how true that one is.
In my past, I smoked cigarettes but mainly did it socially and when I was overstimulated. I never got addicted to nicotine and was able to quit cold turkey and stick with smoking weed.
I bite the skin from my lips frequently even when it's not ready to come off. It's just so many signs of ways I fidget or stim using my mouth that I decided to try it out finally. I should be getting the ones pictured today and I got ones that look like feathers that will be here tomorrow in case the ones I get today feel awkward.
At first, I kind of felt weird about looking for this type of product because they're mainly geared towards children and it made me feel... less like an adult but in a bad way, if that makes sense. I just need to remember that even the studies of ADHD and Autism are geared towards children, not adults, and they mainly use research done on boys, not girls.
I'm kind of excited and hope that I'm right. I'd love to smoke less and have a lower tolerance again while smoking to have fun and be high, not just smoking to be doing something with my mouth.
Fingers crossed!
Update - Alt Text:
The picture is of 4 chew toys geared towards children with different patterns that would give each one its own unique feel when used.
Do you think that your shutdown could be controlled in any way?
Like a "controlled shutdown"? (I probably don't know what I'm talking about since many things in the #ActuallyAutistic community I still don't know about...it's been at least more than 10 years being diagnosed #Autistic and ie. I still don't completely understand what a #stim is and I think I've began grasping some things in me that I could think of as "#stims")