I feel like I sometimes stim mainly to communicate "I am autistic and feeling overwhelmed right now" to onlookers when I can't easily talk. Can anyone else relate?
Of course I also stim for the typical reasons, but I feel like I'll sometimes sort of "play up" certain autism-associated traits as a form of body language... I've also experienced people not understanding what stims are and misinterpreting mine, so maybe it's a bit naïve of me to do this.